The Nritarutya Dance Collective

Nritarutya: (Nritya – dance, taru – tree) semantically refers to a dancing tree.The Nritarutya Dance Trust is a self funded Indian Contemporary dance company based in Bangalore, India.In a span of 9 years, since it was founded in 2000, the group has been touring worldwide, primarily with artistic director Mayuri Upadhya, driven by associate directors – Sathyanarayan B.G, Madhuri Upadhya, Geetha Ballal and Umesh.B Naidu. It is empanelled with the ICCR - Indian Council for Cultural Relations. It describes itself as "A group of young dancers from diverse backgrounds of dance and martial arts on a journey together, exploring new avenues while staying rooted in the traditional."

Their performances have long been characterized by a strong thematic element, with an Indian essence. Their company artists are trained in movement disciplines like Indian classical dance, martial arts, yoga, folk dance, cinematic dance, modern dance and acrobatics.

Nritarutya has presented its work at several international venues and participated in festivals like the Golden Jubilee year celebrations of FTII, Pune - 2010, SAMA Festival, Newcastle Gateshead (organised by GemArts GemArts website, PCS & Kalapremi) - 2008, International Birmingham dance festival - 2008, World Performing Arts Festival, Lahore- 2008, Centre for contemporary art, Bahrain - 2008, India Now Festival, London - 2007, Asian Arts Mart Festival, Singapore - 2005, etc.

In India, they have performed at the Kalagodha festival, Mumbai - 2006, The Other Festival, Chennai - 2002, Soorya festival, Kerala - 2007, Khoj International Artist Festival, Bangalore - 2004, Dharwad Utsav 2008, Attakkalari Festival for Movement Arts - 2004 among others.

Prayog, their home production, has become a veritable melting pot of artists from varied disciplines speaking their heart out through original contemporary dance experiments/presentations:

Prayog-1 - August 2001, the pilot project was the collaborative effort of 14 artistes - live musicians, fashion designers and fine artists - to present six thematic choreographies.

Prayog-2 - August 2004, took their work to a larger audience With 10  performers scanning the stage space, this production was also earmarked with a release of a booklet on contemporary dance titled ‘Reflections’.

Prayog-3 - January 4th, 2008, showcased a multi-media production with a massive team of 35 artistes - dancers, musicians, photographers, light designers, graphic artistes and installation artistes.

Adhyaya:

Adhyaya is Nritarutya’s initiative to present other dancers and dance forms- ADHYAYA features young, promising dancers narrating dance to their listeners, art critics, fellow dancers, lovers of art and dance.

Nritarutya has, at present, 2 branches-a Partnership firm and a Dance trust .The trust is currently working on a dance scholarship program for young dancers.

External links

• The Nritarutya Dance Trust official website