Samanvay Arts Festival: Classical Dance

One Divine Heroine. Four Dance forms. Her power, retold. Four of India's finest classical dancers read Satyabhama across four traditions — one night only, at Chowdiah.

ABOUT THE EVENT

Fifty years. One heroine. One unforgettable evening.

Samanvay Arts Festival marks the golden jubilee of Sri Rajarajeshwari Kala Niketan — fifty years of classical dance in Bengaluru — with a marquee evening at the city's most iconic stage, Chowdiah Memorial Hall.

FIRST PART of the Double Bill — SATYABHAMA
Krishna's most spirited queen. The one who takes up the bow herself. On this stage she is read four times, in four classical vocabularies, in a single continuous presentation. Four forms, four dancers and a sutradhara.

THE LINE-UP

• Lakshmi Gopalaswamy — Bharatanatyam, Two-time Kerala State Film Award winner; Bengaluru — opens the evening

• Vidha Lal — Kathak, Jaipur gharana, New Delhi;  holds the Guinness World Record for the most Kathak spins in a minute

• Gopika Varma — Mohiniyattam, Chennai; Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee; founder of Dasyam, Adyar.

• Dr Veena Murthy Vijay — Founder of Sri Rajarajeshwari Kala Niketan, and a 2026 Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar recipient.

• Mysore B. Nagaraj — Sutradhara, Bengaluru; Karnataka Kalashree awardee.

Satyabhama is rarely performed outside Kuchipudi. One heroine, four vocabularies, one unbroken presentation — a stage event Bengaluru has not seen before.

THE SECOND PRODUCTION — APSARA
Eleven celestial dancers make the journey from Devaloka to Bhuloka: grace, sacrifice and destiny. 

WHY COME
Artists of this stature, on one stage, for one night only. A once-in-fifty-years milestone — and a heroine who didn't wait to be saved.