20 April,2012 07:02 AM IST | | Ruchika Kher
"Often we don't see good images of dance performances. So, I decided to have dance photography workshops and an exhibition to showcase the different kind of images altogether," says Mukesh Parpiani, head, Piramal Art Gallery. He germ of the idea emerged from the fact that during performances, photographers do not get chance to explore different angles in theauditorium.
A sketch by painter Subodh Poddar
"Dance photography workshops gave them 360-degree free movement in the auditorium resulting into unusual pictures shot from different angles. Through this exhibition, we want to promote dance photography as an art," he adds.All participating photographers from the workshops were invited to contribute their ten best images. Shortlisting of images took nearly a month. Around 15 dancers including Sanatan Chakravarty, Pavitra Bhatt, Sanjukhta Wagh, Pooja Pant and Poornima Dahale participated in three dance photography workshops.u00a0
Indian classical dancer Alarmel Valli
Resource, revive Apart from the images that were clicked during the photography workshops, some of the photographs are 30 years old and have been culled from the archives at National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). These include images of Leela Samson, Madhavi Mudgal, Jhelum Paranjape, Birju Maharaj and Keulcharan Mohapatra among others.
"While selecting images for the exhibition, it was kept in mind to portray right form of dance and emotions of the artists. Also in the exhibition, there are 11 sketches by well-known painter Subodh Poddar. The sketches were painted by him during the live dance performances," avers Parpiani, who has curated the exhibition along with Amrita Lahiri, Dance Head of NCPA and Professor PKM Pillai of Pillai School of Photography.
