Sudeshna Maulik

Welcome

Sudeshna Maulik

Dancer, Choregrapher

Artistic Director Montreal Indian dance (Kathak) ensemble.

Sudeshna Maulik is a spectacularly talented Indian Classical dancer Based in Canada and India she maintains an active performing career that spans North America, Europe and Asia.

Sudeshna Maulik has been studying Indian dance since the age of seven.She began her training in Calcutta, India, under teacher and guru Pt. Chitresh Das, and went on to study with Shri Ram Bharatiya Kala Kendra in New Delhi and at the National Kathak Institute under the mentorship of Padmabhibhushan Birju MaharajShe has been a part of numerous productions for more than one decade in India and abroad, which has been sponsored by the I.C.C.R., I.T.D.C, and numerous Dance Companies Internationally. She is a graded artiste in Delhi Doordarshan (National Television) and has performed in C.P.C. (Central Production Center) in different ballets choreographed by Guru Pundit Birju Maharaj Ji, Kumudini Lakhia, and Aditi Mangal Das amongst many other revered teachers of the art.A renowned performer in India, Maulik has danced in Russia, China, Taiwan, the United States, and all over Europe, and given workshops and lecture-demonstrations all over the world.

She has adopted Montreal(Canada) as her second home since 2007 . In this short span she has accomplished performing in major dance festivals like Kalanidhi International festival..(Toronto) Dancing on the edge (Vancouver) Kathak Mahotsava (Toronto),Festival Du Monde(sherbrooke),Halifax multicultural fest (Halifax) to name a few. Majority of her work and activities have been accepted and supported by Canada council for arts and Quebec arts council who recognized her talent by honouring her with grants She has been sincerely teaching in Montreal and established Montreal Indian dance ensemble, a collective of talented dancers who are dedicated towards propagating Indian dance,

Finally, this from the German press, "She represents the very best in Eastern dance."

My GURUS:

Born in the family of hereditary dancers, Birju Maharaj is the torch bearer of the famous family , Kalka-Bindadin Gharana of Lucknow, which has been serving the art of Kathak dance through centuries together. Besides deing a superb dancer, he is also gifted with a number of other qualities which add to his artistic career. He is a wonderful singer having command over, Thumri, Dadra, Bhajan and Ghazals and is also superb drummer, playing nearly all drums with ease and precision. He has given a new dimension to Kathak, by experimenting this technique in the application of dance-dramas, which has become very successful medium for mass propagation. At the age of 28 years, he received the Sangeet Natak Akademy Award. He is also a recipient of the country's second highest civilian award-Padma Vibhushan, besides several other pestigeous awards like- Kalidas Samman, Nritya Choodamani, Andhra Ratna, Nritya Vilas, Adharshila Shikhar Samman, Soviet Land Nehru Award, Shiromani Samman, Rajiv Ghandhi Peace Award.

Chitresh Das, the pioneer who introduced India's classical Kathak dance to the United States, is a visionary artist and teacher whose dream is to break through cultural barriers to make his art accessible to all. His life's work began in 1970 when he received a Whitney Fellowship through the University of Maryland to teach Kathak and study modern dance. A year later, he was invited by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan to establish the first Kathak dance program in the U.S. at the renowned Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California. While there, Mr. Das created three major dance dramas with over forty musicians and dancers, the first ventures of their kind in Indo-American performing arts. In 1980 Mr. Das founded his own school and dance company, Chhandam.

Padmabhusan Kumudini Lakhia

With a lifetime commitment to Kathak dance, her teaching skill has produced many excellent dancers and her artistic vision a number of dance creations. Imaginative exploring of the Kathak form for choreography has taken the Kathak dance beyond a specific style into a universe of artist value. A minimal approach to costuming, lighting and set designing has given her work a sophisticated elegance. For her outstanding contribution to the field of dance she has been honoured with numerous prestigious awards in India and abroad.

KATHAK

This dance form traces its origins to the the nomadic bards of ancient northern India, known as Kathaks, or story tellers. These bards, performing in village squares and temple courtyards, mostly specialized in recounting mythological and moral tales from the scriptures, and embellished their recitals with hand gestures and facial expressions. It was quintessential theatre, using instrumental and vocal music along with stylized gestures, to enliven the stories. With the advent of Mughal culture, Kathak became a sophisticated chamber art. Patronized by art loving rulers, the practitioners of Kathak worked at refining its dramatic and rhythmic aspects, delighting elite audiences with their mastery over rhythm and the stylized mime.

