Rangeela 2024: Celebration of south-Asian art, music, dance and food. Featured by ITV Anglia.

Supported by Cambridge City Council, Rangeela 2024 was held at Clay Farm Centre, Trumpington on Saturday 20th January. Rangeela, which means colourful, brought people together through south Asian art, music, dance and food!

The event started with a drawing and painting competition followed by a dance showcase by Sanskruti students, and finished with a Bollywood dancefloor by the Cambridge DanceMasti. Along with our?!

Thanks go to Cambridge-based artist Diyali Majumder who judged the art competition, to the Mayor of Cambridge who joined us for the evening, and to our wonderful volunteers who supported the event.

We need to say thank you to the parent volunteers for cooking and bringing food (tuck shop) and to Namaste Cambridge (a local Indian takeaway for bringing food).

If you missed the fun, here’s a flavour of the day, thanks to ITV Anglia.

Apple ‘N’ Spice wins the national Family Arts Activity Award by Fantastic for Families

Our show Apple ‘N’ Spice has won a Fantastic for Families Award in the Best Family Arts Activity category. Inspired by the stories of Ramayana and Snow White, Apple ‘N’ Spice is the magical tale of two stepmothers: one from the East and one from the West. Their stories unfold through an interactive, multicultural dance performance, presenting a charming fairytale that offers an original way for children to discover Indian storytelling.

Awards are given by Family Arts Campaign, the national organisation for arts engagement and families. Now in its tenth year, Fantastic for Families Awards is an annual programme open to UK-based cultural organisations or cultural activity organisers, providing creative opportunities, activities, or initiatives for families and older people.

Krishna Zivraj-Nair, Sanskruti’s Artistic Director, said, “We are absolutely thrilled and elated that our East-West fusion dance show Apple ‘N’ Spice has been chosen as one of the winners of the Best Family Arts Activity by Fantastic for Families.

“This means so much to us, as an organisation that wants to bring theatre and dance to children across the UK.”

Sanskruti Dance was one of seven organisations that won awards at an event held on 22 November. A representative from Fantastic for Families said:

“Each year, the Fantastic For Families Awards celebrate the wealth of outstanding creative provision for families and older audiences across the nation. This year’s winners have blown us away, with their incredible events, activities and initiatives – opening opportunities for more collaboration and creativity.”

Apple ‘N’ Spice will continue to tour venues across the UK in 2024, with performances already booked in Cornwall, Glasgow and Luton. 

Young Performer from Magical Honey writes her experience in two magazines

Sia Nair, one of the young performers in Magical Honey shared her experience of creating and touring Magical Honey in two local magazines.
Her first article was published in Sawston Village College’s Fountain Magazine and the second was published soon after in Sawston Scene.
For full articles click below:

Magical Honey receives 4 star review from British Theatre

Paul Davis from Britsh Theatre.com reviews Magical Honey at Mercury Theatre Colchester saying
The dance is beautiful, as is the score, together with exquisite violin playing. Highly Recommended
Read the full review.

Sanskruti’s Advance level students win LoveDanceLive competition at Sadler’s Wells.

Our advance level students won not one but two awards on 12th Feb 2023 at LoveDanceLive’s dance competition at Sadler’s Wells!!
1st place in their category + best costume in all categories
Thank you to the most encouraging judges for your constructive feedback for our young dancers.
“Mesmerizing..
Quality…
Positioning of the arms reaching out perfectly…
“The patterns on the floor…”
These were some of the words which we captured from our judges’ feedback.
A proud moment for all of us at Sanskruti Cambridge. Hats off to these young dancers for presenting Bharatanatyam as it is with its traditional Carnatic music. The Ganesha Kauvthuvam surely struck a chord with our audiences and the judges.
To see our young students bring Bharatanatyam in their full Bharatanatyam costume to Sadler’s Wells is a dream come true for any Bharatanatyam dance teacher and artist.

Sanskruti’s work featured in Sawston Scene Magazine

You can read our story of how Sanskruti was created in the August-September 2022 issue of Sawston Scene.
Available for purchase at local stores in Sawston for £2 only.

Apple ‘N’ Spice gets reviewed with 4 stars by Paul T. Davis from BritishTheatre.com

Snippets of the review:
“… simplicity of its story telling.
… shadow puppetry is enchanting.
The dance, Bharatanatyam , is superb, the beating of feet on the floor I found particularly impressive”

Magical Honey receives Stobb’s New Ideas Award by Cambridge Junction

Thrilled to share the news that our R&D Magical Honey has received the Stobbs’s New Ideas Award from Cambridge Junction this year!
Delighted to be a part of Junction’s scratch night with two other amazing works this Wed, 25th May, 7:30pm.

Magical Honey R&D by Sanskruti

Supported by Arts Council England, DanceEast and Akademi, this new children’s dance piece created  by Krishna Zivraj-Nair had a successful 2 weeks of R&D followed by a sharing of the work. The outcome has been hugely promising and we aim to take it to the next phase of development.

Magical Honey weaves together Bharatanatyam, magic, storytelling and music to create a new dance piece for children.

Krishna’s Dance Your PhD 2021 featured by American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

During UK’s 2nd lockdown, Krishna and her two children decided to create a dance film of Krishna’s PhD thesis for Science magazine’s Dance Your PhD contest 2021.

The dance is featured by ASBMB’s article “Become the protein” by Laurel Oldach.

Krishna Zivraj–Nair, a science writer and dance teacher in England, envisioned the protein she studied when she was a graduate student, which is involved in mRNA transport in neurons, as a mother guiding her child on a journey. She cast her son as the mRNA, and her daughter as the resulting protein, in an imagined travel diary filmed at home during the U.K.’s second lockdown.

In conversation with Cambridge Live for their ‘Behind the Scenes’ series for Cambridge Big Weekend.

Delighted to share our story of how we have been pioneers in bringing Bharatanatyam and other Indian classical dances to the Cambridge Big Weekend Main Stage.

That was our moment… Sanskruti’s moment! From 2014, Bharatanatyam is always on the Main Stage, every Big Weekend, along with Odissi and Kathak.

-Krishna Zivraj-Nair

Link to the full interview

Sanskruti’s artistic director in #BBCMakeADifference

As a part of an initiative taken by Cambridge City Council and Cambridge South Asian History Month, our work got featured in BBC’s #MakeAdifference series featuring people who are trying to make a difference during this lockdown. Glad to see that our work is also making a difference to everyone around us.

Krishna’s making a difference- BBC Cambridgeshire

Sanskruti’s artistic director in conversation with GenNext

Thoroughly enjoyed speaking to Santhosh Nair and Hiten Mistry on what support means for artists during and post Covid19 lockdown on Instagram Live. The recording of the conversation is available here:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CC6jNK5HGrf/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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Sanskruti’s student featured by OneDance UK

Super thrilled to see Bharatanatyam represented at One Dance UK. Even more delighted to see my student Sia on a national platform.

Sia had performed for U.Dance finals at Dance East a couple of years ago when she was just 7 years old. Back then, all she wanted to do was dance… little did we know that her joy of dance will be captured in a way that will be shared with everyone in time to come…

Thank you OneDance UK

Sanskruti’s student Linnea Husman wins the coveted ISTD Bursary Award 2018

Apple ‘n’ Spice 2018- Review by Pulse Magazine, UK

“…Great charm and engagement”-  Pulse Magazine, UK

 The neurobiologist who just could’nt stop dancing

– Interview with University of Cambridge

Krishna’s interview on her love for science and dance was featured on University of Cambridge’s main web page. Click here for the full interview.