India Post News Service

CHICAGO: Anila Sinha Foundation presented yet another spectacular event by two legends, Pandit Birju Maharaj and Ustad Zakir Hussein at Harris Theater for Music & Dance, Millennium Park with over eight hundred audiences present.The performance commenced with an item called "Madhurastrakam" an invocation to Lord Krishna as a supreme embodiment of love, bliss and beauty.

The poem was written by Sri Vallabhacharya (1478 AD), a philosopher and a great devotee of Lord Krishna and performed by Saswati Sen.Following this, Pandit Birju Maharaj made his appearance on the stage with an expressional interpretation of a Thumari, a poem written by Maharaj Bindadin. This led to a pure dance, "Nritta", in 16 beat time cycle accompanied on drum (Tabla) by the great maestro Ustad Zakir Hussein for about two hours. Pandit Birju Maharaj at the age of 70 years accompanied by Ustad Zakir Hussain; with all the vigor and versatility regaled the audience comprising of both Indians and Americans, and received repeated applause and several standing ovations.

This was highlighted by a dazzling duet "Jugalbandi" between Pandit Birju Maharaj and Ustad Zakir Hussein who is a phenomenon by himself. Subsequently, Pandit Birju Maharaj displayed his lightening footwork, fast turns showing intricate rhythmic patterns, concluding every piece in a very amicable collaboration with his tabla artist Ustad Zakir Hussain, with the audience clapping and cheering at the end of each cycle.

The supporting artists consisted of Pandit Ramesh Misra on Sarangi, a well known and popular artist from New York, Chandrachur Bhattacharjee on Sitar, Debashish Sarkar a vocalist and Utpal Ghoshal the company tabla artist, all from India.The first post intermission item was "Nayika", a concept found in the Natya Shastra an ancient Indian doctrine on dance and drama. The three Nayika shown in this performance were Saswati Sen, Mahua Shankar and Kiran Chouhan a disciple of Pt. Birju Maharaj currently a dance instructor and choreographer at the Anila Sinha Foundation. This was a very colorful item full of facial expressions, hand gestures and body movements.

This was followed by an item called "Chaturang" depicting four major aspects of music expressed in dance again performed by Saswat Sen, Mahua Shankar and Kiran Chouhan.This was followed by the final item "Layakari" by the genius Kathak King Pt. Birju Maharaj himself, showing very intricate rhythmic patterns of footwork, extremely high speed turns with the able tabla accompaniment from the tabla genius Ustad Zakir Hussain that further enhanced the great performance.

This was one of the most memorable dance recital fully choreographed by the maestro Pt. Birju Maharaj. This program was partially funded by the Governor International Arts exchange program of the Illinois Arts Council.