EVENTS

• 2010 KNS Dance Program

  The Story of Taj Mahal - the love between Shahjahan and Mumtaz - brought to you for the first time in classical dance form by KNS on August 28th at 4 p.m. after Silapadikaram. The world is awe-strucken at this monumental love, one of the wonders of the world, but not too many know the details that go into the background of this building. See it enacted in dance form. The emperor meets this common vendor and falls in love and makes her his love of life. She insists on accompanying him to the war and while their love life live is blossomed in every aspect, unexpectedly, at the birth of their 14th child she dies. Shahjahan is filled with grief and adheres to his wife's wishes in preserving their love and making a global statement. So he builds a tomb with twenty thousand architects. However, his son Aurangazeb is against the scheme and imprisons the father. Shahjahan continues the work and watches the construction from a distance. It is told that because of the highly stylized architectural work, it was ordered that the hands of the craftsmen be cut off. Although only Shahjahan's body was taken into the tomb, it stands as the highest symbol of love and voted again on 7-7-2007 as one of the seven wonders of the world.
  
  Originally, this story was first enacted by Rashi at her arangetram in 2000 with lyrics in Urdu poetry and music composed by late Lalitha Swaminathan. This year this famous love story was enacted at KNS' thematic program on architecture Carving Hands and Dancing Feet. It is further elaborated into a production for the upcoming event. Sutradhars (story tellers) will present the intros in pure jathis for the various scenes: The Market, The Coronation and Marriage, The Love, The War, The Death of Mumtaz, The Construction, The Imprisonment, The Death of Shahjahan, The Monument of Love. Besides the instrumental music, songs are taken from two movies (1963 Taj Mahal and unreleased 2005 Taj Mahal) and A. R. Rahman's special rendition of the Taj Anthem in Tamil composed to request voters in 2007. With 19 colorful dancers on stage, you won't want to miss this special KNS rendition!

• New Adult-Couple-Boys Session
  Lighter moves (more like Bollywood)
  Sundays 6:30 p.m.
  for more information call 301-439-7264 or email kns@ranidevi.com
   

• 2008 Graduates & JEEVAN, the fauna of Indian culture
  Sunday June 8th at 5 p.m.
  High Point High School, 3601 Powder Mill Road, Beltsville, MD 20705
  Click here to download flyer