AF Magazine India Nepal

The Triple Threat Taking Classical Music by Storm!

Music runs in their blood – literally! The Ranganathan Trio consists of three prodigious brothers – Ravi (cello), Ajay (violin), and Théo (piano) – who have caught the fancy of the Western Classical music world. On a fortuitous day twelve years ago, the brothers of Polish-Indian descent decided to start playing as a piano trio […]

Finding meaning in dance with Histoires Vraies

Dances do not exist and evolve in a vacuum – the movements of a dancer’s body can often be traced back to distinct stylistic lineages. These are rooted in specific contexts which have shaped different dance forms as we know them today. Contemporary dancers often highlight these linkages through an exploration of rhythms, movements and […]

Yama – a contemporary dance expressing ancient ideas

Dance is often compared to poetry in motion and is formally recognised as one of the seven major art forms in France. It is one of the most fundamental ways in which humans express themselves – an intrinsically physical language that is in a state of constant evolution like any other. To honour this art […]

A Brave New World of Music With Sylvain Rifflet

Alliance Française de Bangalore recently set the hearts of music aficionados in the subcontinent aflutter when it announced that it was piloting the four-city tour of Sylvain Rifflet in India. The French composer, saxophonist and clarinettist is a force to be reckoned with in the world of music. Rifflet has performed or recorded with some of the most […]

A Touch Of Baroque

Derived from the Portuguese barroco or oddly shaped pearl, the term baroque has been widely used to describe the period in Western European Art from 1600 to 1750. Nineteenth century critics applied the term derogatorily for the “overly ornamented” and “exaggerated” music of composers like Bach and Handel. Today, however, the word baroque has come […]

La Vie En Rose Avec Sherazade et LavionRose

De cultures mêlées, russe et algérienne, le chant de Sherazade – à l’image de sa vie – est vibrant, sensuel et métissé. Rebelle, définitivement féminine et intimement mélangée, elle a une bouleversante fragilité. Basée à Paris, elle appartient – avec les cinq musiciens de LavionRose – à la famille de ces artistes inclassables et cosmopolites qui […]

Dancing to his own beat!

As an artist, Astad Deboo needs no formal introduction. Credited as being the pioneer of contemporary dance in India, the recipient of the Sangeet Natak Academi Award for Creative Dance in 1995 was also awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2007. Alliance Française de Madras and Prakriti Foundation – with the […]

Getting Jazzy with EYM Trio

It was a cold November day in 2010 when Elie (Dufour), Yann (Phayphet) and Marc (Michel) met in Lyon. The spark was instantaneous and the EYM Trio was born ! As is often the case, the pianist, double bass player and drummer share common musical tastes. Indeed, among their influences are jazz legends like Duke Ellington, […]

Into the Wild at AF Madras

It has been said that dancing is like dreaming with your feet. Alliance Française de Madras recently gave wings to some such feet-dreams by piloting a tour of La forêt ébouriffée. This dance, performance by the French dance company CFB 451, is based on Mélusine Thiry‘s book La forêt de Racine. The performances took place in Chennai (May […]

Selon Beltuner, “le bonheur est chemin”

Créé à Paris en 2001, Beltuner ést un quartet composé de René Sopa (accordéon), Pascal Muller (guitare), Mickael Correia (percussions) and Nicolas Pautras (contrebasse). Le groupe a tout d’abord joué un répertoire de morceaux traditionnels issus du swing manouche, du musette parisien, du tango mais aussi du yiddish ou des musiques balkaniques. Très rapidement, Beltuner a évolué vers un son […]