Eclectic dance performance

Dance performance by K. Vijaysekhar and his students had grace and skill.

K. Vijaysekhar and his students during their performance. Photo: Special Arrangement

Kuchipudi changed its colour with Vempati Chinna Satyam's efforts in reorganising the traditional style, enriching its repertoire with solos and ballets and imparting the knowledge to his students. K.Vijaysekhar is one of them and underwent training in Vempati's school for over a decade and launched his own institution Sri Mayuri Dance Academy in Hyderabad. His show featured in the Nadaprabha Cultural Trust's event held at Ravindra Bharati, along with two of his students, Tejasvi and Sloka. Though it looked like a departure from the usual tenets of the traditional dance numbers, it breathed some freshness. All these numbers were choreographed by his guru Vempati.

Gajavadana , the opening number, brought into view all the three dancers together, caring for the bhava in abhinaya and converting words like ‘Mooshika Vahana' into postures with proper grouping. The foot work was presented in the usual format.

Oothukadu's composition -

Brindavana Nilaye in Reetigowla had all the elements that a dancer requires, including variation in jati and swara, yielding good scope for footwork and sounding. It opened with a long, well executed jati that showed how Radha describes Lord Krishna. Symbolically an idol of Krishna was placed in the backdrop which Radha garlands as she renders this song. The underlying mood ‘Viraha' was presented by Tejasvi.

Ananda Tandavamade an ode to Siva through lyrics, written by C. Narayana Reddy and set in a chain of ragas was well presented by Vijayasekhar. An idol of Lord Siva in Tandava posture was kept in the backdropIt dramatised how Parvati, consort of Lord Siva was made to sit on a golden throne and Siva performing tandava in front of her. It included some difficult karanas like ‘Urdhva Tandava' that he presented on Kailas, his abode.

Later the team took up traditional and most popular ‘Dasavataram' set in Mohana ragam, Khandachapu talam. It was the typical Kuchipudi number traditionally presented by generations of artistes. All the incarnations found interesting interpretation in abhinaya and natya, with the three dancers, interchanging into roles that occur in each of the avataras and ending with ‘Seshatalpasai' posture.

Narayana Teertha Tarangas were said to cast a magical spell on humans improving their concentration and activation of ‘Shatchakras' in the human body, as it describes Srikrishna in myriad ways. ‘Marakathamanimayachela' in Arabhi, among them, is the most popular one but was presented as an abridged version limiting only to dances on brass plates by all the three artistes, maintaining good rhythmic balance. Mrutyunjaya Sarma conducted with crisp nattuvangam. Sangeethakala provided melodious and animated vocal support to Rajagopalachari's mridangam. Murali on flute and Sivaswarup on violin lent colour to the orchestra.