About Us
SAPTAMI HEAD QUARTERS
Saptami Foundation stands for preservation and nurturing of our culture and heritage among our children and youth in the pure classicism of art form in both music and dance. Participants and Performers in any center both here in US and in India and in future in any other country or place will have to adhere to the following core values.
- Any performance either for competition or for concert both in Dance and Music must give due credit to the original composer of the song with proper name of the Raaga, Taala, and synopsis as it was originally composed in.
- No part of the song with respect to lyrics or format must be changed. While Manodharma components are encouraged no creativity will be accepted if the lyrics is changed or gives different meaning from the original intent. So in essence, learning music with deeper meaning and composers intent is highly encouraged.
The above applies to ALL performers and participants whether beginner, upcoming or established. This is the respect we owe to the great composers who left behind such great treasures for us and did this for no financial benefit for themselves. Saptami in future may add other Genres of Music and each genre will maintain its intended format and give due credit to the original creators.
Our Journey...
SAPTAMI, Dallas is a volunteer run non-profit organization operating since 2009. We started with the basic idea to promote Classical Dance and Music and nurture talent. Early on we realized the fragmented nature of how Indian Classical art forms are being taught across the country. When comparing how students gain credit and accolades in Indian classical art forms vs western classical music it was clear that there was a gap. The time, effort and dedication of students, parents and teachers pursuing Indian Classical art form is phenomenal. However, noticed that our students are not able to gain credit for it consistently compared to a student pursuing Western classical arts (Piano).
We decided to showcase Carnatic music to mainstream US education systems and approached school districts. Questions posed by US school districts– How many students are enrolled? Is there a common curriculum? Do all teachers teach the same? And few more…
This led us to develop a curriculum for Carnatic music with inputs from local and leading artists in the field. In this model, students continue to learn from their teachers and participate in certifications as they progress through their learning. Local US music teachers proctor both theory and practical tests for their students. Once a student reaches higher level of learning they are judged by a senior/alternate teacher. Our current enrollment of students in this program is 500. We expect to reach the stars with our expansion to 6 other locations in the US.
Present Day
It took us 9 years and here we are expanding SAPTAMI in 8 other locations across the US. The ultimate goal is to garner enough mass across the US to gain credit for our art forms in main stream US education. This will enable our children to include their years of saadakam in either Carnatic music or classical dance in their high school transcript.
Future state...
Our vision is to create SAPTAMI university with local US teachers/performers and international performing artists becoming faculty advisors while continuing to teach students as they do today.
