Bharatanatyam dancer Rama Vaidyanathan during ‘Aalaap in Movement’ at The Folly, Amethyst
| Photo Credit: Santosh Janardhanan
They have had a classical concert in a yoga studio, curated a performing arts quiz, and used Instagram to engage with artistes through the pandemic. Aalaap, the Chennai-based boutique arts management and consultancy, turns 13 with Sthira, a festival of performances and conversations
When Akhila Krishnamurthy started Aalaap, she was guided by her interest in the classical performing arts. “I am neither a dancer or a musician, nor do I come from a family of artistes. I wanted to elevate the content and communication of the Indian classical performing arts to a diverse audience that would engage in ways that were not intimidating,” she says.
‘Aalaap in Movement‘ at The Folly, Amethyst
| Photo Credit:
Santosh Janardhanan
“In a city that Aalaap calls home, I wanted to curate a festival with artistes I have closely worked with, and have performances and conversations in spaces with intent — spaces that are a bit more informal and experimentative,” she adds.
Sthira, which began on October 6, saw the Kuchipudi Art Academy host Atittalam, an adavu session with Bharatanatyam and kalaripayattu artiste K Sarveshan, and Aalaap In Movement, a performance curated and performed by Bharatanatyam artiste Rama Vaidyanathan with with Divya Nayar, Meenakshi Grama and Sangeeta Isvaran at The Folly, Amethyst.
Carnatic singer S Adhithyanarayanan during ‘Aalaap in Movement‘ at The Folly, Amethyst
| Photo Credit:
Santosh Janardhanan
“From designer boutiques to smaller art studios and coffee shops, we have put together a host of interesting spaces. We also played around with time. Our ability to sit through performances for two to three hours at a stretch has changed and we are a very different audience today when it comes to attention,” Akhila says. For instance, dancers Priya Murle, Roja Kannan, Srekala Bharath, Urmila Sathyanarayanan and Vidhya Subramanian presented a collective of short performances for an evening at Prego, Mandaveli.
Carnatic musician Rithvik Raja, who is scheduled to present Raga as Weave, Tala as Thread on October 11 says that Tvam Art & Design Studio in RA Puram as the venue for his session was an interesting choice. “Lakshmi Srinath, founder of Tvam has been designing my kurtas for the stage for a while now. I have always told her that the space would lend itself to such experiences and it is exciting to see this come together,” he says.
Carnatic musician Rithvik Raja
| Photo Credit:
Amar Ramesh
Rithvik adds, “When we travel across the country, we see people eager to have these newer experiences. I have friends who might not necessarily step into a sabha to see me sing, but might be excited by the prospect of stepping into an art studio or another different space which seems fun and even intriguing.”
On till October 18, Sthira has 15 events spread across 13 days. The programming includes a session on The Dancer as an Athlete which will see fitness coach Adarsh Gopalakrishnan in conversation with dancers Dr Srinidhi Chidambaram and Shweta Prachande at Gobbelin, Adyar on October 9; Fugue, with renowned musician and educator Anil Srinivasan and Naveen Napier at Off Beat Studios, RA Puram on October 10; and an open house Time Traveller: Staying the Course with Narthaki, with Anita Ratnam at The Brew Room, RK Salai on October 14. On October 18, Vinyl and Brew will host a listening session, Inside a Musical Mind, with musician TM Krishna and Sangeetha Sivakumar.
Follow @aalaap_concepts on Instagram for the schedule. For tickets log onto https://tikkl.com/aalaap/c/Sthira
Published – October 08, 2025 02:16 pm IST
