Dear Sanskruti students, parents, friends and well-wishers,
With summer around the corner, I hope all our students are looking forward to lots of exciting events this summer. This newsletter is long overdue and is slightly longer than usual with lots of amazing memories to share along with our students achievements. As always, a gentle reminder to please have a look at our website for class dates and timings for this half-term.
We are humbled to initiate the first ever South Asian Dance festival in Cambridge on Sunday, 7th July at Cambridge Junction. The festival will bring a day full of dance for Cambridge to enjoy and remember! Starting with dance workshops in the morning by Aparajita Dance Company in Bollywood dance style and a workshop in Manipuri Dance by Noel Datta, these workshops are suitable for children and adults of all ages and abilities.
The evening will bring a showcase of professional Bharatanatyam, Manipuri and Bollywood dance styles. A crisp 90 min evening that will also be an opportunity for Sanskruti’s senior dance students to share the platform with professional artists.
The festival is for all to engage with high quality dance, to seek inspiration and learn from professionals. It is also an event for students to watch and review professional artists for ISTD dance exams!
We’ve had a fantastic start into the year with our dance school and company performing at least once a month so far! Starting the year with Rangeela 2024 in January to celebrate South Asian culture with dance, music, food and art. An evening well-appreciated by both our audiences as well as the Mayor of Cambridge! And of course, with ITV Anglia featuring the event, it was a good way to connect with wider communities.
Art Competition 2024 Winners
This is our fourth year of running our annual art competition for our students. This year we featured it as a part of Rangeela. Cambridge-based artist Diyali Majumder was the judge of the competition and this year’s theme was on our environment and its conservation. The artwork entries were breathtaking and a brilliant way for young minds to express themselves through art. Hearty congratulations to all the winners and the runners up of the competition! We hope the winners are enjoying their Amazon gift vouchers. Below are the children who won the competition with their artwork.
Ages 4-6 years: Winner- Shloka, Runner up- Meera.
Ages 7-10 years: Winner-Sucharitha, Runner-up-Parnika.
Ages 11-15 years: Winner- Elaanya, Runner-up-Nandita
Energise 2024
In February, our students once again shone bright at Energise 2024 platform at Swavesey Village College sharing dance with their contemporaries. A platform which has become our home platform as year after year our students bring Bharatanatyam and Bollywood dance styles to the forefront.
Shivratri 2024
March was another memorable month with Shivratri celebrations. It was wonderful to curate the festival for Cambridge Hindu Forum (CHF) at Impington Village College bringing together different dance schools training students in classical Indian art forms.
International Women’s Day 2024
Another event in March was when our senior dance explorers were invited to perform at the International Women’s Day organised by Cambridge City Council. Their performances were one of the main highlights of the evening for which the City Council also paid the performers for their artistry and time.
Sanskruti Students 1st place at LDL 2024
April is a very special month as it brings World Dance Day celebrations. We are immensely proud of our Bharatanatyam and Bollywood dance students who were invited to take part at LoveDanceLive’s international dance competition 2024. By invitation, it meant that the students did not have to pay any registration fee to take part in the competition held at The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), London.
The two dance groups took part and returned home with three awards that evening!
Among 50 competition entries, our Bharatanatyam and Bollywood dance students had a tie and secured the 1st place in the Junior group category (6-14 years age group). Plus, we won two additional awards- Best costume and a special award for our 6 year old Bollywood dance student Ekta.The feedback we received from our celebrity judges included:“Stole my heart away”
“Such beautiful expressions on the faces”A day to remember!
Easter, Vishu and Eid Celebrations
We are fortunate to have opportunities to engage with audiences on professional platforms such as RAD as well as our local communities. It was an absolute delight to bring Bharatanatyam and Bollywood dance to the local Sawston community who got together to celebrate Easter, Vishu and Eid. A beautiful concept of celebrating the festivals together with dance!
Fundraising with Sawston Fun Run
May was a month where our students did not perform dance. Instead, our students raised funds by running and walking for dance! Thank you to Sawston Fun Run for making Sanskruti one of the beneficiaries for this year’s Sawston Fun Run. With these funds, our Bollywood students in Sawston got new costumes for stage shows and we will be able to bring more dance to Sawston in the near future.
50th Strawberry Fair in Cambridge
And here we are in June! If our senior students have been busy performing at professional and community platforms, our young Bharatanatyam beginners, intermediate level and Bollywood dance students have also been busy preparing to perform at the 50 Years Celebrations of The Strawberry Fair on 1st June in Cambridge! A 20 minute showcase that easily engaged with at least 200 people- children and families at once! And that’s the first half of 2024 gone by with lots of new dance memories to cherish!
Our Student’s Achievements so far…
Our senior student and assistant teacher Martina receives the Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) in Modern South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge.
A graduate in Law, studies, before joining the law firm in London, Martina decided to take a year off to pursue a Masters degree on Bharatanatyam along with her ISTD Vocational Grade exams. Hearty congratulations to Martina for her academic excellence in dance. Onwards and upwards!
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While Martina has chosen her path as a dance academic and performer, our second senior student and assistant teacher Linnea is making waves in the UK’s south Asian dance scene as an emerging performer. It was heartwarming to see Linnea perform at The Bhavan, London as a part of Srishti Pathways- a tour involving young south Asian Bharatanatyam dancers from around the country. The young company set out on a professional national tour from Autumn 2023-Spring 2024 including The Bhavan London. Congratulations Linnea on your new journey as a performer! Keep dancing and spread the joy around you while you strike a balance between dance and full time education at university!
Not forgetting our two very young performers for their achievements this year. Congratulations to our young dance performers Sia (left) and Ana (right) who have written articles about their experience of working in a professional environment while touring the children’s show Magical Honey. Sia’s article was published in her school magazine and Sawston Scene magazine while Ana’s article was published in her school magazine. These two young performers surely had a lot to say about dance, music and Magical Honey! Well done girls! Proud of you!
It has been a full year of touring our productions nationally. Apple ‘N’ Spice completed 50 shows in March this year and our last show for this touring season is in Glasgow on 23rd June. Magical Honey, which premiered last year was supposed to tour nine shows, but with its growing demand we completed the 20th show at The Newbury CornExchange in early May. With a successful tour reaching twice the number of audiences than we initially anticipated, we are now ready for a little break for the rest of this year and will resume touring the shows in 2025.
Meanwhile, the company will now focus on our new R&D called “The Tree of Life”. We had a one week of development in January this year which ended in a successful sharing of the work in progress with industry experts. This break from touring will allow us to focus our creativity on Tree of Life. You can know more about The Tree of Life by watching this short film.
Lastly do check our new webpage launched this year for our dance company!
We’re already half-way through 2024. It’s been a busy but a good year so far and we look forward to sharing more in the months ahead. Super excited about Cambridge Dance Festival and we hope to see all of you at the festival!
Thank you and best wishes,
Krishna
“What must always be preserved is the spirit of the work; its life will depend on the generations that transmit this spirit and bring it to life ”
– Antony Gaudi
The truest expression of a people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie.
