Mayuri Upadhya-an Choreographer, Dancer & TV Personality to Perform Live along with 12 other artists, at Town Hall, 26 September 20-19 at 6 pm, brought to you by Mangaluru’s favourite Radio Station Red FM 93.5
Mangaluru: Hello Mangaloreans, get ready to witness one of the GREATEST DANCE Performance that our City has ever presented. You might have seen her live on TV, or performed with the Raghu Dixit Project, or as one of the judges for the dancing reality shows Dancing Stars Seasons 2 and 3 (a BBC production), and Master Dancer (a Viacom 18 production on Colors Network); or other Musical TV series- but now you can watch her live performing for the FIRST time in Mangaluru at Town Hall, on 26 September 2019 at 6 pm, a show brought to you by Mangaluru’s favourite Radio Station Red FM 93.5
Meet Mayuri Upadhya, the Artistic Director and Co-founder of Nritarutya, a one-of-it’s-kind dance company in India, who strives to create innovative, visceral and ethereal experiences that widen the perceptions of dance. Weaving, Innovation and tradition through dance and storytelling are the core of the practice at Nritarutya. Mayuri has carved a niche for her company in the creative world. Her descriptive, spatially demanding, thought-provoking and heart-warming choreography have won her popular and critical acclaim. Her rhythmic artistry and ability to transform a simple thought into an experience make her one of the most sought-after choreographers from India today.
Mayuri Upadhya was at the Mangaluru Press Club today ( 20 September) to brief about her forthcoming live performance in Mangaluru, along with a troupe of 12 professional dancers, comprising of six fabulous performances, lasting for an hour. “Although I was born in Udupi, but I had spent my entire life in Bengaluru, doing all my shows in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and other places in India. I had started dancing at the age of six, and I thank everyone who had played an important role in my life to reach at this stage. I am looking forward to perform my FIRST performance in Mangaluru, and I seek the fullest support and encouragement from the people of this Coastal City. Be there on 26 September, and feel the difference of our unique dance extravganza” said Mayuri. RJ Prasanna of Red FM, and Station Manager Shobhith Shetty were also present during the press meet.
ABOUT MAYURI UPADHYA:
Mayuri Upadhya, is an Indian choreographer, dancer, entrepreneur and TV personality, now based in Bengaluru, was born in the coastal town of Udupi, Karnataka to Muralidhar Upadhya and Shamala Upadhya on 30 December 1979. She is the youngest of two siblings. Her elder sister Madhuri Upadhya is also a choreographer, educator, dancer, visual artist, and is the Associate Director of Nritarutya. Mayuri is also the Artistic Director of the Bengaluru-based dance organisation, Nritarutya. Mayuri is an alumnus of Sri Vani Education Centre and an MES College of Arts, Commerce & Science graduate.
In January 2018, Mayuri was voted the Best Choreographer by Broadway World, for the longest-running musical in Indian history – Mughal-E-Azam. Mayuri is the winner of the International Choreography Award, Seoul, Uday Shankar Awards for Choreography, and a Manav Ratna for her contribution to Indian arts and culture, in addition to numerous other awards.
She trained in Bharatanatyam under Indira Kadambi and Minal Prabhu, and Odissi under Uday Shetty. She has also trained in Kathak under Guru Maya Rao and Jayanthi Eswarputhi, and Kalaripayattu under Ranjan Mullaratt. She also has the Arts Council England’s Artist Management credentials to her credit. Mayuri established Nritarutya in 2000, along with 5 of her colleagues. Nritarutya was established with an aim to explore the limitations of the human body for dance. Today, Nritarutya has evolved into one of India’s foremost dance organisations. Her body of work ranges from musicals to contemporary dance creations to dance reality shows to choreographing for films.[4] Through Nritarutya and her dance-in-education initiatives, she is striving to make dance a profitable art stream.
