Padmashri Alarmel Valli, one of the finest exponents of Bharatanatyam will present Vidyanjali on Saturday March 29, 2003 at the Cohen Auditorium at Tufts University. It is a dance recital that should not be missed. Valli is a great performer who also takes the time to explain her presentations so that even a lay audience can understand and appreciate the dance. She also has new creations and is constantly changing her presentations.

Recipient of numerous awards, Alarmel Valli was conferred the State award of Kalaimamani in 1979 and was made the State Artist of Tamilnadu between 1981 & 1984. In December 1985, she was awarded the title of Nrithya Choodamani by the Krishna Gana Sabha in Madras. In January 1991, she was the youngest dancer to be conferred the President's award of "Padmasri". In 1997, she was honoured by the City of Paris, with the 'Grande Medaille de la Ville de Paris'. She founded 'Dipashikha' a Centre for Performing Arts in 1984 and has choreographed works for her students that have been presented in Japan and the US. In 2002, Alarmel Valli received the Award of the Sangeet Natak Academy- the apex body for Music, Dance and Drama in India.

“Alarmel Valli has become a legend. She is Bharatanatyam personified. In a manner she breathes, thinks and walks the dance. One can only marvel at her grace and vivacity, at her prodigious skill in choreography - matching the most graceful adavus to the most intricate of rhythms and the prowess of her Abhinaya” says Subuddu, the great dance critic.

Valli is not only a great dancer but also a scholar of Tamil and English literature. A.K. Ramanujan says of the classical Tamil anthologies of Sangam poetry, authored around 2000 years ago, that "not to know them, is not to know a unique and major poetic achievement of Indian civilisation". Valli's extensive research on these poems, which are remarkable for their richness, subtlety and contemporary, nature has resulted, over a period of thirteen years, in a significant body of work which is a fusion of the poetry of words, music and movement.

ASHA-MIT uses funds from these events to bring education to the under-privileged in India.The Indian Student Association at Tufts is a graduate student body that partners with organizations like ASHA to bring quality events to the Boston area while helping raise funds for a good cause.

For further information , Click here

Click here to buy tickets online.

|