New Delhi: For decades, the great wealth of Indian classical music and dance was available only to its students and teachers for a lack of resources. However, with the right use of technology and conscious efforts by entrepreneurs and organizations working towards the promotion of art and culture, it is now to an extent accessible to connoisseurs and patrons in big and small corners of the world.
On the occasion of World Dance Day, dancer and arts entrepreneur Anita Ratnam talks about completing 30 glorious years of NARTHAKI – first of its kind directory of the Indian Dance Community through dialogue and film at 4 pm on Saturday, April 23rd, 2022 at CD Deshmukh Auditorium, India International Centre, New Delhi.
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According to Anita Ratnam, founder of NARTHAKI, the platform is a classic example of how necessity leads to invention. Since the inception of this unique directory way back in 1990, Narthaki has evolved and transformed into becoming purely relevant to the new world. Starting as a physical book released in 1992 with a thousand entries of entities related to the field of dance in India, moving on adding a two thousand more in 1997 and finally culminating into its dot com version in 2000, www.Narthaki.com has eventually become the single largest and most comprehensive source of all information about Indian dance and dancers.
In March 2020, when the pandemic hit the world NARTHAKI levelled up as a top-notch producer of virtual dance fests on digital platforms setting up standards for production details via its large presence on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. To name a few it propelled proprieties like BOXED (dancers creating in isolation), ANDAL'S GARDEN (a celebration of female Tamil mystic poet), TAALAM TALKIES (the connection between South Indian cinema and Bharatanatyam), A-NIDRA (all night marker for Shivaratri) and EPIC WOMEN (a series of mentored commissions for dancers across genres). Moreover, through various interviews, web talks and discussions on lighting and costume design for dance, a spotlight on folk and hereditary performers were continued throughout the pandemic.
Dr Anita Ratnam has always been at the forefront to propagate, nurture and protect the domains of art and performing arts. For her contribution to classical art, Dr Anita has been awarded repeatedly by organisations in India and overseas. MILAPFEST in the UK cited NARTHAKI.COM for its stellar contribution to uniting dancers. The New York Public Library has marked the site as its GO-TO source for all things connected with Indian dance.
Anita says that she is very satisfied and overwhelmed with the completion of 30 years of something that started as journaling records to a concept that is one of the most coveted hubs to find the whereabouts of dancers and their fraternity.
“It is unreal how an endeavour to pin down a celebrated dance artiste of her times - Yamini Krishnamurti - by American Broadcasting Company could lead to the making of a giant leap that splashes out knowledge about the dance universe when and where needed! I am delighted to learn that I have been able to connect a bit of dance to its connoisseurs. It is my brainchild for sure, but how universal it is now is where I pay my gratitude to those who adore dance and hold it dear to their lives and to those who find peace in this magical world of the live arts." she says.