Moving away from the cliche of well-rehearsed, structured performance of thematic productions, G. Narendra chose to take the audience on a personal journey into his world of dance, to look into his vocabulary — his manodharma and to share what he called his ‘anubhavam.’ He performed in the Ekam festival of Bharatanatyam solos curated by ARTery and Suryakala Foundation at Spaces.
More often than not, a male dancer presenting a padam soaked in nayika bhava, has to walk the tightrope.
A little overstepping can lead to the portrayal becoming effeminate or a caricature representation. Narendra’s artistic merit shone through in this depiction of a samanya nayika in the Subbarama Aiyyar padam ‘Yarukkagilum Bhayama.’
Every little nuance of feminine guile was brought out through movements and sensitive abhinaya in a refined and dignified manner by the artiste.
From the delicate detailing of the heroine’s alankaram to the jealous overtones of the gossiping women, Narendra kept the viewers engrossed. The sequence where the other women gossip about the nayika’s sparkling new diamond nose ring, simple suggestive changes in facial expressions to convey the varying emotions was truly poetic.
The boldness of the heroine, her disdain for her rivals, dismissal of the gossiping women and the coquettishness and sensuality of the nayika were all portrayed with panache. Gender vanished, leaving the nayika as visualised by the composer, sans any frills. A fabulous performance where the artiste and the art merged.
Rhythm exercises
Earlier, the dancer chose to perform ‘Velanai Kanbom Vaarir’, a varnam in Khamas raga composed by Lalitha and Ranganayaki Jayaraman. The shooting of arrows to compare his vel vizhi, the graceful movements of a peacock, the admiration of Parvathi seeing the six children on six lotuses were some of the interesting sancharis.
The joy experienced by the artiste was at its peak in the nritta segments where it was a sheer outpouring of rhythm and graceful movements, instead of being a pompous exercise in footwork and rhythmic calculations. The familiar stories of Muruga’s life were narrated in simple storytelling mode for the chittaiswarams and the highlight was his presentation of Avvaiyar and her expressions.
The joy would not have been possible without the support of the musical ensemble. The rapport between the singer and dancer elevated the experience to a different level. Hariprasad’s melodic and soulful voice, Kalaiarasan’s playing on the violin, Mahalakshmi’s vibrant sollukattus and Vedakrishna Ram’s unobtrusive percussive support on the mridangam were assets to the show.
The happiness experienced and shared by the artiste with the rasika that day can best be summed up by in one word — ‘Rasanubhaava.’
