Mangaluru: Yakshagana artistes under the aegis of Yakshadhruva Patla Foundation Trust will leave for America Yakshagana Abhiyana programmes on July 9.
The Yakshadhruva Patla Foundation Trust in USA will be sponsoring the programmes with blessings of Puthige mutt seer Sugunendra Theertha Swamiji, Trust founder Patla Sathish Shetty informed media persons in Mangaluru on Monday.
A team of nine artistes will be travelling to USA to present Yakshagana shows with the support of Puthige mutts, Kannada Koota, Yakshagana Sangha, temples and other organisations in US. “The Abhiyana will be held for 75 days in USA," Sathish Shetty told the media.
"We have selected mythological stories as prasanga for the Yakshagana which will be presented for two hours,” he informed. The team will also present the show at Akka Sammelana. Prasangas of Devi Mahatme, Mahisha Vadhe, Veeranjaneya and so on.
“We want Yakshagana to get due recognition. Our aim is to showcase Yakshagana to art lovers across the world. Along with Yakshagana show, small workshops, demonstrations on Yakshagana ‘hejjegarike’ will also be arranged at different places for those interested in the art form," he said.
Trust's US unit president Dr Aravinda Upadhyaya, Dr Sridhar Alva, Mahabala Shetty, Uli Yogendra Bhat and others had arranged programmes in major cities of 20 states in US, he added. Himmela artistes like Patla Sathish Shetty, Padmanabha Upadhya, Chaitanya Krishna Padyana and Mummela artistes of Prof M L Samaga, Harinarayana Bhat Edaneer, Chandrashekar Dharmasthala, Mahesh Maniyani, Prashanth Nelyadi, Mohan Bellipadi will be part of the team that will travel to USA, Shetty added.
The shows will be presented in Seattle, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, Houston, Detroit,Maryland, Tampa, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Raleigh, Edison, Columbus, Boston, Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago, New Jersey ,Dallas, Richmond cities of US.
Prof M L Samaga said “under the guidance of Yakshadhruva Yaksha Shikshana convener Vasudeva Aithal Panambur, the team had travelled London, Scotland, Germany, France, Switzerland, Paris to present Yakshagana shows and to introduce art form to foreigners a year ago."
We had presented demonstration on Yakshagana at Leeds University and Durhum University in Europe. Within the available resources, we will presenting the traditional form of Yakshagana without harming its essence. The Yakshagana has “Vesha bhushana” (costumes), “natya” (dance), rendering of dialogue and music.
As the Yakshagana show will be in Kannada, before the start of Yakshagana, we will describe the sequences of events in the Yakshagana show in English, to make them understand the story.” During the workshop, those who do not have any knowledge on Yakshagana will be introduced to Bhagavathike, Gana vaibhava, Natya vaibhava, he added.