Two emerging dancers rose to the expectations at the prestigious Raza Foundation’s ‘Yuva Shastriya (classical) festival’ with commitment and adherence to the classicality of their respective genre, viz. Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam. The duo Ayana Mukherjee and Himanshu Srivastava did not adopt the time-worn traditional format but adapted the purity of their dance forms to present something creative and original which is what the new breed of dancers are expected to do.
Convincing act
Ayana who opened her Kuchipudi recital with ‘Mahadeva Shiva Shambho,’ presented the mighty lord of dance in several combinations of gestures (hasta mudra) and footwork, bringing in the story elements to underline the omnipotence and omnipresence of lord Shiva with the Markandeya episode. Her expressive best came out in showing the tightening of the noose of death at the rishi’s throat as he fervently sends up a prayer to his lord to rescue him. The pain and anguish of a young boy in the jaws of death was convincingly acted out. So was lord Yama’s gait to crisp and powerful footwork as he enters on his deathly mission. The footwork turned lilting, heralding the ‘Parameswara, gangadhara...’ (emergence of lord Shiva). At this juncture, the dancer could have been a little more careful in showing her feet to the audience in the course of dancing as Shiva which is a deviation from ‘auchitya’ (decency) as per the Shastra.
The Ashtapadi ‘Radhika Krishna..’ which actually speaks of Radha, Krsna and the intermediary Sakhi (friend) was handled excellently through abhinaya as a solo piece by Ayana. The physical state of Radha, torn in passion and love for the lord who is not with her, Krsna’s response and the Sakhi’s appeasement – three different emotional states were shown by the artiste with aplomb. She chose to present the archetypal Kuchipudi piece – ‘Dasavataram’ (Telugu lyrics) as conclusion where she went through the jatis perfectly but the depiction of the first three avatars could have been done with greater clarity as far as gestures went.
Ayana should look into her balancing power on stage when she has to stand on one foot for a brief duration of time as the song demands. The live orchestra with guru Vanashree Rao on the nattuvangam enhanced the recital.
Graceful gait
Creativity is Himanshu Srivastava’s forte and it does well for him to exploit his potential. Themed ‘Venu’ (bamboo flute), it ran on esoteric lines where the flute with its seven apertures is akin to the seven chakras (nerve centres) of the human body whose quest is to reach the ultimate reality (param atma).
Himanshu Srivastava
The enigmatic content found a similar expression on Himanshu’s countenance (amazement) as he adapted the alarippu (first piece in traditional margam repertoire) to interpret his theme. The ecstasy that a spiritual seeker experiences as the kundalini (serpent power) rises within the unseen layers of his spinal column was pictured with astounding clarity by the dancer through the metaphor of intertwined serpents which is what Radha-Madhav concept is all about. The second phase led us into ‘Abhisarika Radha’. Here the ashtavidha nayika wasn’t shown on the physical plane. A local Bengali myth which depicts Radha as being married away to far east into a Bengali family was adopted to drive home the point of the quest within human being to merge with its source either surreptitiously or overtly – that is abhisarika , hampered as she were by a husband (material world and encumbrances) secretly approaching her Krsna (Param Atma) during the dark fortnight.
There are few hassles in her sojourn – the metaphor of a snake, a giant which gave the dancer ample scope to display the story like the kaliya mardhan and the Putana annihilation which were crisp and very convincing.
Himanshu left no stone unturned as far as the format of Bharatanatyam goes – his kulukku nadai (graceful gait) with lovely footwork to bhol at the refrain – chali chali Radhika ...is one such. A new feature was the merger of goddess Kali and Krsna who are from the Shaktism point of view are one and the same both on physical and spiritual levels. The dancer alternated between the two contrasting yet similar aspects in quick succession with vivid abhinaya.
This near-perfect dance with all its essential elements intact had one minor flaw – the dancer would do better to enrich his presentation with a little more care towards the adage – ‘yatho hastha tatho drishti’ (the eye should fully dwell on the mudra of the hand). A live accompaniment with S.Vasudevan on the vocals enriched the show which was hosted at Triveni Kala Sangam.