The technique of Kathak today is characterized by fast rhythmic footwork set to complex time cycles. The footwork is matched by the accompanying percussion instruments such as tabla and pakhawaj, and the dancer and percussionists often indulge in a virtuoso display of rhythmic wizardry.The dance movements include numerous pirouettes executed at lightning speed and ending in statuesque poses. The interpretative portion, based on tales of Radha and Krishna and other mythological lore, contains subtle gestures and facial expressions. Lucknow, Banaras and Jaipur are recognized as the three schools, or gharanas, where this art was nurtured and where the interpretative and rhythmic aspects were refined to a high standard.

Reference - www.artindia.net

Accolades

something...

- Pandit Birju Maharaj

Sudeshna has a graceful and elegant personality on stage. She has the potential of a good dancer in the near future.

- Saswati Sen

Her dance has "the" spark and intensity.

- Rani Khanan

She is a bold and talented dancer. I wish her success for the future.

- Pandit Jai Kishan Maharaj

LUCKNOW GHARANA

It is a well- known fact that "Lucknow is the mother, and Benares the sweetheart of the thumri style." A large number of composers who throve under the lavish patronage of the Nawab rulers of Lucknow enriched this light classical form whose popularity is mounting day by day. Among these, the name of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (the last Nawab-ruler of Lucknow) stands out in golden letters. He was not only a munificent patron of music, dance, drama, and poetry, but was himself a gifted composer, and a proficient Kathak dancer. He had received vocal training under great Ustads like Basit Khan, Pyar Khan and Jaffar Khan and Kathak training under Thakur Prasadji and Bindadin Maharaj.

Kathak dance attained new heights of popularity and glory under his expert guidance and lavish patronage. Thakur Prasadji was his Kathak guru, and the unforgettable Kalka-Binda brothers performed in his court. What with the grand pageantry of the Rahas, Jogiya Jashan, Dance dramas, and Kathak performances, Lucknow became the magnetic cultural centre where the most reputed musicians, dancers and poets of the time flourished. The greatest musicians, dancers and instrumentalists of the time enjoyed his munificent patronage and hospitality.

Wajid Ali Shah was most unfortunate to have ascended the throne of Awadh at a time when the East India Company was determined to grab the coveted throne of prosperous Awadh (Oudh), which was "the garden, granary, and queen-province of India." In different circumstances perhaps, be might have succeeded as a ruler because he had many qualities that make a good administrator. He was generous, kind and compassionate towards his subjects, besides being one of the most magnan- imous and passionate patrons of the Fine Arts. But the British Agent, and some of the treacherous elements in the court of Awadh availed of his lavish and luxurious style of living, branded him as "a monster of debauchery, profligacy and vice", and succeeded in banishing him from his beloved Lucknow.

Reference - www.chembur.com

Productions

Mystical waters

genre -Contemporary kathak -recorded music

It is at the dawn of Vedic Civilization the mythical course of the Mightiest River -Saraswati is divinely celebrated as an ideal of motherhood & knowledge. Her banks are claimed to have nourished all of the major social, cultural, artistic & literary developments, which profoundly impacted Vedic development, and that is why Saraswati is credited as being a symbol of knowledge.

This choreography traces the Mighty River in three phrases, its birth, youth and matured stage. In the beginning its depicts Saraswati as a naïve and young girl explorative & excited in nature.

As all other young woman there comes a phase in her life when she steps out of her childhood and falls in love with this world and develops a relationship with others that she is comes across. Her love for humanity is embodied as an endless flow of dance, vibrantly expressing elegant dance imageries, inclining the senses and awareness towards the incredible relation between herself those who lived on her banks.

The exploration condenses into the final scene of retrospection,( According to ancient scriptures and scientific geographical evidence, the Great Saraswati River was stolen and or disappeared, which disrupted the lifeline of people who was nourished by her continuous flow) which expands on the inner truth of self realization that we all are part of the absolute self and at the same time we are complete within ourself as the absolutes resides in us.

Choreography Sudeshna Maulik
Guest Choreographer Padma Bhushan Kumudini Lakhia
Music Esha Sanyal(Kolkata)
Costume Niloy Sengupta (Kolkata)
no of dancers 3. Kathak and contemporary dancers.

