Upahaar NEWS has completed one year this month. It was launched with the primary objective of sharing and bringing together people within and outside the Upahaar family, solely through their common association and engagement with Indian classical performing arts. I’d like to commend the work of the team, specifically Piya Varma, and thank you to all of you who subscribe and support Upahaar always.
Greetings to you on this happy occasion of the Indian New Year (Baisakhi / Vishu / Ugadi)… an auspicious time for a new beginning and to announce that we have added a new subject to our curriculum at Upahaar - Yoga! This has been something that I always wanted to offer at Upahaar and I’m very happy that it has finally materialised. Yoga has changed my life personally, especially during this last year of the pandemic. Yoga kept me sane, supple and smiling despite the odds. I am very happy to confirm that we now have virtual yoga classes that will also take place face to face, once we go back to our centres in September. Please visit the website to enrol for yoga which we have tailored for individuals, couples or families. I strongly believe that Yoga must be a part of all
our lives and mandatory for practitioners of classical performing arts.
The Workshop Series (online) 2020-21 continues successfully, with five workshops completed (Odissi, Bharatanatyam Abhinaya, Carnatic vocal, Kathak and Mohiniyattam). We look forward to the sixth one this month ‘Rhythm & Konnakol’ (Apr 26th to Apr 30th ) and the last one in May, Koodiyattam. Our invited artist Manjunath B.C along with our own Prathap Ramachandra (fondly known as Prathap Master), both experts in the field of percussion, promise an exciting five sessions of fun with Rhythm! To register for the Rhythm workshop please visit the Upahaar website www.upahaar.co.uk/events.
Upahaar classes will continue online until the summer break. This decision has been taken after much thought on the impact of the full lifting of lockdown. Everyone is out and about and soon the country will try to go back to complete normalcy. We took into account (a) that there will be some level of acclimatisation required by all of us (b) the fact that the halls we use still have various Covid-19 conditions that we must adapt to (c) the risk of infection possibly rising again resulting in another shut down before the summer holidays.
With due consideration of the above, Upahaar has decided to continue all its classes online until the summer holidays which will commence on July 24th.
Please watch out for the Upahaar students’ showcase that will be aired on the Upahaar FB page as well on our YouTube channel every Sunday in July from 5:00pm UK time.
With loving regards,
Shalini Shivashankar
Artistic Director & Head Teacher
Upahaar School of Dance
Chairperson
Upahaar Community Group
+44 (0)7811823684 / +44 (0)20 86612865
upahaarschool@gmail.com
www.upahaar.co.uk
