About
Saumya
Saumya Shukla lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and is an artist & teacher of the North Indian Classical Dance – Kathak. She’s appreciated for her elegant, effervescent & expressive style of dancing and her unique methods of teaching this traditional Indian art form to students all around the world. Saumya considers herself a student for life, immersed in understanding the historical & philosophical connections of dance & culture & finds her love for storytelling fulfilled through this art form. She aspires to build a bridge between communities through culture, by collaborating with artists of different art forms & nationalities & finding common themes through stories, human emotions & movements.
Encouraged by her parents to learn Kathak, she began her journey at age 9 at the Alaknanda Institute for Performing Arts, Noida, India. Her guru is renowned Kathak Exponent Guru Alaknanda Kathak. Through the training and performing in her Guru’s productions & choreographies, Saumya started to discover the technical, expressional & spiritual aspects of Kathak at an early age. A dancer for over 20 years, Saumya has performed to diverse audiences at several major national and international dance festivals.
As a teacher of Kathak dance, Saumya idolizes her Guru’s training methods. As she entered her senior years of Kathak training she was encouraged to train the beginners & intermediate students of her institution. It is there that she developed the skills of being a patient, and adaptable teacher, and explaining the nuances of the dance techniques, in the most simplistic manner. Over the years, Saumya has been making efforts to carry the legacy of this dance form through teaching & workshops, in India and Abroad.
ICCR appointments in 2016 & 2021
In 2016, The Indian Council for Cultural Relations appointed her as ‘Kathak Teacher & Performer’ at the Amrita Sher-Gil Cultural Centre, Budapest, Hungary for 2.5 years. So, at the age of 30, Saumya made a conscious choice of leaving her high-paying corporate job to work in the field of performing arts. While working in Hungary as a cultural ambassador, helping in creating awareness and appreciation of Indian classical art forms – she found her path. Through dance, she’s found humbleness, the joy of teaching, traveling, experiencing new cultures, collaborating with exceptional artists & a strong support system of, family, Guru & friends.
Since 2021, she has been appointed as the Kathak Teacher, Performer & Cultural Advisor at the ICCR center in The Hague called The Gandhi Centre, at the Embassy of India, Netherlands. Saumya also teaches independently in Amsterdam & Rotterdam.
She’s is a graduate of Kathak from Gandharva Mahavidyalya, Mumbai, Bachelors of Science in Psychology and a Masters of Business from De Montfort University, Leister (UK)
About
Guru
Guru Alaknanda Kathak is a Kathak Exponent & an Art Motivator. She was awarded the internationally coveted ‘Honors Gratis’ by the President of Krakow, Poland on 22nd July 2019 in Krakow, Poland. In a career spamming 35 wonderful years of national scholarships, honorary titles and ICCR empanelment, she has been running the largest performing arts institute and examination centre in the NCR, the Alaknanda Institute For Performing Arts (Noida) for the last 30 years, while representing India at international festivals and curating independent dance festivals in India. She is the director and curator of the Spirit Of Dance Festival, and Sanskriti Pratiba Utsav.
In January 2020, Alaknanda Kathak was appointed as the ‘State Icon’ by the Election Commission of Delhi. She has been bestowed with prestigious titles like Nrityashri in her home country, it has been leaving India’s cultural footprint all around the world in countries like South Korea, Singapore, Poland, Hungary, France and the UK.
About
Kathak
Kathak is a Classical dance from Northern India. The dance originated from Hindu temples in the form of storytelling and travelled to the courts of Hindu and then Mughal Courts.
’Kathak’ is a Sanskrit word which means ’storyteller or narrator’. In early times, people who told stories combining singing, narrating and dancing were called ’Kathika’. For some reason over the years those who used to practice these art forms together, began to pursue singing, narrating dancing separately. Storytellers who told stories through dance continued to call them self ’Kathika’ or ’Kathaka’.
Kathak dance evolved. Although initially Kathak was performed in temples and stories were based on the life of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Slowly, as the dance shifted from temples to the Mughal courts, the dance and dancers’ appearance-costume, jewelry etc changed. Footwrok, Tihai, tukdas, paran and other compositions emerged. Tabla became an important accompanying instrument. Dancers began to wear angrakhaa (Type of frocks), kurta etc. When it was performed on stage, both footwork and abhinaya / expressions became an important element of Kathak dance. First Kathak was performed only by one person, now artists perform together. The dance we know as Kathak, is very different from the Kathak of villages. This was also called the ’Natvari Nritya’ since a lot of it’s elements are based on the life of Lord Krishna, who is lovingly also called-Natvari.