Akshaya' (Everlasting - Tradition Alive and Onwards) 

at 

Lexington Christian Academy on Saturday August 6th at 4:00 p.m.

This is a thematic Bharatanatyam presentation featuring talented dancers and musicians from the Greater Boston area. Directed and choreographed by Sunanda Narayanan, Akshaya employs the muse of Shiva to reinterpret tradition for today's performers and audiences.

The young award-winning artists who are featured in this program are committed and passionate in their pursuit of classical dance and music. They have worked tirelessly on this presentation for over a year despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. It can be challenging for young artists to find fulfilling performance opportunities post their arangetrams. We hope that such collaborative efforts will bring them together to create engaging presentations that draw appreciative audiences.

The song selection for Akshaya incorporates both traditional and contemporary ideas that the young performers find relevant and that they can present with conviction. The compositions dating from centuries past to the present, depict Shiva from a fresh perspective and with endearing familiarity. In two special compositions created by eminent scholar, Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, from Chennai, the classical dance and music techniques effortlessly embrace ideas of gender equality and environment protection. The presentation reinforces for both performers and audience the evolution of tradition and the continuum that is Shiva, that is dance, that is music.

 Tickets for Akshaya are available at:

 https://akshaya.eventbrite.com

 The dancers are Jaya Aiyer, Mahathi Athreya, Smita Rajan, Divya Rajan, and Sharanya Bharadwaj.

 The musicians from Guru Tara Bangalore's Anubhava School of Music are Utsavi James, Medha Jayendran, Sudarshan Thirumalai, Tarun Bangalore, Yash Ravish, and Sadhana Venkatesh.

 We gratefully acknowledge Gurus Tara Bangalore, Jothi Raghavan, Pravin Sitaram, and Jayachandra Rao, the Mass Cultural Council and the Newton Cultural Council for their support.

 This presentation commemorates the 25th anniversary year of Sunanda Narayanan's Thillai Fine Arts Academy. We would be delighted to have you at the performance to encourage the young artists.

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