Pancham in Hindi and Sanskrit means ‘the beautiful 5^th’. So in June and July 2021, five online seminars, led by international speakers from the UK, India and Canada, explored themes from the practice of classical Indian dance. They included Mira Kaushik, former Director of Akademi; Hari Krishnan, Canadian Bharatanatyam dancer and research scholar; Roshan Datye, Dr Padma Subramaniam and Dr Swarnaraj Ganesh – all academics working in India. The speakers will illustrate their presentations with images, performance clips from films, and commissioned performances in Kathak and Bharatanatyam.

Pancham was funded by Arts Council England and it will also include commissioning an emerging dancer, Meera Patel, to create a piece based on a poem by Tulsidas presenting various aspects of Rama, hero of the epic poem Ramayan to be performed over Diwali 2021. ACE have also supported ‘Tattva-2’, which means ‘truth’ or ‘reality’ in Sanskrit. This now annual showcase will be held in early 2022 in partnership with Curve Theatre. It will reprise pieces from CICD’s past productions, as well as present new work, ‘The Road to Nine Sentiments’ choreographed by young dancers mentored by Kesha Raithatha.