Sri Krishna Gana Sabha remains the Mecca of all dancers.It is every dancer's dream to perform there. A Natya Kala conference is conducted there for a week in the mornings where artists, students and dance lovers meet, discuss and debate about topics relating to dance, which are decided in advance. The convenor this year is Kalanidhi Narayanan, the legendary abhinaya expert. The title of 'Nritya Choodamani' goes to Bharatnatyam exponent, Meenakshi Chittaranjan. On offer is: Kuchipudi by Swapna Sundari; Jugalbandhi between Kathak and Bharatnatyam, by Madhavi Mudgal and Leela Samson; Kathak by the Kathak Kendra Troupe from Delhi; Bharatnatyam ballet by Dhananjayans; and Bharatnatyam solos by Priyadarshini Govind, Meenakshi Chittaranjan, Anita Ratnam, Srinidhi Chidambaram, Alarmel Valli, Malavika Sarukkai, Pratibha Prahlad, Urmila Satyanarayanan, Radhika, Shobana and Gayathri-the trio sisters, Manjari Chandrasekhar, Preethi Vasudevan and Srekala Bharat.

Narada Gana Sabha is no less in its efforts to put together a delightful cultural festival for the us, the priveleged audience. The title 'Nadhabrahmam' goes to veteran artist and scholar, Dr.Padma Subrahmanyam. Dance ballets by Dhananjayans, Padma Subrahmanyam, Sudharani Raghupathy, RASA Chennai, Ramana Maharishi Centre for Learning, Banglore, and Sri Lalitha Kala Academy, Mysore; and solos by Srinidhi Chidambaram, Malavika Sarukkai, Anita and Pritha Ratnam, Meenakshi Chitharanjan, Chitra Visweswaran, Meenakshi Seshadri, Urmila Satyanarayanan, Shobana, Alarmel Valli, Ambika Kameshwar, Anand Shankar Jayanth, Madhuvanthi and Srekala Bharath are the dance programmes arranged.

Bharat Kalachar, an important sabha for the culturally inclined, run by Smt.Y.G.Parthasarathy, has many dance performances lined up for this season. They are: Bharatnatyam by Anuradha and Sridhar, Dhananjayans, Mythili Kumar, Rama Vaidyanathan, Anita Ratnam, Chitra Visweswaran, Urmila Satyanarayanan, Revathi Ramachandran, Revathi Suresh Menon, Malavika Sarukkai, Madhuvanthi Arun, Padma Subrahmanyam, Sudharani Raghupathi, Rathna Kumar, Meenakshi Chittaranjan, Shobana, Priyadarshini Govind, Alarmel Valli, Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala, Jayalakshmi Eashwar, Kavitha Ramu, C.V.Chandrasekhar and Manjari Chandrasekhar, Rajeswari Sainath, Uma Muralikrishna(Kuchipudi), Swarnamalya Ganesh, Hema Sripal, R.Muralidharan and group, and Srekala Bharath.

This article would not be complete without the mention of another happening in the city. For the second year in succession, Anita Ratnam, and Ranvir Shah, have been organising a festival of contemporary art- dance, theatre, music, photography. Conducted in the first week of December it showcases artists from all over the country and some from abroad with their experimental works. The artists this year are:Cylla Von Tiedmann, Canada; Funky Bodhi, Chennai; Chandralekha, Chennai; Padmini Chettur and Krishna Devanandan, Chennai; Rajat Kapoor, Mumbai; Maya K.Rao, New Delhi; Atul Kumar, Mumbai; Anne Moradian, U.S.A.; Navtej Singh Johar, New Delhi; Dhevdas Nairand Konarak Reddy,U.K.; Sridhar and Co., Chennai; Ileana Citaristi, Bhubhaneswar, Sumant Jayakrishnan,New Delhi, Ananya Chatterjee, U.S.A.