Bharat Sharma

Bharat Sharma has trained in eclectic styles like Mayurbhanj Chhau and Kathakali in India, and Modern Dance, Jazz, Classical Ballet and Choreography in USA and France, his training in formative years was as member of Bhoomika dance company in New Delhi under his father, Narendra Sharma. He has performed and presented his works at major national and international festivals, including American Dance Festival, USA; La Danse A Aix, France; Festival of India, Russia; East-West Encounters, Nav-Nritya Festival, and Sangeet Natak Akademi’s contemporary dance festivals, India. His major dance works include Jataknama, Swapnakosh, Utthaan, Pathik, Kalaasham and Teesra Paksh.

This grant supported the planning and execution of the second run of Chaali, a highway performance circuit for contemporary dance. It also helped to strengthen advocacy for Chaali and to initiate processes to establish an institutional base for it.

Bharat identified the expansion of performance opportunities as a major objective for the second round of this performance tour in south India.  This implied consolidating and expanding the network established during the trial run across Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The planning for the second run focussed on adding new venues to fill these gaps, thus optimising both time and resources.

Another important objective is audience development. The role of various factors in shaping audience sensibilities was analysed. Workshops and lecture demonstrations were also planned in a more meticulous manner, connecting issues of performance with community development. 

Resource mobilisation was one of the most important objectives of the second run. Efforts were made to identify donors and build a corpus fund for Chaali, besides generating funds locally for each performance.

Thus, the second round of Chaali was able to impressively expand the performance circuit to new areas like the Anantpur district in Andhra Pradesh. As a result of active interest from earlier hosts and through identification of new hosts, Chaali covered five locations in the state of Goa, 11 in Karnataka, four in Tamil Nadu, two in Pondicherry and three in Andhra Pradesh giving 30 performances and 24 workshops and lecture demonstrations. Bharat reports that the second round of Chaali had an audience of 14,510 people.