Former Secretary and CEO of India’s National Academy of Performing Arts – theSangeet Natak Akademi - Jayant Kastuar is India’s outstanding Kathak dance exponent, art administrator, speaker, thinker, and visionary in the world of Indian Performing Arts today.

Born on Republic Day 26 January 1956 in Jamshedpur and educated at the prestigious St.Stephens College in Delhi, Jayant Kastuar represents a rare combination of excellence in classical art, academics and public service. He has equally excelled in stage design, conceptualization and presentation of national and international shows and public speaking on the subject of performing arts. He has pioneered several national projects and undertaken significant initiatives for preservation and promotion of the performing art traditions, which earned him wide respect across the country. He has extensively travelled abroad to countries such as USA, China, Japan, Korea, Brazil among others and designed international shows and programs in many countries.

Jayant Kastuar was selected by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1984 to lead its dance department as Deputy Secretary. He also served briefly as the Director of Kathak Kendra, the national institute of kathak dance run by the Akademi , before he took over as the Seretary of the Akademi in 1999. His work and contributions in the fields of Kutiyattam and Kathakali of Kerela, Kuchipudi and Andhra traditions of dance, Odissi dance, Sattriya traditions of Assam and Chhau dances of Eastern India have been acclaimed in the field. His initiatives for preservation and enrichment of regional music traditions, theatre and puppetry traditions, instrument making traditions as well as programmes of theatre training at state and regional levels, besides promotion of young talents of India across the board have also been equally significant.

After a long stint of over 12 years as the Secretary and chief executive of the apex cultural body of performing arts in India –Sangeet Natak Akademi – Jayant Kastuar voluntarily relinquished his post in December 2011 in order to pursue seriously his interest in art and academics.
Jayant took to the stage in 1957, gave his first solo performance of Kathak in 1959 and gained wide acclaim as a child prodigy in his region during late 1960s. Initially trained by Gurus Banbihari Acharya and Indra Kumar Pattanaik, he later came under the tutelage of the renowned master of the Jaipur Gharana, Pandit Durga Lal from whom he received higher training in Delhi. He is today recognized as an outstanding representative of Pandit DurgaLal‘s Kathak style.

Jayant Kastuar has performed widely across the country and participated in major festivals of dance. He is known for his commanding performance as a soloist of the old school. With his exposure to different styles of kathak dance for over half a century, he is at once traditional as he is innovative. He excels both in Nritta or pure dance as well as in Nritya and Abhinaya, the expressional parts. His wide range of innovative Gatnikas and rendering of Bhava to Hindustani thumries or compositions of other traditions are highly acclaimed. He has rendered Abhinaya to compositions in different languages - Assamese, Oriya, Maithili, Bhojpuri etc – including Korean and Chinese. He has presented a number of lectures and demonstrations for the benefit of artists, research scholars and university students. He has also taught dance to young students from time to time, conducted workshops in different cities like Lucknow, Pune, Bhopal, Kolkata, Guwahati, Delhi , Bangaluru,Chennai, Chandigarh among others and given guidance to hundreds of young dancers.

Among the major state organizations he has performed for are the ICCR, theSangeet Natak Akademi of India, Sangeet Natak Akademies of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan andGujarat, Zonal Cultural Centers and the state academies and cultural departments of Manipur, Goa, Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, West Bengal, Kerala, and Madhya Pradesh.
Prestigious events he has participated in are Kathak Mahotsav (New Delhi), Khajuraho Dance Festival (MP), Konark Festival (Orissa), Uday Shankar Festival (Kolkata), Nehru Centre Dance Festival (Mumbai), Bihar Mahotsav(Patna), Lacchhu Maharaj Jayanti (Lucknow), Ganga Mahotsav (Varanasi), Chakradhar Samaroh (Raigarh), Natyanjali (Chidambarm), Baudhdha Mahotsav (Sarnath), Bhagyachandra Dance Festival (Manipur), Bangalore International Art Festival and the December festivals of Sri Krishna GanaSabha , Brahma GanaSabha and Bharat Kalachar of Chennai. Some of the other important organisations he performed for include the Ramakrishna Mission Institute and Padatik of Kolkata, Samved of Mumbai, Kalachhaya of Pune,Ninad of Patnaand Prasiddha Foundation of Bangaluru.

Abroad Jayant has presented performances ,workshops and lectures in cities of the USA and South Korea and gave demonstrations in China and Japan.

Jayant Kastuar has also been acclaimed for his distinction in visualizing, designing anddirecting large productions and gala shows presented on important occasions. He conceived and designed presentations of major productions for the Government of India in New York, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul and Kazakhstan. He has been associated with the planning of the festivals of India abroad and himself led the inaugural group of the Festival in Japan in 1988. Besides, he has conceived, designed, directed and presented hundreds of festivals and performing arts programmes across India. Incidentally, Jayant Kastuar is an excellent stage designer having studied performance spaces of different performance traditions of India, and has mounted a large number of stage designs, both indoor and outdoor.

For his excellence and achievement in the performing arts, Jayant Kastuar has been honoured with the titles of Nritya Choodamani by Shri Krishna GanaSabha and NatyaPadmam by Brahma GanaSabha of Chennai. The Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh honoured him as NrityaShiromani. He has also been honoured with the RaseswarSaikiaBarbayan Award of Assam , Tala Vadya Samman of Bhubaneswer , Samanvaya award of Bangaluru, Vishisht Bihar Samman, besides others.
 
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