Abhinetri Arts Academy presented ‘Natya Pravaha’ a festival of Bharatanatyam dances by dancers from across the country. Sticking to the traditional ‘margam’ the event brought in individual approach to the numbers, each presenting a varnam and javali and tillana.
On the first day, Abhinava, a young girl from Chennai and disciple of J. Suryanarayana Murthy, opened her show with Natakuranji varnam penned by Srirangam Rangasamy Nattuvanar. She then presented a javali Apaduruku Lonaiti in Khamas. Later she presented a tillana in Kadanakuthuhalam of Balamuralikrishna. Ruchi Krishna of Raipur, disciple of G. Rateesh gave performance later. She launched her show with Alarippu in Nata. She then went for invocatory number on Goddess Saraswathi followed by a varnam in Ranjani that depicted how Goddess Durga killed Mahishasura. She then chose Purandaradasa’s composition Jaagadodharana in Brindavani and tillana in Brindavani of Balamurali. Meera Damaraju, disiple of Hemamalini Arni presented Siva Alarippu and went for varnam in Kambhoji that played up ‘Virahothkhantita Nayika’, pining for her Lord and blaming him for ignoring her. Later she presented tillana in Khamas with multiple nritta patterns.
Rajasree Das of Bangalore and disciple of G. RateeshBabu went for Ardhanareeswara Kowtvam in Mohana that seeks blessings of Lord Shiva and Parvati, followed by varnam in Sivaranjani written in praise of Tripurasundari. This was set in Shivaranjini ragam. Later she presented a padam in Husseni that brought into focus Khandita Nayika. She concluded her dance with tillana in Mohanakalyani. Pragna, disciple of Ananda Shankar Jayant later appeared and presented varnam in Athana, a composition of Turvaiyur Rajagopala Sharma. It narrated mischievous acts of child Krishna. The abhinaya number brought in sequences ‘Kaliya Nartanam’, ‘Draupadi Vastrapaharanam’. The padam she presented later was in Surati that focused on ‘Khandita Nayika’. This was choreographed by her guru Ananda.
Srishti Budhori, disciple of V.S. Ramamurthy and Manjula Ramaswamy stared with a number Chidambara Natanam Hrudi Bhaje in ragamalika offering salutations to Lord Nataraja of Chidambaram. Later she came out with Thyagaraja’s popular composition Ksheerasagara Sayana in Devagandhari. There was a javali Neematalemayanura in Poorvikalyani of Pattaabhiraamayya with focus on ‘Samanya Nayika’ who gets fed up with her lover who promises one thing and does another. Her show concluded with tillana in Farazu. The accompanists who shared the dances of these girls were vocalists Swetha Prasad, Preeti Mahesh and Sangeetha Kala; Nattuvanars Renuka Prasad, Ritesh Babu, Manjula Ramaswamy; mridangam players Renuka Prasad, Sridharacharya, Bhanu Prasad, T.P. Balasubramanyam and Rajagopalachari and Saikumar being the violinist for all these dances.
