Venue: C. D. Desmukh Auditorium, India International Centre (“IIC”)
Date: 5 September 2015

The noted Kathak dancer  Uma Sharma and her troupe from Bharatiya Sangeet Sadan presented a dance ensemble “Giridhar Gopal” to commemorate Janmashtami.

The program started with a short film on Krishna that Uma Sharma had directed earlier. It then moved on to renditions from Jayadev’s Gita Govinda as well as the poetries of Haridas, Surdas, Meera, and Vidyapati. Excerpts of Krishna Leela were performed by Ms. Sharma’students.

Ms. Sharma, in solo, presented pieces depicting Krishna’s childhood, encounters between Radha and Krishna, Krishna the Makhan Chor etc. She did not let age come in the way of the art and held the packed auditorium (audience sitting on the aisle as well) in a respectful silence whenever she was on stage. She camouflaged any physical discomfort with lively facial expressions and hand movements. Her confidence on stage was awe-inspiring.  We were humbled seeing the maestro’s performance.

The strong vocal support and the overall music direction were by Pt. Jwala Prasad. Given his prowess, it seemed at times that this was a duet between the vocals and the dance.

Uma Sharma organizes this program at IIC every Janmashtami and we hope to be back for many more such performances.