Pratidhwani: Dance Wing

ARCHANA KUMAR & MANASAROVAR (Kathak)	Archana Kumar began her love affair with dance through Baratnatyam at 8, learning for 8 years after which she has dedicated her practice and research to Kathak since 1996. Her kathak training began under Smt. Maya Rao and Smt. Chitra Venugopal at the Natya Institute of Kathak & Choreography a premier school of dance in Bangalore, India. She has had the privilege of attending numerous workshop intensives from several Gurus such as Pandit Chitresh Das, Pandit Birju Maharaji ji, Sri. Munna Lal Shukla and Kumudhini Lakhia. Her modern dance training began in early 2001 in Seattle. Archana has trained and taught around Seattle since late 2005, most recently re-located to Chicago where she continues to teach Kathak. Most recently she conducted her senior student's Aarambh, a formal Kathak solo recital in Mercer Island. She is also a contemporary artist, creating experimental and original works in collaboration with other musicians, puppeteers, actors, film makers and dancers. She has been adjunct faculty at the Cornish College of Arts, Seattle (Spring 2008) and will soon be the same at the Northwestern University in Chicago IL in Spring 2010. She continues to conduct workshops and private classes every month in Seattle.
BRANDON MCINTOSH & STUDENTS (SAROD)	Brandon McIntosh is a celebrated sarodist and disciple of Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta of the Senia-Shahajahanpur Gharana. Brandon has performed throughout India, Japan, Canada, and the United States. He has performed with grammy nominated sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar, tabla virtuoso Yogesh Samsi and award winning kathak dancer Sujata Banerjee, as well as others. He has a masters degree in Music Composition from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and is a visiting student at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata, India. Over the last decade he has spent many of those years of living in Kolkata studying in the traditional guru-shishya parampara approach to learning Indian classical music with his guru. He is now based in Seattle, but frequently travels to India for performances and talim.
CHANDANA DIXIT & SWARANGAN (Hindustani Classical Vocal)	Chandana Dixit began her musical training with the illustrious Saraswati Bai Rane of the Kirana Gharana. Within two years of training she won the first prize at the prestigious Gaanvardhan Musical Competion in Pune despite of being the youngest entrant and being her first attempt in a competition. This followed many prizes in classical music competitions. She also won the National scholarship to train in classical music with Veena Sahasrabuddhe. This followed with numerous stage shows with the famous marathi singer Arun Date in Shukratara. In the early nineties she was then picked up by music directors Kalyanji Ananji to train under them for playback singing. From then onwards began her formal entry into Bollywood music. She was signed up by Tips music for a 3 year contract exclusively to do all their in house recordings of Bhajans, Ghazals, Pop albums, Coverversions etc. This provided a fabulous oppurtunity to work with all music directors and singers of the mid nineties. They gave her her 1st hit song Goriya from the movie Coolie No 1. These were followed by other hit songs namely Sheher ki ladki, Chooma Chooma, Khul gaya naseeb etc. She has worked with all music directors and performed on various shows and Star Tours all over the world.Sharing stage with various Super stars and Singers. In 2002 Chandana got married and moved to Seattle. She decided to refocus her musical priorities by going back to her first love classical music and getting into serious Riyaaz. She has started her music school 'Sur Angan' to train new talent and share her musical experiences. She also helps her students get a better idea of the craft and business requirement of the performing arts along with spreading musical awareness in the community.

PARAMPARA