Swarada Bhave and Eesha Pinglay, senior students of well-known dancer-dramatist Vaibhav Arekar, presented a Bharatanatyam recital for Natyarangam last week. The dancers have pursued the art form both academically with a Master’s degree, and professionally, as key members of Sankhya Dance Creation, founded by Vaibhav. While Eesha set the stage alight with a commanding presence and sharp movements , Swarada displayed a softer, charming manner with special emphasis on netra abhinaya. Anchoring their performance was guru, Vaibhav.
Vaibhav has worked with theatre techniques in dramatisation and carries those sensibilities into the Bharatanatyam repertoire. He takes great pride in sculpting space and in using the physicality of movement to add grandeur. The choreography for the duo shone in the varnam (‘Mohamaginen inda velaiyil,’ Kharaharapriya, Aadi, Dhandayuthapani Pillai) — the pure dance segments were unconventional. The trikala jati used beats of khanda in vilamba and madhyama kaala, with steps that didn’t match the sollus and the second jati with offbeat sollus throughout. The next chatusra jati had the dancers alternating steps. It worked for the simple reason nothing seemed imposed.
The sahitya segments were layered with the dancers alternating roles of Siva, the lovelorn nayika, Kama, the god of love who tortures the heroine, and the sakhi, the heroine’s friend and messenger of love. The role-play was not interactive; they were more or less descriptive statements, with one dancer exiting in character and the other staying on to emote the line. In one instance, in the charanam, both dancers were involved. It evolved like this: The heroine is trying to humour her friend, and from behind she waves her bangles in front of her seated friend and runs away in glee, knowing that she has kindled her friend’s curiosity. elaid the bait, so to speak, for her friend’s interest. But even here, there was no eye-contact.
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The stylish presentation was impressive, but there was one inherent flaw in the approach. With alternating role-play, intensity of emotion cannot be built up. But Vaibhav made use of physical stillness to compensate.
The Kadanakuthuhalam thillana (Aadi, Dr. Balamurali Krishna) was another striking duo choreography. Vaibhav experimented with staggered steps, where the dancers did not start at the same time, but ended the jati together. For this, the entries and exits in the varnam, the timing and coordination between the guru and sishyas had to be flawless and it was. No wonder that the dancers work from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. practising for performances and doing body conditioning and synchronisation exercises, as Vaibhav revealed in his lec-dem the next day.
The padams brought out the emotive capacity of the dancers. Swarada through a Ninda Stuthi (Suratti, Rupaka, Marimutha Pillai) and Eesha a Kshetrayya padam (Moguduchi, Sahana, misra chapu) depicted pining, virahotkhandita heroines with sensitivity and maturity. Swarada is more intense and natural whereas Eesha’s style reflects detailed, method acting.
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The bhava-infused music (G. Srikanth - vocal, Satish - violin) was the crowning glory . There were many memorable moments, one of which was the plaintive notes in the varnam anupallavi, ‘… ennai maruva varuvano solladi’ that far outdid the dancer’s expressions. Another highlight was the harmony a la maestro-composer Dr. Balamurali Krishna in the thillana sahitya. Hari Babu (mridangam) was an enthusiastic participant but was hardly heard.