Charishnu is a dance portrayal of the feelings of Bengali literature through two main classical dance forms of India – Bharathanatyam and Kathak. Bengal is the land of high thinking minds, eternal philosophies and conflicting idealogies. Different people from their walks of life, shared their experience of spirit of freedom and flow of infinite imagination with flawless creation of words depicting what their minds conceived.

Charishnu expresses this never ending intelletual, artistic thoughts of great minds of present and past through the body and minds of dancers.

Dances in Charishnu

Mind without fear
– From Geethanjali – Ravindranath Tagore
Nrityore Taare Taare
- Guru Rabindra Nath Tagore's poetry on Shiva
SeaShore
- Guru Tagore's english poetry on Sea Shore and human nature
Sashana Kalire
- Poet Nazrul Islam's poetry on hindu Goddess Kali
Vasantha - Spring
- A bengali poem on Spring done in Kathak Style
Charishnu - Never ending
A pure dance number with Kathak & Bharathanatyam Styles

Cast

Anisha Gururaj
Divya SivaKumar
Kiran Rajagopalan
Maya Bera
Mrunal Desai
Prachi Mayenkar
Rishikesh Mohan
Rucha Kharod
Sanjana Shah
Saroni Bhattacharya
Seema Kasthuri
Shaama Bannerjy
Shaon Ghosh
Sneha Balaraman
Srishti Sharma
Sumi Garg
Sushila Pepe

Guest Performer from India
Pulikeshi Kasthuri
(Nattuvangam and Performing)

Musicians from India
Neela Ramanujam – Carnatic Vocal
N.G. Ravi – Mrudangam
Loka Shankar – Flute

Musicians from St.Louis

Pranob Ray – Hindustai Vocal
Sharad Sathe - Tabla
Meenakshi - Veena

Bengali Language Support and Research
Suchitra Ghosh

Dance Space Courtesy
Just Dancing Studios, Krishna Saha

Set and Design
Seema Murthy, Saroni, Jyoti Mayenkar, Shyama

Lighting Support
Balaraman Das

Choreography and Direction
Prasanna Kasthuri