Clas­si­cal In­di­an dancer San­dra Sookdeo, one of the found­ing mem­bers of Kala Kendra (lead­ing dance group of the '70s to '90s) this year, cel­e­brates 35 years of dance. Sookdeo, along with her col­leagues stud­ied Kathak and Odis­si style of clas­si­cal dance un­der the guid­ance of Shri Prat­ap and Priya Pawar from 1976 to 1980 and con­tin­ued her train­ing with the late Shri Pradeep Shankar from 1980. In 1987, she was award­ed a schol­ar­ship by the gov­ern­ment of T&T and In­dia to study In­di­an dance at the Shri­ram Bharatiya Kala Kendra in Del­hi. Af­ter grad­u­at­ing in 1991, where she ma­jored in Odis­si un­der the ex­pert guid­ance of the grand mas­ter of Odis­si-Gu­ru Mayad­har Raut, Km, Sookdeo opened her own dance school (Kala Mandir) at her home in Munroe Road, Cunu­pia, where Hin­du Phi­los­o­phy, Hin­di, In­di­an Clas­si­cal Mu­sic and In­di­an Clas­si­cal and Folk dances are be­ing taught.

Kala Mandir's an­nu­al dance recital, en­ti­tled Kal Aaj Aur Kal, will be show­cased on Ju­ly 3, at the Na­pari­ma Bowl, San Fer­nan­do, at 3 pm, where a cast of over 100 mem­bers will grace the stage. The first half of the pro­gramme is an Odis­si recital while the sec­ond half of the con­cert cel­e­brates dancers of the past, present and fu­ture gen­er­a­tions. Its theme is cen­tred around the evo­lu­tion of dance in T&T and the Gu­ru Shishya Parampara (Hin­du Sys­tem of Teach­ing) that has been passed on through the ages.

Some of the finest pieces of dance chore­o­graphed by Sookdeo, such as Gu­ru Dik­sha, De­vi Stu­ti, Sto­trams to Bhag­waan Shiv, Kathak, Mad­hurash­takarn, Hanu­maan Chal­isa, will form the pro­duc­tion's sec­ond half.

Al­so per­form­ing at Kal Aaj Aur Kal are Shri Ram­nath and Nali­ni Har­ri­lal, Shri Patadeen Ra­moutar and Smt See­ta Paras­ram-Roodal who are all past stu­dents of Kala Kendra. Kala Mandir, un­der the as­tute di­rec­tion of Sookdeo, has been hold­ing an­nu­al dance dra­ma pro­duc­tions for the past 19 years due to the com­bined ef­forts of teacher, stu­dents and par­ents. The group works tire­less­ly to­wards the pro­mo­tion and preser­va­tion of clas­si­cal art­forms. This year's con­cert cel­e­brates the 20th an­niver­sary of Kala Mandir and is a land­mark of the 35th dance an­niver­sary of San­dra Sookdeo.

Tick­ets for Kal Aaj Aur Kal will be avail­able from mem­bers of Kala Mandir, and, for fur­ther in­for­ma­tion, con­tact San­dra Sookdeo (672-8615/750-7312); Ravi Sa­ha­too (736-4916); and, Savi­ta Haidar (462-4071)