Devadasi Repertoire Workshop developed from a contextual program to the Classical Ballet La Bayadere (2023) into a travelling Workshop / Masterclass. Four days (5 hours each) are spent following the trail of fieldwork among devadasis by Dr. Saskia Kersenboom since 1975.

After an introductory documentary ‘Nityasumangali Revisited’, the Workshop gets to dancing: it teaches original devadasi repertoire from Tiruttani Murugan temple, Tiruvarur Tyagarajasvami temple, the Royal court in Tanjavur and ultimately from the Shiva Nataraja temple in Chidambaram.

Devadasi Repertoire Workshop addresses advanced students, teachers, and dancers of South Indian hereditary dance forms; min. 3, max. 6 participants. Dates: arrival April 29 to departure May 4, 2024; Location: Paramparai Arts, Legend, Hungary: Lodging included.

INFO: Paramparai Arts: https://www.paramparai.eu // info@paramparai.eu

Access the YouTube video below for more.

Dr. Saskia Kersenboom

ABOUT

Dr. Saskia Kersenboom — Born in Utrecht, The Netherlands, and grew up there. Indology and Theatre Studies took her to India for the first time (1975), where she started her training in Bharatanatyam with Smt. Nandini Ramani. In the following 42 years, she spent 32 years in Tamil Nadu for shorter or longer periods, studying dance, vocal music and Veena in Chennai as well as Devadasi ritual song and dance with Smt. P. Ranganayaki in Tiruttani. As a performing artist she has worked in several Conservatories as Guest Faculty and performed widely in Europe, USA and India. Saskia is probably best known for her fascination with Devadasi Tradition. 

Her PhD ‘Nityasumangali’ (18 May, 1984, Utrecht University, The Netherlands) drafted a vast map of a research-field that has been travelled by many scholars until today, covering a broad range of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences. ‘Nityasumangali’ – Devadasi Tradition in South India was published by Motilal Banarsidass in 1987 and has seen six editions so far (2020). This work and the later Word, Sound, Image, the Life of the Tamil Text with interactive CD (1995, Oxford: Berg Publishers; 2020, Routledge) underlie her Associate Professorship at Amsterdam University (1990-2013) subsequently in Linguistic Anthropology, Musicology and Theatre Studies.

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GET IN TOUCH

Devadasi Repertoire Workshop
With Dr. Saskia Kersenboom/Paramparai Arts
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Published by Sathir Dance Art © 2023