Aha Purushakaram is Prathibha's fifth book of poems
and was released by author Shashi Deshpande in Bangalore. The phrase is
from Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, which describes the human form and Prathibha
says her 50 poem work is a celebration of the human form. Her fascination
with harnessing infinite possibilities of the human body led her to think
of getting her poems set to dance.
Prathibha Nandakumar is a multi-faceted personality and has worked
in various capacities as journalist, writer and poet. Working for a doctorate
in Kannada literature, she has been a part of various national and international
literary seminars and meets and her poems have been translated into English,
Swedish, Finnish, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Manipuri, Dhogri, Urdu
etc. She has written screenplays and scripts for nearly 150 short films.
She has been honored with a number of awards including Sahitya Akademi
Award, Putina Kaavya Prashasthi, Muddana Kaavya Prashasthi, B H Sridhar
Sahitya Prashasthi and Dr. Shivrama Karanth Award.
Madhu Natraj-Heri, daughter of Kathak guru Maya Rao has undergone
intensive training in Kathak and choreography from the Natya Institute
of Kathak and Choreography and trained in contemporary dance from Karen
Potter at the Jose Limon Center, New York. Madhu has performed at various
national and international festivals. As director of STEM (Space, Time,
Energy, Movement) Dance Theatre and choreographer of the Natya Stem Ensemble,
Madhu works with a team of eminent artistes, designers and musicians exploring
new possibilities for productions. She is married to jazz guitarist Amit
Heri.
Madhu and her group performed 3 compositions with recorded music for
interpreting poetry in dance while Prathibha read excerpts from her book.
