It was a kaleidoscope of dances that regaled the audience for two consecutive days at Adyasha Foundation’s ‘Shishira Chhanda’ fest in Bangalore. For one, it gave us a glimpse into the present generation of artistes and their skills- the term art is not being substituted for skills because, there is still that wide chasm which these new crop of dancers have to overcome in order to make their performance into an art. All of them turned out to be fairly good performers with energetic nritta and trained abhinaya and made for an entertaining evening of dance.
Day one provided us with a peek into two Bharatanatyam styles, so contrasting to each other; a Kathak that was an admixture of more than two gharanas; Odissi, a home production and Mohiniattam. Rekha Raju’s Mohiniattam and Bharatanjali ensemble’s Bharatanatyam recitals stood out as impressive, well-conceived and aesthetic pieces of art. Rekha with her live orchestra gave an enchanting performance with every nerve and sinew bringing out the enticing Mohini in her. Her facial expressions, more so her eyes spoke volumes in terms of devotional romance coupled with other fleeting expressions of mock anger, dismay, mischieviousness and so on as she explored the Radha –Krishna lore through Swati Tirunal’s composition. The Lalgudi tillana established lord Shiva’s family in mime and movement extolling the lord later through myriad gestures.
Kudos to guru B. Bhanumati for sculpting her pupils into near perfect dancers and for her mind-blowing choreography with the unique Mysore bani. The Bharatanjali ensemble of six dancers enthralled the viewers with their intricately woven movement patterns and narrative sequences. The Purvarangavidhi-an alarippu with a difference was outstanding with the six dancers dwindling into numbers of four, three and two seamlessly vanishing and converging as needed. The kriti in Revathi ‘Mahadeva Shiva Shambho…’ rendered in vilamba to madhyama kalai interlaced as it were with Natesa Kouthwam and drawing to a close with a sloka on lord Shiva from Taittareya Upanishad was executed with charming postures, movements and artistic footwork. Never was a group dance so appealing and apt. The entire Ramanyana was presented like a tableau with these six dancers to the tunes of ‘Ramachandra kripalu bhajamana…’ in just about five full minutes which was amazing!
The tiny tots of Adyasha stole the show with their cute Odissi while the other disciples, layered age-wise made for a neatly executed nritta with absolute sync, which is itself an achievement considering the number of dancers-small, medium and big on stage at a time! Being still young and prone to flexibility, these young aspirants would do good to correct their stances and get the tribhangi, the gait and the sway in body kinetics right now, if they desire to take Odissi along with them. The most disappointing was Bharatanatyam by Rashmi Aggarwal from Delhi and Arpita Banerjee’s Kathak. While the former started well but chose a Hindi song for her Varnam which fell flat as it lacked in depth and dignity, more so in a Bharatanatyam repertoire, mid-way the artiste chose to let loose her footwork going into wayward movements that dented on the classicality of the genre which is not warranted. Similarly, Arpita gave a motley bag of Kathak with Jaipur and Lucknow gharana.
Day two was vibrant with individual thematic presentations by five artistes in all. Exclusivity set them apart, like for instance, Praveen Kumar’s ‘Sakha’ in Bharatanatyam, explored the highest form of friendship (maître) between lord Krishna and Arjuna from the eyes of the latter. The dancer’s stylistic stances and expression were impressive to say the least. His nritta was agile, especially where he emulates Arjuna with bow and arrow in various moving postures from standing to going down on knees and then feet and back again on his legs-all this done to mnemonics! To pull off two principal characters and events that spun around these two in a solo is no cakewalk. And the highlight was that Krishna was brought before us without the use of the much hackneyed flute-playing mudra shows artistic excellence.
Yudhisthri Nayak’s ‘Prati Nayaka’ (antagonist) was an in-depth subject that explored and lay before us certain home truths - there is very little difference between divine nature and human which in its worst form gets demonic (asura). And to underline this point, dancer unfolded, through the medium of Odissi. The black angavastra of his costume was symbolic of the roles he played. The annihilation of Hiranyakasipu by lord Narasimha in Satya Yuga, was brought out with convincing force. Yudhisthra’s balance and footwork were a marvel to witness.
Sarita Mishra’s solo in Odissi where she delineated the much-maligned Shoorpanaka (Ramayana) was a fantastic piece in abhinaya aspect bolstered as it were by optimal nritta too, giving it the right touch. The episode where the demonic girl transforms herself into a ravishing damsel was executed with a sensitivity and artistry worth a mention. The dancer was able to hold Shoorpanaka’s amorous longing for a handsome Rama in her eyes so beautifully and the hurt, insult and angst on being spurned turning into vendetta followed one after the other in quick successive expression.
Prabal Gupta floored the audience with his impersonification of the celestial Urvashi who happens to set her eyes on Arjuna and gets desirous of this great warrior. Entering with the custormary tera-seelai (manually-held curtain), he looked every inch a female. The eyes spoke eloquent switching from one emotion to another –from self-pride at her (Urvashi) charm and talent to desire to possess writ large. The brilliant exposition of the character and the events that led to her being rebuffed and the ensuing pangs of suffering a setback were presented with convincing clarity . The nritta was also an added attraction.
The ‘Tandava’ quartet of male dancers gave a brilliant exposition to the varnam (Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna) ‘Amma Anandadayini…’ a mother goddess invocation.
