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Classical Indian dancer Priyadarsini Govind |
Dream line-up for festival
PREVIEW: SVAPNAGATA FESTIVAL OF INDIAN MUSIC AND DANCE
Sadler's Wells
MULTI-award winning composer Nitin Sawhney and dancer-choreographer Akram Khan are hosting a major two-week Svapnagata Festival of Indian Music and Dance at Sadler’s Wells, starting on Monday.
Svapnagata is Sanskrit for “dreaming”. But that hardly does justice to the festival’s dazzling array of performances by some of the finest Indian musicians, dancers and choreographers in the world.
Nitin Sawhney is often regarded as a genuine Renaissance Man, a polymath beyond doubt – almost a younger generation version of Jonathan Miller without the verbosity. He’s equally at home composing music for many of the world’s top orchestras, playing flamenco guitar or classical/jazz piano, or DJaying in London or Mumbai.
Although media people like to pigeon-hole him as a “fusion” world musician, his music draws its strength from his early emersion in hip-hop, reggae and other street streams now mixed with the great classical tradition.
Festival musical highlights include:
Tuesday November 17 Svapnagata Acoustic Evening when Nitin Sawhney performs his own music with top musicians.
Wednesday November 18 One-time child prodigy U Shrinivas plays music from Karnataka, southern India, on a tiny electric mandolin.
Sunday November 22
Trilok Gurtu Orchestra collaborates with classical western musicians to perform Bach and Bartók alongside Trilok Gurto’s own works on instruments ranging from the French horn and trumpet to the santoor and didgeridoo.
Tuesday November 24 International sitar player Anoushka Shankar, daughter and pupil of the great maestro Ravi Shankar, explores music’s ability to tell stories drawn from the Indian epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
Friday and Saturday November 27 and 28 (at the Lilian Bayliss Studio)
Riz MC (aka actor Riz Ahmed) presents his innovative and sharp underground music.
Thursday/Saturday, November 26/28
World premiere of production fusing Nitin Sawhney’s music with Akram Khan’s unique blend of classical Kathak and contemporary dance techniques. The production will be set against the backdrop of visuals created by YeastCulture, the multi-media explorers based in Tufnell Park.
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