Aalokam presents MEHFIL - a series of intimate music and dance concerts

Mehfil is an ancient Indian tradition which brought courtly music, dance, and poetry to small audiences in an intimate setting. Aalokam is re-igniting this tradition and style of concert series in NYC, presenting to its art lovers a great line up of artists and performances.

The first concert of the year will be a Bharatanatyam dance performance by Shri. Justin McCarthy on June 2nd, 2018.  His student, Bharathi Penneswaran, will accompany him on stage. The performance will also feature a live orchestra with Vignesh Ravichandran on vocals and Murali Balachandran on mridangam.

Justin McCarthy began his studies in Bharatanatyam at the Way of the Dance School in Berkeley, California.  He later studied in Chennai under Subbarayan Pillai before settling in Delhi, where he studied for a full decade under Leela Samson at the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra. He has taught Bharatanatyam at the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra since 1990. He has been with Ashoka University since 2014, where he is in charge of performing arts. He continues to perform both as a soloist as well as with his students. He, along with filmmaker Sandhya Kumar, received a national film award in the culture category in 2014 for a film they made on padams, songs of 17th century South Indian dancing girls. Sandhya and he have just completed a new film on Koothu, a dance-drama form found in parts of rural Tamil Nadu.

Date - June 2nd, 2018, Saturday
Time - 5:00 PM
Venue - Pearl Studio, Studio 1209
500 8th Ave
New York
NY 10018
Tickets - Suggested Donation $20 (at the door)