SwarTaal- 'Ritu Dhaara'

Swartaal is a four-day festival of music and dance bringing together the Whitefield community.
Each evening there will be performances by professional artistes. The morning shows over the weekend will include performances by young performers from the Whitefield area.
The Swartaal Festival is presented by Jagriti Theatre and Community Partner-Whitefield Rising.

"Ritu Dhaara" - "A flow of seasons" is a beautiful communication between the soul and the body. A harmonious blend of two powerful classical artforms Veena and Bharatanatyam. Presented by renowned exponents Smt Shanti Rao on the Veena and Smt Yamini Muthanna Bharatanatyam. Together they bring this unique presentation of Music and dance.

Vidhushi Shanti Rao

Vidhushi Shanti Rao began her long and successful musical voyage at the tender age of 12. She learned vocal music from T. A Venkataramayyar, and Veena from Harihara Ayyar in Madras. In 1969, on moving to Bombay, her ears fell on the sounds of the veena being played by none other than Veena maestro Chitti Babu who was later to become her guru.

On moving to Bangalore in 1973, she commuted to Madras for veena lessons with Chitti Babu, while also learning vocal from R.K Srikantan and Veena from R.K Suryanarayan and Pallavi Chandrappa in Bangalore. In 1976, she made her solo veena debut at the Ramanavmi celebrations in Chamrajpet. Since then, there has been no looking back for this vibrant veena player. Vidhushi Shanti Rao has mastered the art of traditional and contemporary styles of the veena.

Smt. Yamini Muthanna

Yamini was trained in Bharatnatyam under the tutelage of revered Guru Dr. Vasundhara Doraswamy and her Yoga Sadhana is blessed by Yogacharya, Yogavisharadha Shri BNS Iyengar. She is the Artistic Director of KYAAT Ensemble “Kalasinchanam Yogasthala Ancient Arts Trust”, which is a centre for learning Bharatnatyam and studying traditional Hatha Yoga. She also runs a studio dedicated to promoting traditional art forms.