Acclaimed dancer from Nepal, Rajendra Shrestha, will perform rarely seen ritual dances personifying the gods and goddesses of the Tantric Buddhist pantheon.

Rajendra Shrestha has been active in the preservation and teaching of traditional Nepalese arts and culture in Kathmandu. He studied at the Royal Nepal Academy and with traditional teachers. He has danced and conducted workshops on tours in Europe and Asia.

The carya nritya, with its elaborate costumes and masks, did not develop as an art form, but rather as a spiritual practice passed on by a special caste of Tantric Buddhist philosophy, in carya nritya the dancer is performing a meditation in which he visualizes and invokes, through mind, body and speech, peaceful and wrathful deities that correspond to components of his own Being. Through ceremony, puja, he focuses his mind to a higher state of consciousness. Asking the deities to enter into him, the dancer, through mudra (svmbolic movements) and sadbana (the chanting of prayers descriptive of each deity), binds their energy to his body and transmits this experience to those present.

His performance is "rare and fascinatingĄ­and embodiment of sacred figures in Nepalese painting and sculpture." -- London Daily Telegraph