Apoorva Ramani comes from an impeccable dance lineage as her teacher, young Sujatha Mohan, is a long-time disciple of dance-scholar Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam. Apoorva's Bharatnatyam performance was a celebration of excellent music and sincere dance coming together.
Dressed in a beautiful orange and purple costume, the youngster traversed a demanding journey of nritta and abhinaya in her 60-minute recital.
The opening pushpanjali (Gambhira Nattai, Adi, Madurai R. Muralidharan) was a challenge with a continuous switch of nadai from five to four to three to seven. The dancer did it effortlessly blessed as she is with a good sense of timing.
Challenging
The melodious navarasa varnam (‘Angayarkkanni', ragamalika, Adi, Lalgudi Jayaraman) provided another challenge that of communicating the nine dominant emotions as regards Goddess Meenakshi. Buoyed by a smooth sea of melody provided by Chitrambari Krishnakumar (vocal) and B.N. Ramesh (flute) with Chozhapuram Shankar (violin) providing additional support, Apoorva showcased the context and sentiments with sincerity. ‘Sringara' or the emotion of love was especially well described with karanas used judiciously.
The wedding ceremony of Oonjal, Panigrahanam and walking around the fire was an interesting sanchari. One could see the nattuvanar (Sujatha) enjoying her ward executing her choreography with involvement. The laughter in ‘Pittukku Mansumandu' was also effectively delineated with the story of the vagabond who helped the old lady in exchange for ‘Puttu'.
Sujatha's choreography is neat and crisp. The change of nadai for each speed of the first trikalam jathi in the varnam was interesting. Her style is simple with a careful use of karanas and never substituting adavus that provide the base for them. She was ably supported by Ramshankar Babu (mridangam), who guided the rhythm and enhanced the dramatic moments attentively.
Apoorva would do well to distinguish between the standing and the araimandi adavus to present them with more finesse.
She is a sincere student who should be given the space to learn and imbibe.
