Senior dancer-guru Saroja Vaidyanathan, founder, Ganesha Natyalaya in New Delhi, brought down eight students to present a medley of pieces. The group was handicapped without the live orchestra that had to be cancelled at the last minute. Nevertheless they put up a well-coordinated show. They were of a uniformly good standard and displayed a high degree of suppleness in their movements. They were well-rehearsed, so their friezes were the most attractive part of the performance.
The choreography was simple, straightforward and sometimes almost business-like. Since most of the pieces were group choreographies, a sense of sameness crept in midway through the show. It did not help that there were two kritis in Revathi (‘Bo Shambho,' Swami Dayanand Saraswati and the Mahishasura Mardhini Stothra, Adi Sankara) within half an hour!
The pick of the offerings were: Pancha Nadai Alarippu, Swaranjali (nritta presentation in ragamalika, Adi), Natanam Adinar (solo by Amrit Sinha) in 14-beat Khanda Ata tala and the Dasavataram (ragamalika, Jayadeva). The last was greeted most enthusiastically given that people are always happy to see good vanquish the evil and also that the storytelling was clear and unambiguous. Again it was the coordination that impressed the audience.
The other dancers were: Janhavi Rajaram, Anusha Jagannathan, Nehha Bhatnagar, Sudhana Shankar, Apoorva Nambiar, Gayathri Deka and Kassijet Adilkhanova from Kazakhstan.
