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Review
Center for the Indian arts springs up Ektaa school of dance and music reaches across boundaries
By LAURA BLEIBERG, The Orange County Register

IRVINE With its neat and modest appearance, there’s not much that sets apart the new Ektaa Center from dozens of other dance, music or art schools that dot the Orange County landscape.

The lobby’s only telltale features are the rack for holding street shoes – "Arrange your shoes neatly," reads a sign – a photograph depicting a Hindu shrine and the fliers announcing the various classes.

But this plain and functional design masks the Ektaa Center’s symbolic significance. This is the first non-denominational center in Orange County, and perhaps Southern California, where students can study a wide range of Indian cultural subjects, from yoga to sitar, from the Tamil language to Odissi classical dance.

Masters of Indian music and dance, transplanted to this country, have taught out of their homes, carrying on a tradition of often one-on-one teaching in isolated settings.

Ektaa Center founders Harish Murthy and his wife, Ramya Harishankar, a wellknown teacher of Bharata Natyam classical dance, have extended an invitation to Southern California’s Indian artists to teach there. Their goal is to create an unparalleled cultural complex that unites and builds a community.

"I think our vision for this center is for it to become the resource, and the center, for any information and or educational opportunity for learning about the arts and culture of India," said Murthy, the center’s executive director and only paid staff member.

Harishankar said she was inspired to re-create in Irvine the kind of flourishing schools of dance and music one can find in India. She felt a place of artistic ferment could be duplicated even in the expansive setting of Southern California, which has an estimated 30,000 people of Indian descent, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

"I think it brings more credibility when teaching is done in a public space rather than a private home," said Harishankar, who has located her Arpana Dance School and Company, founded in 1982, at the center.

"I think it’s time. I think the Indian community has matured. The other part of it is that we want it to be a cultural center and not a temple. We want it to be available to any Indian, be it Christian, Hindu, Muslim or Sikh."

Murthy added that they hope the center will attract non-Indians as well.

The two-story, nondescript building on Richter Avenue, off Jamboree Road, is about 2,500 square feet and has three different studios. The biggest room, 1,100 square feet, is suitable for small performances, Murthy said.

A small, carpeted room, decorated with two cloth pillars called thumba, is being used for music classes, or one-on-one dance sessions. The slightly larger upstairs room, which like the giant room has a linoleum, rather than wood, floor, is where the yoga classes are held.

About 200 students attend various sessions between 3:30 and 9 p.m., Murthy estimated.

Ektaa means "unity" or "oneness" in Sanskrit. The facility opened on Oct. 2, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the revered pacifist leader and social reformer. The couple hope the center will grow in influence and want to eventually produce and present cultural events.

The diversity of the dance styles offered there is only one of the barriers Ektaa Center is breaking down. As dance teachers will readily admit, a competitive spirit exists among them, as well as a certain measure of guarding their students.

Ektaa, however, is now home to those teaching folk dances of India as well as two other styles of classical Indian dance – Odissi and Kathak. If another teacher of Bharata Natyam wanted to teach at the center, that would be OK, too, Harishankar said. At the moment, she is the only one teaching that style, however, which is the most popular and well-known.

Kathak master teacher Anjani Ambegaokar, a recent winner of the National Heritage Fellowship award, said she was pleased when Murthy invited her to give Kathak lessons at Ektaa.

"I was very impressed with the idea that an artist who had their own foundation wanted to introduce other dance forms (at their school) and there was no jealousy of any kind," said Ambegaokar, a Diamond Bar resident.

"Hopefully it will grow. It’s just a grass-roots effort and they really believe in the concept. I’m one of those people who, if you believe in the concept, I’m here to support it. I’m very happy to be part of it."

Ektaa Center

Mission: To celebrate the arts and culture of India Where: 269 1 Richter Ave., Suite 1 05, Irvine Hours: Classes days and evenings; call ahead for appointment Phone: (949) 752-0666 Online: www.ektaacenter.org

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