In a first in Lucknow, a group of home-grown artistes will be performing Yakshagana, a theatrical dance-art form with its roots in Karnataka and Kerala. The performance that will be taking place at Bhartendu Natya Akademi on Sunday will be the culmination of a 20-day workshop conducted by Yakshagana exponent Shailesh Tirthahalli from Karnataka.
Tirthahalli is travelling with a four-member team of trainers and has been instructing a group of 28 artistes here to put up a Yakshagana show titled ‘Chakravyuh’, which is based on an excerpt from the Mahabharata. He runs a Yakshagana school in Thirthahalli (Shimoga district) called Yakshaboomi Adhyayana Kendra and has over ten years of experience in teaching the dance form at arts schools across the country. This show is being organised by an informal group of local artistes who call themselves Backstage Artistry Lab.
“We are not trained classical dancers. All of us are actors,” said Abhudai Tiwari, one of the group members. Other members in the group include musicians and dancers who have spent 20 days at Sangeet Natak Akademi learning a completely foreign dance form.