performances

People Behind


Veenapani Chawla

 

Veenapani Chawla established Adishakti in 1981 and is its Managing Trustee and Artistic Director. Her academic background consists of an M.A. History, Delhi University; B. Ed., Mumbai University. She has been examined by the Trinity College of Music, London for Singing and Piano; trained with Patsy Rodenberg, the Voice Coach of the Royal Shakespeare Company in London; and was briefly in Eugenio Barba's Odin Teatret at Holstebro, Denmark. In India she has learnt Chhau, Kalaripayattu, Koodiyattam, Kathakali and Dhrupad singing.

She has been recognized by grants from the Ford Foundation, the Charles Wallace India Trust, the Department of Culture, the Det Lange Udvalga in Denmark and the India Foundation of the Arts. In 1988, she was nominated to the Advisory Committee of the Kathak Kendra (Sangeet Natak Academy, New Delhi, India), and in 1994 was awarded an extended Senior Fellowship from the Department of Culture in New Delhi. In 1997 she was nominated by the Department of Culture as an expert in the fields of Folk, Traditional and Indigenous Arts. In 1998, she was appointed Trustee on the Board of Trustees of the National Folklore Support Centre, Chennai.

 

She has directed all the Adishakti performances and scripted half of these.

She is currently establishing the Adishakti campus at Pondicherry, which houses the members of the Adishakti Puppetry, Dance, Music and Theatre Repertory Company. And is designing programs for Adishakti to be a research center for performance arts, which will host residency programs and workshops for artists from all over the world.

 
Permanent Members


Vinay Kumar

 
 

Vinay Kumar KJ is a B.A in Theatre Arts, from the University of Calicut (1992) and has also trained in traditional performance forms like Kathakali, Kalaripayattu, Koodiyattam .

He has been an actor in residence at Adishakti since January 1993.

At the age of eighteen, Vinay established the first Women's Campus Theatre Group in Kerala. Widely traveled, Vinay Kumar was in Paris in 1995 where he gave performances of Impressions of Bhima . In 1996, he was in Bali to observe the traditional performance forms there and in 1997 he performed at the Asia Society in New York. In the same year, he proceeded to UCLA on a fellowship program where he worked with both Asian and North American artistes.

Some of Vinay Kumar's significant performances were in Woyzek (1992), A Greater Dawn (1993-1995), Impressions of Bhima (1994-1998), Myth of a Hero (1997), Brhannala (1998---), and Ganapati (2000--).

At Adishakti Vinay also supervises the documentation of programs, deals with all areas, which involve technology and supervises construction activity.

 


Suresh Kaliyath

 
   
Suresh Kaliyath has a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering. He is an accomplished Ottan Tullal performer { a traditional story telling performance form from Kerala } which he learnt under Guru Gopinath Prabha over a period of ten years. He has also studied Bharatanatyam and Parichamuttakali.

Suresh has been with Adishakti since 1997.

 


Arvind Rane
   
Arvind Rane has a B.A. in Economics & Politics from Mumbai University. He has been Creative Supervisor in Advertising Agencies like Shilpi, O&M, Ulka, Contract, Lintas and RK Swamy from 1981–1997, while he was in Mumbai. Concurrently he was with Adishakti during its Mumbai phase from 1981 to 1993. He rejoined Adishakti in 1998.

Currently he is performer in residence with Adishakti and he is also in charge of Adishakti's Public Relations and fund raising.

 


Jean
   
Jean Legrand did his Electro Technical Engineering at E.N.REA, Paris. He does Adishakti's performance lighting and is in charge of the maintenance and upkeep of Adishakti's performance spaces/ theatre. He has been with Adishakti since 1996 and concurrently is in charge of the Education system in Auroville.
 


Nimmy Raphel
   
Nimmy Raphel has a Diploma from Kerala Kalamandalam in Mohiniyattam and Kuchipudi dance, forms which she has learnt over ten years. She has given dance performances all over India. She is currently a resident actor and dancer at Adishakti, practicing its methodology of theatre since 2001.
 


