Larry Reed

Larry Reed has worked in shadow theater for over three decades, beginning on a small scale as one of the first American performers of Balinese shadow theater (Wayang Kulit). He was the first American to be invited to perform traditional wayang at the National Shadow Theater Festival in Jakarta in 1988, Reed has pioneered the development of modern projected shadow theater, using cinematic shadow techniques, special lighting devices, and blending actors and puppets onstage in his original ShadowLight productions. Reed has also designed shadows for Santa Fe Opera’s co-production Gluck’s Orfeo and ACT’s The Tempest. He has twice been awarded the UNIMA-USA Citation for Excellence, puppetry’s highest honor – for Wayang Bali and In Xanadu - and was voted one of the top 50 artists of the San Francisco Bay Area in 1995 and 1996 by SFLive/Metropolitan. His films have aired on PBS and The Discovery Channel, and his translations have appeared in the Asia Theater Journal. Larry’s superb narrative skills have also received rave reviews from audiences the world over – besides narrating ShadowLight’s productions, he was the narrator for The Ramayana – a collaboration between Abhinaya Dance Company and Gamelan Sekar Jaya in 1997. In 1999, he collaborated with Mythili Kumar in creating The Power of Saturn, the story of the travails of King Nala at the hands of the vengeful Saturn, which was performed by Abhinaya’s Bharatanatyam dancers against the backdrop of Larry’s shadow and puppet techniques.

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Padmabhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan

Smt. Kalanidhi Narayanan is the leading guru of Abhinaya (the mimetic aspect of the art of Bharatanatyam) in India today. Her formal training in Bharatanatyam started when she was seven years old; her gurus were Kancheepuram Kannappa Mudaliar for nritta and Mylapore Gowri Ammal and Chinniah Naidu for abhinaya. Smt. Narayanan began her teaching career in 1973 focusing on the abhinaya aspect alone.

In the past 26 years, her immense contribution to the abhinaya of Bharatanatyam has won her coveted awards from local, state, national and international organizations. In 1991, she received the Sangeeta Nataka Academy award from the Central Government of India, New Delhi. In 1995 she received the honorific of Padma Bhushan awarded by the President of India. Additional awards include the Kalidas Samman from the Madhya Pradesh Government, and the E. Krishna Iyer Medal from the Sruti Foundation.

Smt. Narayanan's demonstrations and workshops have elicited widespread interest in Europe and North America. She has conducted workshops in London, Paris, Athens, Munich, Vienna, as well as Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles. She was also a visiting scholar and teacher at New York University and the University of Austin in the USA. Smt. Narayanan has given workshops and taught classes to Mythili Kumar and to students of Abhinaya since 1988. Abhinaya Dance Company was honored to have her presence for its 20th anniversary in 2000, and is proud to sponsor her choreographic presentation as part of our 25th anniversary events in 2005.

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Shri C. V. Chandrasekhar

Shri C. V. Chandrasekhar has carved a special niche for himself in the dance scene in India. He is a multi-faceted personality: a Bharatanatyam dancer, dance teacher, choreographer, musician, music composer, scholar, academician and administrator. He recently retired as the Head of the Department of Music and Dance at the Faculty of Performing Arts of the M.S.University of Baroda, India. He is one of the many illustrious products of Kalakshetra -the internationally renowned academy of Fine Arts in Madras. He is one of the few male dancers of the country performing for the past four decades all over India and in many countries in Europe and Asia. Also recognized as one of the best teachers of Bharatanatyam for the past thirty years and more, Chandrasekhar has many students trained at the Universities of Banaras and Baroda. Having been trained in Carnatic music and Hindustani bhajans, he has composed many jatisvarams and tillanas for Bharatanatyam and has been the sole music composer for his dance dramas both in the Carnatic and Hindustani styles. As one of India’s leading choreographers, he has won laurels nationally and internationally and has represented India at many international festivals. He has dealt with abstract themes in a most ingenious manner; his use of body movements and group movements to convey emotions and ideas is unique for a style otherwise solely dependent on the face and gestures for such a projection. He has also created new movements based totally on the basic Bharatanatyam technique. His major works of choreography in recent years include Ritu Samharam and Meghadutam of Kalidasa, Bhoomija (Ramayana) and Aparajita (Devi Mahatmyam).

Smt. Jaya Chandrasekhar trained in Bharatanatyam under Smt. Lalitha Sastri in New Delhi. She has been an invaluable partner to Shri C.V. Chandrasekhar, accompanying him as a dancer, vocalist, nattuvanar and co-choreographer throughout the years.

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Sunil Kothari

Abhinaya Dance Company's Fall 2004 performance was preceded by 'New Directions in Indian Dance' - an illustrated talk by visiting dance historian and scholar, Dr. Sunil Kothari. A well-known critic, Dr. Kothari (Ph.D), is an authority on the classical dance forms of India. He has authored several volumes (Marg Publications) on dance which include "Bharata Natyam', 'Chhau dances of India', 'Kathak-Indian classical dance art', 'Odissi- Indian classical dance art', 'Kuchipudi- Indian classical dance art', and several research papers that have also been presented at international conferences. He has also documented classical, folk, and contemporary dance forms in their manifold aspects.

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