AttenDance will present its AttenDance Annual Awards 2025, marking 25 years of its seminal contribution to the documentation, history and heritage of Indian dance, on Saturday, December 27th, 2025, at 6:00 pm at the Swami Vivekananda Auditorium, Kathak Kendra, San Martin Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi.
The awards will be hosted at ARUNODAYA – A Cultural Saga (Series 8), the annual festival of SOCH (School of Creative Hands), under the direction of Odissi artiste and Founder–Artistic Director of SOCH, Shri Rahul Varshney. The ceremony will be conducted by eminent dance critic and historian Prof. Ashish Mohan Khokar, Editor–Publisher of AttenDance.
The evening will be graced by Guru Geetanjali Lal, iconic Kathak guru, and Guru Ambika Paniker, iconic Odissi guru, as Chief Guests, with Shri Dibakar Das, Deputy Director, CCRT, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, as Guest of Honour.
Founded by the father-figure of Indian dance scholarship, late Prof. Mohan Khokar (1924–1999), AttenDance has, for 25 uninterrupted years, remained the most authoritative annual chronicle of Indian dance. Under the editorship of his son and successor, Prof. Ashish Mohan Khokar, AttenDance has shaped discourse, preserved memory, and set benchmarks for credibility in dance research and writing.
Widely referenced and quoted, AttenDance is considered indispensable to serious scholarship—no PhD, research publication or book on Indian dance is regarded as complete without its citation. The Library of Congress, USA, has consistently acquired ten copies annually, as do leading colleges and institutions across India. Each edition, themed afresh every year, is known to sell out within days of its launch.
For the past 15 years, AttenDance has conferred five annual awards honouring excellence across diverse facets of dance—writing, choreography, performance, pedagogy, and lifelong service. Fifty awards have been bestowed to date, spanning generations, disciplines, and continents.
Notably, despite his towering contribution to Indian dance historiography, Prof. Ashish Mohan Khokar has himself received no national award, yet has steadfastly instituted and sustained these honours—an act widely regarded within the cultural community as true kala seva and desh seva.
AttenDance Annual Awards 2025 – Awardees
-
- Smt. Leela Venkataraman (Gurugram)
- Mohan Khokar Dance Writing Award
- Smt. Jigyasa Giri (Chennai)
- Uday Shankar Choreography Award
- Guru Rama Vaidyanathan (Delhi)
- Rukmini Devi Overall Contribution Award
- Pt. Harish Gangani
- M.K. Saroja – True Guru–Shishya Parampara Award
- Guru Ratna Papa Kumar (Houston, USA)
- Maya Rao Lifetime Achievement Award
- Shri Rahul Varshney (Noida)
- Ram Gopal Award – Best Male Soloist
Special Mentions
-
- Dr. Vandana Putanjani Purgus (Mauritius)
- Dr. Bhupinder Sachdev (Printways, Rai/Sonipat)
- Ms Sonya Wynne Singh (France)
Some senior awardees were felicitated earlier in Bengaluru, in consideration of travel and health constraints, while the remaining awards will be conferred in New Delhi.
ARUNODAYA – A Cultural Saga is SOCH’s annual festival dedicated to young and committed practitioners of Indian classical arts, emphasising discipline, continuity and sincerity in practice. The 8th edition will feature 30 participants and six stage performances.
The evening will open with a short film marking 25 years of AttenDance, followed by curated Odissi presentations by students of SOCH, and will culminate in the featured production “Dasamahavidyas”, performed by the senior ensemble of the Rahul Varshney Academy.
Programme Highlights:
-
- Mangalacharan – Beginners Group (Manjari)
- Aahe Nila Saila – Intermediary Group (“Young at Heart”)
- Sthayee – Junior Group (Bhaav Manjari)
- Aji Mu Dekhili Ghana (Abhinaya) – Junior Group (Bhaav Manjari)
- Arabhi Pallavi – Senior Group (Rasa Manjari)
- Feature Presentation: Dasamahavidyas – Senior Group (Rasa Manjari)
Performing artistes include Mridula Naik (Principal Dancer) along with Aakanksha Dasmesh, Suhani Mohapatra, Sangeeta Sharma, Swakshi Dhembla, Mihika Basu, Ayu Sareen, Aakanksha Kamal, Anya Sharma, Avani Banerjee, Pallavi Sahoo, Suchitra, Alok Prava, and Prawin Kumar Bharati.
Prof. Ashish Mohan Khokar, Editor–Publisher, AttenDance, said, “For 25 years, AttenDance has documented Indian dance with independence, rigour and integrity. The Annual Awards recognise those who quietly and consistently build the cultural ecosystem—through thought, practice, teaching and service.”
Shri Rahul Varshney, Founder and Artistic Director, SOCH, added, “Hosting the AttenDance Annual Awards at Arunodaya is an honour. It brings scholarship, legacy and young practice together on one stage, reinforcing the continuity of Indian classical arts.”
