Shipra Joshi’s Kathak recital won applause right from the word ‘go’. She went through the conventional repertoire as any well-trained artiste would with consummate coherence to rhythm, the sine qua non of Kathak. Hence the footwork patterns fell in line with the percussion and moved ahead like serve and volley between the two making for a lively artistic dialogue. This apart, Shipra’s passion for dance at this young age showed clearly, be it during the pure techniques of nritta or the more expressive abhinaya. An artiste, immersed in her performance, is a sure sign to success because she evokes the same emotion in her audience. And with a technique-centric dance like Kathak, which has its breaks with tukra and toda, unlike other classical dance styles that are song/theme oriented, to get involved and experience a joy within oneself is not possible for many an up-and-coming artiste.
The energetic ease with which the dancer displayed the thaat, kavitt, the Jati Paran flowing into the Pakkshi Paran, the Paramelu, the varied gat (gait), the lari and tihai, was commendable. In the thaat, the footwork from slow tempo to rapid, was defined and decipherable to the core as she stills into the sam (still posture). There was accuracy coupled with elegance as she enacted the Pakkshi Paran or for that matter the kavitt set to ek taal where she emulated Lord Shiva to a bol in quick gestural suggestions to timed footwork. In the vilambit gat, the nayika was depicted trying to free the edge of her pallu from her beloved’s clasp, and then her wrist that is caught in his hand and finally her pulling her ghoongat forward with a coy sidelong glance –– the three romantic emotions were shown in quick succession with her eyes doing the talking –– a most appreciative piece that came alive in a short span!
The Paramelu was a full-fledged piece of nritta where she had the abhinaya in tow with the footwork in perfect synch, not losing out on a single expression.
The varied pieces were interlaced with the ghungroo bhol where the artiste was supposed to showcase her laya with her anklet bells bringing the sound like a countdown to double jingle and so on. In this sphere, Shipra has yet to master the finer aspects with experience and single-minded concentration. She enacted two Padh –– one from Guru Govind Singh and another from Meerabai –– very different from each other in terms of connotation and abhinaya. With the first Padh, ‘ghora ghata chayi...’ the artiste was able to delineate nature through the dense clouds that burst into a dizzy rain that spurs the ‘mor’ (peacock) to dance in ecstasy with vivid imagery through her dance. This piece gets into the third cycle of speed where her chakkars supplement the emotive element giving us a peek into the pure dance style. For the Meera song, ‘Mara janam maran ka saathi...’ a very abstract piece for a dance, she had to bring in episodes from the saint-poetess life like the ‘vish ka pyala’ scene to give body to this song. The chakkars rotating through the stage was a fine depiction of a Meera in devotional trance. Percussionists Mukesh K (tabla) Mohit Sridhar ( pakhawaj), Saminullah on the sarangi, Nasir Khan on the vocal and Ankita Seti on padhant made a fitting orchestra. The dance was hosted by the India International Centre as a part of its dance series.
