Deepika Krishna, a standard IX student, impressively gave a solo Bharatanatyam performance at Kalabharathi on Sunday evening. Initiated into the art at the tender age of five, she continues to learn it with passion under the expert guidance of the principal of Nrityakalabharathi of Bharateeya Vidya Kendram, Avasarala Rukmajee Rao. Impressed with her rapid progress, he made her grandparents Nirmala and N.V.S. Murty with whom she is staying at the port , organise the programme, her first full-blown solo. He himself wielded the cymbals in the expert company of M. Venkata Rao and his daughter Sridevi (vocals), M. Edukondalu (mridangam), K.V.S. Prasad (violin), K. Lakshmikantham (veena), Raja Rao (flute) and T.N. Chaitanya (morsing). Makeup was well done by Surya Rao and Sudha.
After Pushpanjali (Nata-Aditalam), Deepika executed Alaripu also in Nata in Trisra Eka and Jathiswaram (Saveri-Roopakam) consecutively in strict adherence to the traditionally followed format of a Bharatanatyam solo. She executed Suddhanritya very appealingly. Then performing the Kharaharapriya Padavarnam (Adi talam), she fulfilled all requirements of presenting the main stay of the Bharatanatyam solo format as nritya in all the three tempos and gracefully surfaced a fine blend of the sangeetha and the sahityabhavams embedded in the composition.
Similarly, effective was the presentation of Anandanatamaduvar (Poorvikalyani Roopakam), Chinna-Chinna padam (Kapi Adi), discerningly achieving a fine blend of nritha and nritya for depicting the subtle differences between the attributes of Natya by Lord Siva and Krishna as a little child. There was also the scintillating presentation of Mohanaraga Thillana and Mayuranrityam (Ragamalika) and the concert concluded with the traditional Mangalam Kshiraabdikanyakaku (Madhyamavathi) as fully blown natya. Hon. Chairman of the World Teacher Trust, K. Parvathikumar, Chief Guest of the evening, presented new clothes and mementos to all artistes including Deepika.
