Families That Perform Together
The Spring series of Mid-day Mantra
Three Saturdays of chat and performance screenings between mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and partners who all have music and dance as a shared passion.
Mid Day Mantras have, over the years presented exceptional live music events to audiences in Birmingham. Presently we are able to offer you these concert events online wherever you are.
Join us at facebook.com/sampad.arts on Saturdays 24 April, 1 May and 8 May. Mid-day Mantra’s are FREE online events.
Line up:
Saturday 24 April, 12noon (BST) Dancing Together – Kiran Ratna and daughter Vibha Selvaratnam, and Ashwini Kalsekar and daughter Siya Kalsekar meet with Anaya Bolar and Chitraleka Bolar.
Saturday 1 May, 12noon (BST): Making Music Together – Dharambir Singh MBE and family meet with Seetal Kaur.
Saturday 8 May, 12noon (BST): Singing Together – Satadeepa Gupta with son Srideep Mallick, and Vandana Mukesh with family meet with Titiksha Shah.
Saturday 24 April, 12noon (BST): Kiran Ratna and daughter Vibha Selvaratnam, and Ashwini Kalsekar and daughter Siya Kalsekar meet with Anaya Bolar and Chitraleka Bolar
Kiran began dance training in Kathak when she was very young in India, later switching to Bharatanatyam with her Guru Chitraleka Bolar in the UK. Kiran gave up her engineering career in 1991 to dedicate herself fully to Bharatanatyam and formed Wales’ first Indian Dance Company ‘The Kiran Ratna Company’ which later formalised as ‘India Dance Wales’ – now ‘India Dance BN’. Kiran has directed, choreographed and performed many innovative works that have won her Company much acclaim. As well as being a teacher, Kiran is an Examiner and faculty member for the Classical Indian Dance faculty of the Imperial School of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) and in 2020 was Awarded Fellowship of ISTD.
Vibha was born into dance with her mother Kiran Ratna, and has grown into a performer and choreographer, developing and presenting her own work. Her outstanding solo dance recitals have toured in both India and the UK and have propelled her onto the international dance scene. Whist studying in Oxford University, Vibha was a founding member of OICAS (Oxford Indian Classical Arts Society). Working as a research scientist at the Met office in Exeter, she also heads the South West branch of India Dance BN. Through her solo performances and her growing number of students, Vibha is helping to make Bharatanatyam known in an area of the country with previously little experience of the dance style.
Ashwini is Artistic Director of Kirti Kala Mandir UK (winner of Akademi’s Navadal in 2019), and a celebrated Kathak artist and choreographer in London. She is renowned for her expressions, grace & footwork and has a Masters degree in Kathak. Her choreographies are known for exceptional concepts and vibrancy. Currently, Ashwini has a musical composed by Anup Jalota touring India and another recent work explores climate change.
Ashwini has been a part of key projects of the Arts Council of England and plays a key role for Heritage Lottery funded projects in the V&A museum. Between 2016 and 2018 she was a dance mentor at DanceXchange, Birmingham.
Photo by Abhijit Kalsekar
Siya is the third generation of Kathak Maestro, Guru Rekha Nadgauda. Born in London, Siya’s passion lead her to start learning Kathak at the age of five from her mother, Ashwini Kalsekar. Her grace, laykari has been appreciated by maestros like Pandit Birju Maharaji, Guru Shama Bhate and Talyogi Pandit Suresh Talwalkar. Siya was winner of the group performance by KKMUK at Akademi’s Navadal. She has performed in the UK and India, and passionately continues her Kathak training.
Photo by Simon Richardson