Atlanta, GA, November 8, 2019: Saptami Atlanta regionals 2019, was held on Oct 12, 2019 at Yugal kunj, Duluth, GA from 9am-6pm. Saptami is a regional (followed by national) music and dance competition being held for the past four years in Atlanta.
This year, the program commenced with an invocation song rendered beautifully by Anjana Shravan.
“We had participants at various levels of music all the way from Geetham to advanced Krithi categories in both vocal and instrumental competition. This year also saw the unique performance of Harikatha in the Namasankeerthanam category,” said organizer Dr. Malathi Venkat.
Dance competition also had participants in basic, intermediate and advanced levels. The contest also had Kuchipudi participants for the first time.
Once all the competitions were over in all the categories, there were two performances given by two of the distinguished judges. One of them was a Veena and vocal recital by Vidushi Shashikala Narayana Swamy, a well-known artist, from Bengaluru, India and a wonderful dance performance by Rekha Subash, one of the dance judges, who is artistic director of Sahasra Dance Academy from Atlanta.
The judges Sudha Raghuram, Chandrika Chandran, Rekha Subash (three dance judges), Rajashree S.Narayan , Anu Ram, Anjana Shravan and Shashikala Narayana Swamy were all felicitated by chief guest for the evening, NRI Pulse editor, Veena Rao.
The MC for the evening was Sanjana Venkat, a sophomore from KSU, who also kept the parents and kids entertained by interviewing the participants and judges getting their feedback and comments. The coordinator for this year was Dr. Ms. Malathi Venkat, in leiu of Soujanya Madhusudhan, who could not attend Saptami this year due to a personal emergency.
Veena Rao commended the efforts of the students and some judges gave a feedback that they were amazed by the kids’ performances for their ages. Saptami has been known for its high quality performances and unique unbiased and quality based judging system which was well maintained this year as well with the participation of nearly 75 students, inspite of long weekend holidays and other conflicting cultural programs around the region at the same time. It was a rewarding effort and experience for one and all.
The program was well coordinated starting and ending at the scheduled time with the help of several volunteers.
“Thanks to all the volunteers without whom Saptami would not be a success anytime. Last but not the least, thanks to Shrikant, the founder and main coordinator of Saptami, for giving us this opportunity all these years to have a great musical experience in Atlanta nurturing and encouraging our tradition and culture to the upcoming generation,” said Dr Venkat.