Pascal Sieger
   
Pascal Sieger has the equivalent of an M.A. in Education from Metz University in France. He learnt music from Luciano Paliarini. He is now a professional saxophonist and composer and has played sessions with leading musicians in Europe and the USA and has composed extensively. He has been with Adishakti since 2001.
 


L.Rajappa
   
L.Rajappa is a ninth generation Traditional Leather Puppeteer from Tamilnadu. He has performed extensively in South India. He also teaches puppet-making and perfomance craft at Adishakti. Recently he was awarded the Kalaimamani Award by the Pondicherry Government. He has been with Adishakti since 2002.
 


Sundhari Rajappa
   
Sundhari Rajappa provides the music and verbal accompaniment for Rajappa's puppet shows. She is an expert puppet-maker and singer. She has been with Adishakti since 2002.
 
 
The Board of Trustees

1. Ms. Veenapani Chawla — Managing Trustee, Artistic Director ALTAR 

2. Mr. Sunam Mukherjee — Disciple, Sri Aurobindo Ashram 

3. Ms. Jhumi Banerjee, — Educationalist 

4. Ms. Srimayee Chowdhury Rosegger — Contemporary Performer 

5. Mr. Sudeep Srivastava — Vice President HRD Kotak Mahindra 

6. Ms. Sara Joseph — Professor of Malayalam, Writer and Activist 

7. Ms. Sathya Saran — Editor, Femina

8. Ms. Anjani Khanna — Potter, Environmentalist

 
Visiting Faculty


Ms. Usha Nangiyar: Koodiattam performer, trained by Ammanoor Mahadeva Chakkyar. Lecturer in Koodiyattam at Sri Sankara University Kalady, Kerala. Collaborates with Adishakti in performance research.

Mr. Hariharan: Koodiyattam musician. Trained under Kalamandalam Narayanan Nambiyar and Kalamandalam Ishwaran Unni. Trains Adishakti performers in percussion.

Mr. Ishwaran Unni: Koodiyattam musician. Trained under Narayanan Nambiyar, teaches mizhavu at Kalamandalam. Trains Adishakti performers in percussion.

Mr. Ramesh Lakshmanji : M.A Sanskrit, University of Calicut, Kerala. Trained in Kalaripayattu and Ayurvedic practice within the family tradition of the Hindustan Kalari Sangam in Calicut, Kerala. Trains Adishakti performers in Kalaripayattu and asanas and gives them the annual performer's massage. Collaborates with Adishakti in research towards the understanding of body dynamics.

Mr. L Girish Kumar: Research Director of the Tantrik Vidypeetham, Alwaye, Kerala. He is doing specialized research into ancient Tantrik knowledge systems and is currently testing them on himself. He collaborates with Adishakti in investigations into the applicability of the Tantrik chakras in performance and the utilization of pranayama techniques to enhance performance practice.

Mr. Srinivasan Vastukam : Civil Engineer trained as an architect under Laurie Baker and architect of all constructions at the Adishakti campus. Collaborates with Adishakti in its research of “vernacular” and old construction technologies, which are then disseminated through building activity in the region surrounding Adishakti.

Dr Padmanabhan: MBBS and Siddha medical practitioner. Treats Adishakti performers and its visitors. Teaches pranayama and asanas to Adishakti members and collaborates with Adishakti in a comparative research of various alternative medicinal systems.

Dr Leela Gandhi: Teaches at the school of English at Latrobe University, Melbourne, Australia. Editor of the journal Post Colonial Studies. Collaborates with Adishakti in an ongoing discourse on areas such as Post Colonialism and the Performing Arts, with special focus on issues like hybridity and intra cultural, inter cultural and inter disciplinary dialogues; in the context of Adishakti's own creative work.

Dr.Mohammed Kunhi : Director of Kerala Forest Research Institute. Interacts with Adishakti for creating a healthy environment on the campus, which would then be of benefit to the surrounding communities both by example as well as by a spill-over effect.

© copyright 2004-2005 Adishakti. All rights reserved