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.