Odissi danseuse Sonal Mansingh selected for Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellow

Bhubaneswar: Noted Odissi danseuse Sonal Mansingh has been selected to receive the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellow or Akademi Ratna award.

Apart from Mansingh, the Sangeet Natak Akademi has named three eminent personalities in the field of performing arts – tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain , dancer and choreographer Jatin Goswami and Bharatnatyam exponent K. Kalyanasundaram Pillai for the honour.

The Fellowship of the Akademi is the most prestigious and a rare honour, which is restricted to 40 numbers at any given time, it said in a press statement today.

The General Council also selected 44 artistes from the field of music, dance, theatre, traditional/folk/tribal music/dance/theatre, puppetry and overall contribution/scholarship in the performing arts for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2018.

The 44 artistes include three joint awards.

The Akademi Awards, conferred since 1952, not only symbolize the highest standard of excellence and achievements, but also recognize sustained individual work and contribution, it said.

The honour of Akademi Fellow carries a purse money of Rs 3 lakh while the Akademi Award carries Rs 1 lakh, besides a Tamrapatra and Angavastram.

Awards will be conferred by the President of India at a special investiture ceremony this year.