NITYA NRITYA FOUNDATION
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Mission Statement
Nitya Nritya Foundation is dedicated to the promotion and presentation of Indian and related classical dance and music in the Salt Lake Valley.
About This Cause
Organizational Background: Jyothsna Sainath, a Bharatanatyam dancer, moved to SLC in ’14 and started the Nitya Nritya Dance Company (NNDC), a Bharatanatyam performing and training entity. In its first two years, NNDC presented at various locations in the valley (including 3 at Rose Wagner, 4 at the ISKON Temple and 2 at the India Culture Center). These were without barriers to access, with a view to introduce Bharatanatyam at a high level to the local audience with attendant costs met by NNDC. Without exception, these were received with appreciation. Nitya Nritya Foundation (NNF) was established to consolidate and expand some of these efforts and received federal status as a non-profit in June ’17. It’s explicit goal is to help create and nurture an appreciation of the classical Indian performing arts in Utah and to reach audiences from diverse cultural backgrounds. Toward this, NNF’s work provides: - A comprehensive cultural experience of India via a broad variety of its classical arts. - An intellectual and discursive setting for our programming to facilitate an informed appreciation. - A platform for collaborative work across genres and between local and visiting artists. In the past 3 years, we have steadily expanded our offerings to include: 1) The annual Nitya Nritya Festival (Sep ’17, ’18, ’19, and '20): Our festival is designed to be an immersive weekend of sensory & intellectual stimulation that combines talks and discussions by experts, Q&A sessions with performers, and formal concerts, set in an environment that also offers informative lobby exhibits related to Indian arts and food. 2) Satellite events across the year (from ’18 onwards). As stand-alone events in intimate settings with low barriers to access, we providing an up-close arts experience through these. We presented 2 in ’18, 2 in ’19 and 2 before March this year. Most have been either free or with a suggested donation. We have been consistently supported in (1) and (2) by grants from Zoo, Arts and Parks, Utah Division of Arts and Museums (UA&M), and Salt Lake Arts Council. So far, we have successfully been funded twice by each of these agencies and are awaiting decisions on the third round from Zoo, Arts and Parks. We reached about 300 people through formal events in the last year. 3) Arts Education - Visiting Artists (from Dec ’18): This dimension of our work expanded to the summer residency of renowned Veena Maestro and music educator, Dr. Karaikudi S. Subramanian in ’19. We offered several parallel series of workshops targeted at different levels of exposure, 4 free lec - dems on the Veena, and 2 free Veena presentations in assisted living communities. It was an all-consuming summer of immersive engagement into Carnatic music and its rhythm tradition at its highest levels for the participants, made possible by a generous grant of $ 5,500 by UA&M. Through the residency, we served about 450 people through the mix of its offerings. 4) Arts Education in schools & universities - Local Artists: We have made six presentations so far, four of which were in the last year at the following places: Wasatch Charter, University of Utah, Elizabeth Academy, Brigham Young University. Through this dimension of our work, we reached about 570 people. Area of Impact: NNF’s goals are to present Indian classical art in the valley & to create & nurture a space for them in what is considered the domain of ‘mainstream’ art. These goals are rooted in our conviction that art communicates & connects people across cultural boundaries in a manner unrivaled by any other form of discourse, the urgency for which is only heightened by our divisive times. We see our work as impactful in two concrete ways: 1) We bring a diversity of high quality arts experiences to the valley, both through what we present at formal productions & through arts education programs. The down stream effects of an enrichment of the tapestry of the valley’s arts offerings are: Current and future residents of the valley are exposed to a broader class of artistic experiences early on through our work in arts education. - Local artists of Indian art stand to gain by a greater recognition & appreciation of their work. - Local artists gain by collaborations with other artists across genres & geography. 2) We bring people together through art - we find unity in purpose, across diversity of backgrounds. Recalling the adage, “The easiest way to make friends is to laugh together!” we would take it a step further to say, “The easiest way to see a Sahrudayi is to be uplifted by the same artistic experience!” where Sahrudayi is a Sanskrit word for a being that is of the same heart as oneself - a being that shares their essential humanity with oneself. By presenting the commonalities in human experiences through art we underscore the fact that power of art is that it communicates across cultural and linguistic barriers. 3) Yet another consequence, equally striking, is that by showcasing the sophistication of immigrant art forms, we shine a light on an important facet of the contributions of immigrants to American society. We bring to focus an important way in which immigrants enrich American society and cultural discourse. This aspect of our impact, though unintended, gains in importance in the times we live in. Why are we different? Our annual festival presents a variety of art forms that explore & push the boundaries of the art & the artist, as well as the audience. Antiquity and geography ensure that India has multiple rich ancient traditions, each worthy of presentation. Despite living by each other, they continue to learn from each other. Indian art is not just Sitar, or Bharatanatyam or Kathak. It is all of these & more - it is also the connections to genres from outside of the region, central Asia for instance. Thus, Indian art is an evolving compendium. Rather than focus on one art form (music or dance), or one tradition (Sitar, or Bharatanatyam, or Kathak), we present a variety of art forms & traditions, often in collaborations along with a discussion of context, while also immersing the audience in intensive treatments of particular genres of art in formal presentations. Under one umbrella event, audiences are drawn into contrasts & comparisons of sensory engagement in an intellectually stimulating environment. Our second & equally important focus is engagement & education. Many of our formal stage presentations are preceded or succeeded by discussions or lectures. Over the past 3 years we have steadily increased our offerings in schools & universities. We make every effort to foster the professional development of local artists with avenues to collaborate with visiting artists. We are unique in the valley as our approach blends formal, rigorous artistry of varied backgrounds, with arts education, while developing local artists via collaborations with visiting masters. We hold that this approach is the essence of our mission. Geography Though our activities have so far been centered around the Salt Lake valley, we believe that our work will reach a much wider span of people via the film based content that we are in the process of producing in the coming year.