ART FOR THE PLANET

CREATING NEW WORKS OF ART WITH A PURPOSE

      Your donation sustains the #ArtforthePlanet program in the following ways:

• Supporting CDI to create new, world-class productions in Indian classical arts

• Sustaining the Legacy of Pandit Chitresh Das with Kathak Dance & Teaching Fellowships

• Professional productions that present kathak at the highest level with world class artists cost $60-$70K to produce and are only possible with donor support. 

• “Invoking the River”, one of our major productions, has toured India and the U.S. to great acclaim, significantly increasing awareness of our work.

• In 2025 as part of our #ArtForThePlanet program, CDI will be premiering a new work “The Veil of Janki Bai” inspired by the life of the famous vocalist of the same name.

• #ArtForThePlanet provides a platform for CDI to present inspiring stories of powerful but little-known historical figures. Janki Bai is another inspiring figure, just as CDI presented “Aranya Katha”, based on the story of the earliest known environmental activist Amrita Devi, who saved the forests in Rajasthan in 1730.

• The Kathak Dance Fellowship has been a hugely successful program. It provides Chitresh Das Youth Company alumni with training and a stipend for practice and rehearsal and paid professional performance opportunities.

  The following dancers have received the Kathak Fellowship, performed in the professional company, and some have toured throughout the U.S. and India: Mayuka Sarukkai, Vanita Mundhra, Shruti Pai, Kritika Sharma, Gauri Bhatnagar, Ishani Basak, Srija Bhattacharya, Grishma Shukla.

• Kathak Teaching Fellowship, Key to sustaining the legacy of Pandit Chitresh Das is highly trained and experienced teachers as well as dancers. We are launching the Kathak Teaching Fellowship in Summer 2025 to formalize the training process for the next generation of teachers.

  The fellowship will include training and apprentice teaching opportunities and professional development. When completed Fellows are eligible for professional teaching positions.

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