Pancha Bhootha Bharatham — Day One – Prithvi

The dance wing of the Narada Gana Sabha conducted a five-day thematic dance festival titled Pancha Bhootha Bharatham, from 14 to 18 August 2026. For the first time, senior dancers and concert musicians were brought together to collaborate in this event. The organisers’ aim was to showcase the close relationship music and dance have in enhancing the arts. As apparent from the title, the five elements — Prithvi, Agni, Vayu, Jal, Akasha — were to be presented by the teams with the help of a resource person for the content. The creativity of the dancer-singer duo was to be exploited in the presentation of each element. Since the theme is, at best, abstract, it must have been a challenge for the participants to produce a 90-minute presentation for the audience.

On the first day, 14 August, there was a formal inauguration and award presentations to artists for their contributions to dance. The awards were presented by the chief guest of the evening, Shanta Dhananjayan. The main award, Natyacharya Ratna, was bestowed on guru Lalitha Srinivasan from Mysore for her immense contribution to this art.

In her acceptance speech she mentioned, among other things, that Bharatanatyam of Mysore was, by and large, not recognised initially by mainstream connoisseurs