Mayuri started choreographing soon after Nritarutya was founded. Oum, Yantra, Footnote, Dwandwa, are few of her earliest works. She got critical acclaim in 2004 with her work ‘Ardhanarishwara’, which talked about the masculinity and the femininity residing within each of us. After a commission by the Wadiyar of Mysore to create a piece for their Kul-Devi (family deity), Mayuri choreographed the highly acclaimed and successful ‘Kali’ in the year 2008, which talks about the deepest recesses of our unconsciousness which is wild, raw and untamed.
‘Parched – 1st Cut’, was created for the Serendipity Arts Festival 2016. The scarcity of water, humankind’s mistakes and the obscure truth of our future the highlights of this piece. ‘Parched – Choreographer’s Cut’ is a work-in-progress full-length production which Mayuri is working on currently. In 2012, she choreographed her first musical – Madhushala – the cinemascopic rendition of the popular poetry epic Madhushala by Harivanshrai Bachchan, which was commissioned by Amitabh Bachchan, for his 70th birthday celebrations – B70.
In 2012, she also performed with the Raghu Dixit Project for Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee Celebrations in the UK. She also represented India at the International Competition for Choreography Concept in Seoul, South Korea, and was one of the winners there. In 2014, she choreographed and created another musical, Madhur Milan, for the Industrialist Kokilaben Ambani. She was also one of the artists in focus for The Dewarists Season 3, where she collaborated with Raghu Dixit, Harun Robert and Sridhar for a multidisciplinary dance sequence.
Mayuri also won the prestigious Uday Shankar Award for Choreography in the year 2015. The same year, she was commissioned by the Prime Minister of India to create a special dance sequence for the Make In India week in Germany, following which, she was commissioned again to create another piece for the Make In India Week in Mumbai, in 2016. Make In India inaugural dance sequence won the European Event Award for the Best Cultural Performance.
In 2017, Mayuri choreographed the musical Mughal-E-Azam – the play rendition of the 1960’s hit movie of the same name. The musical has been the longest-running musical in Indian history. Mayuri was voted Best Choreographer by the Broadway World in 2018 for Mughal-E-Azam. In 2016 she worked with the Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra Productions for the movie Mirzya, as a choreographer., for which she was nominated at for the Star Guild Awards for Best Choreographer.
Over the past years, Mayuri has also worked with various fashion designers, like Abu Jaani – Sandeep Khosla,[16] Tarun Tahiliani, Sabyasachi, Anju Modi, Hemant Trivedi, Manish Arora and Wendell Rodricks, and choreographed dance pieces inspired by their fashion lines. In 2017, Mayuri was invited by TED Talks India Nayi Soch to visually interpret the #100sareepact speaker Anju Kadam’s talk on the 6-yard drape, Saree, and choreograph a short sequence. Mayuri is working towards establishing dancing as a lucrative career option, by providing a substantial income structure and all the perks and promotions associated with a regular corporate job to her company dancers; and by providing training and new opportunities for different artists in the dance fraternity.
She also started working with the Sublime’s Teaching For Artistic Innovation, which is designed to enhance the creative faculties of children, by using dance as a medium. Mayuri is also one of the judges for the dancing reality shows Dancing Stars Seasons 2 and 3 (a BBC production), and Master Dancer (a Viacom 18 production on Colors Network).
Some of her Popular Works and Projects: Mughal-E-Azam (musical); Madhushala (musical); Madhur Milan (musical); Make In India Ceremony (Stage creation)
Parched (Contemporary work); Mirzya (Bollywood); Dewarists Season 3 Finale (Musical TV Series); PATA (Stage); Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee Celebration at Windsor Castle (represented Asia); Ijjodu (Kannada film); Thamassu (Kannada Film); Pancharangi (Kannada Film); Dancing Stars Seasons 2 & 3 (Dance Reality show); and Teaching For Artistic Innovation (Dance in Education Program)
She has a bunch of awards to her credit, to name a few- “Manav Ratna” award for contribution in the field of Arts and Culture (2013; International Competition for choreography concept, South Korea (2012); RAPA Best Choreographer Award for Television Commercials, Chennai (2005); Young Women’s Achievement Award (2004); and Uday Shankar Award
