Student Art Project

Students at CDI were given optional art projects they could create in order to make the connection between the stories we tell in kathak dance and saving our majestic rivers and waterways. While the focus is on India’s Jamuna river, rivers and bodies of water the world over, including here in the Bay Area, are experiencing the effects of pollution and climate change.

CDI students have taken the mythological story of Kaliya daman and added plastics to represent the connection between the state of our water ways and the way we talk, sing, and dance about in kathak. Pandit Chitresh Das established this methodology of honoring the tradition, while simultaneously asking modern-day questions and ensuring that we are applying the tradition in a way that promotes well-being, equality and justice.

Here’s a link to CDI student Kalyani Varma, in Kathak class Beginning Level I, describing her process in creating this art work.

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