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Vidushi Smt. Geetanjali Lal
Foremost among the leading kathak exponents geetanjali lal has carved a special niche in the world of dance.Trained by the great stalwaets like roshan kumari, gopi krishana, mohan rao kalayanpurker and her husband shri devi lal, geetanjali lal is also a gifted musician trained by her father sh.rajnikant desai of agra gharana from childhood.
Performing from the last four decades in all the major national and international dance festivals, geetanjali has received encomiums for her brilliant solo exposition of jaipur gharana and her own group chorepgraphic works for which she has scored the music.she is known for her imaginative choreography of “kaun banega crorepati”, “indradhanush”, “meghdoot”, “the spirit”, “avroha”, “saheli”, dhrupad vasanti leela, dance drama rabindranath tagore’s “chitrangada” etc.Blessed with an impressive stage presence her performances bring to life the beauty of the mughal and rajput paintings.add to it her lyrical renderings of impressional numbers and her performance generates high aesthetic visuals, which linger long in memory. Based in delhi, she worked as a senior guru with the national institute of kathak where she trained number of students among which vidha lal and abhimanyu have made a mark in the field of kathak.she was also the director of kathak kendra, the national institute of kathak dance, new delhi.
She held the post of chief of repertory kathak kendra from 2009-2012. She is a top grade artist of doordarshan and (i.c.c.r) indian councile for culture relations, new delhi.She has been coundcting kathak workshops and lec-dem in various universties and cultural instiututions in india and abroad. Geetanjali lal has been awarded the Prestigious sangeet natak akademi award in the year 2007.She has been awarded the title of “nritya sharada”, natya kala shree”, “bharat gaurav”, “kala shiromani” and “kalpana chawala award, , jijabai women achivers award, acharya kala vipanchee and many more for excellence, by various cultural organisations, for her contribution in the field of kathak dance.Apart from dancing she is also an actress, having acted in a kashmiri feature film “shayar-e-kashmir mehjoor” in a lead role and won the j & k best actress award during her college days.
She has choreographed many kathak dance ballets and short numbers like.
1. Dance ballet “chitrangada” , “chandalika”, riturang by rabindranath tagore
2. Meghdoot dance ballet written by kavi kali das.
3. Short numbers: raks-e-bismil, varsha mangal, avaroh, jaidev, dhurapad vasanti leela, udaan, indradhanush. She has also choreographed the works of sur das, kabir, raskhan, vidyapati, meera etc. On various occasions, andaaz.
4. Choreographed and musically composed various tarana’s in various taal and raaga.
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