Soul of ganges

genre - Traditional kathak with live musicians

Ganga' is derived from the etymological root 'gam,' meaning to "to go." Indeed, Ganga is the "Swift-Goer," and the running, flowing, and energetic movement of her waters is constantly mentioned as one of the major reasons behind her purifying attributes. Shiva becomes the facilitator for Ganga's smooth fall to the earth. But if Shiva saves the world from the power and force of Ganga's torrent, it is also Ganga, who in a similar manner, saves us from Shiva's scorching powers of destruction. Ganga's residence in the matted locks of Shiva further gives her the place as the second wife of Shiva besides Uma, who happens to be Ganga's sister, as they both are daughters of King Himavan. Thus, in the Skanda Purana, Shiva is married to both the sisters, Ganga and Uma.They are dependent of each other they are veicles for one anathor. Taal Dhammar - 14 beats. (Representation of Shiva) If Teental is considered as the king of all talas, Dhammar can be well- termed as shah-en-shah (king of kings) The abstract presentation takes on the powerful Taal Dhammar to depict the energy and force of Lord Shiva . Taal Teental-16 beats (Symbolizing Ganges) Emphasizing on the contrast of Shiva with the running, free-flowing Ganges; the dancer has chosen the highly dynamic madya & drut teental to represent the swift course of the river once she leaves the matted locks of the lord to nourish mother earth and humanity. Kathak dance with live tabla and sarod.

Hands and Feet

Kathak is an age-old Indian dance form, rarely seen in on Quebec’s stages. Hands and Feet hints at beauty and the sacred by merging kathak, a pure and narrative North Indian dance, along with the pure energy of live music. The grace and rhythm of these two elements will make for a fascinating journey.

The partnership and the strong relationship between the dancer and the percussionist will be explored within the format of the classical dance form. Nowadays, the technique of kathak is characterized by fast rhythmic footwork set to complex time cycles. The footwork is matched by the accompanying percussion instrument: tabla. The dancer and percussionist indulge in a virtuoso display of rhythmic wizardry, with the two artists acting as one; the dancer’s feet and the tabla player’s hands perform together in unison. The dance movements include numerous pirouettes executed at lightning speed and ending in statuesque poses. Expressions (bhava, which is an integral part of Indian Classical dance) is integrated in this choreography, beautifully supported by the cello, uplifting the spiritual level of the collaboration. While the production will follow the traditional form of presentation to the maximum, it will also take the liberty of pushing the boundaries of tradition, which will make the presentation unique.

Traditional solo kathak accompanied by tabla and cello.

Crossroads

genre - collaborative work in recorded music

Cross roads is the journey of two different dancers who had a distant feeling of each other’s existence all this time in their native land yet met first time In Canada. They are caught in a kind of same life situation yet they are distinctly different individual’s .This search for identity is a universal phenomenon for every immigrant. But for two artistes it translated into a joint exploration of Indian dance

Their body belongs to two distinct genres of dance namely Kathak & Odissi, which being so different in there outer form yet been able to find the joy of glorious oneness in being so essentially Indian in Spirit.

A dialogue starts between the two .The dialogues transformed into movements which gradually branched out in different directions to take some definite shapes which the world can term as dance works. But for them Crossroads is an extension of their emotions, the inspiration that they have taken from rhythm & co existence of the workings of the universe, the cosmic cycles ,the planetary movements, the rise and fall of the tide ,the human life cycle……….The list is infinite , so is the search.

Dance forms (Kathak & Odissi)

NAAVRAAS

Quebasia Festival At studio 303 Montreal , Canada presents Sudeshna Maulik in

Emotion 9 (Nava Rasa from Natya Sastra the treatise of Indian Dance interpreted in complete abstraction )

Mentor- Guru Padmabhusan Kumudini Lakhia(Ahmedabad India)

Concept and Choreography -Sudeshna Maulik

Music –Sunando Mukherjee (Sorodist –Kolkata)

Vocal- Anjana Nath ( Kolkata , India )

Tabla, Pakwaj-Naresh Kumar

Performances

Classes

Classes Schedule

Kathak Dance classes in Tampa ( New session starting this fall !!!)

By ACA ( Tampa)

Conducted by Internationally acclaimed Danseuse

Sudeshna Maulik
(Disciple of Kathak legend Pt Birju Maharaj)

Classes conducted at USF
3825 Holy Drive Tampa
Florida-33620

Dance 360 Orlando

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Montreal Classes

Level offered
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Adult Beginners Debutante
Adult Beginners
Adult Intermediate
Adult Senior

*Kids class over the weekend (Saturday -Sunday)

Studio locations Near Metro Du College, Metro Place St Henri and Metro Monk

Telephone: +1 514 467 3461
Fees 65$--80$ per month depending on the level

Florida Classes (Once a month)

Level offered
####NEW ####

Adult Beginners Debutante

*Kids class
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Adult Beginners Debutante
Adult Beginners

Telephone- +1 407 333 1692

Skype Classes

All levels on one and one basis

Telephone: +1 514 467 3461
30-40$ per class depending on the level

Courses offered:

1. Intensive Kathak training & Indian folk Dances for children and adults from 6yrs of age

2. Professional training for individual with previous knowledge in dance

NOTE: The kathak course will soon be affiliated with one of Indian government recognised boards which are entitled to give BA & Ma degree in Classical dance.