NAVADAL 2019 | A round up!

In July, Akademi marked 40 years of nurturing excellence in South Asian dance with NAVADAL, the National South Asian Youth Dance Competition and Rising Stars showcase, at OneDance UK’s U.Dance 2019 at Southbank Centre.

NAVADAL was presented in partnership with Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) and Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) Yuva Gati.

Video credit: James Williams 

National South Asian Youth Dance Competition

This fantastic event, an opportunity for young dancers to be recognised at an early stage in their career, saw 41 dance students, accross solo and group categories, perform in the prestigious Clore Ballroom.

Thank you to all the participants who competed so breathtakingly, to One Dance UK and the whole U.Dance2019 team at Southbank Centre, to Raheem Mir our host for the day, to our team of expert judges (Archita Kumar, Sushma Mehta, Chitra Sundaram, Nina Rajarani MBE and panel chair Subathra Subramaniam), to Meera Patel who worked with Akademi as the producer of NAVADAL and of course to our fantastic and enthusiastic audience.

We’re delighted to share the competition winners of the day:

• 13-18 group | Kirti Kala Mandir UK
  with Trivat, choreography and teaching by Ashwini Kalsekar
• 13-18 solo | Aishani Ghosh
  with Pradosha, choreography by Pashwanath Upadhay and taught by Chitraleka Bolar.
• 19-25 solo | Saloni Saraf
  with Maulik Shah Tarana, choreography by Maulik Shah, Ankh and Sujata Banerjee and taught by Gauri Sharma Tripathi and Sujata Banerjee.

Special mention goes to Sundaresan Ramesh who won the Aasha ‘Hope’ Award, supported by Anita Srivastava of New Dimensions Arts. The award provides £250 in cash and in-kind support towards the submission of an Arts Council funding application to further a dancer’s development.

Images: Simon Richardson

Participating Performers

13-18 solos

Aishani Ghosh
Aabha Sharma
Reva Mehta
Linnea Husmann
Rithika Ravishankar
Cameroon Elizabeth Joseph
Rachana Suresh kumar
Siya Kalsekar

13-18 groups

Drishti Dance
Paurnami Arts
Jona Prakash and Ashwini Sukumaran
Kirti Kala Mandir UK

19-25 solos

Sundaresan Ramesh
Luxika Ellalan
Daniella Zak Varghese
Anekha Pillai
Sivahami Sivashankar
Tulani Kayani-Skeef
Saloni Saraf

Rising Stars

Curated by Vidya Patel, Risings Stars was the culmination of Akademi’s National South Asian Youth Dance Competition and a celebration of 40 years of nurturing excellence in South Asian dance.

The line-up showcased the afternoon’s competition winners, alongside four exceptionally talented dancers from the across the UK; Shree Savani, Jaina Modasia, Pallavi Anand and Shyam Dattani.

Read the programme to find out about their work.