Bharatanatyam dancer Nirmala, with great respect to her stalwart guru Vasireddy Kanakadurga, named her institute as ‘Kanakadurga Nritya Vibhavari’. The late Kanakadurga during her later years served as principal of Secunderabad College of Music and Dance. Kanakadurga was the first Bharatanatyam artiste from Andhra Pradesh who gave performances all over the country and won laurels. She learned the art from great artistes of Tanjore. Nirmala’s team was invited last week to give performance at a function organised by Yuvakala Vauhini to felicitate former BBC Delhi bureau chief Sir William Mark Tully.
The repertoire Nimala set for her students was quite rich and she featured a score of her specially trained students in this Tanjavur style known for its in-depth abhinaya with rich grammar. The chosen artistes were Indu Neeharika, Siriksha, Iswarya, Saika Syam, Nritya, Mayukhi, and Jahnika Reddy who took on important numbers in groups.
The dance programme opened with slokas tuned in Kalyani, Abheri and Sankarabharanam — all lyrical tributes to Goddess Durga, performed by half a dozen dancers. This was followed by invocation to Vinayaka dancing for the kriti Vinayaka Ninu Vina Brochutaku in Nata, Ekatalam. Then there was a traditional ‘Sabdam’ with pallavi running as Swami Ninne Chaala Nammiti in Kambhoji, Misrachapu talam.
This was followed by Jatiswaram, set in Saveri ragam , by . This was a group presentation all the students excelling in presenting all the technicalities incorporated in the number. This also served as curtain raiser for the presentation of Jayadeva’s Ashtapadis and devotional numbers. The intermittent jatis that punctuate the sahitya lines was a feature of Bharatanatyam and students went through them meticulously.
The devotional numbers that followed included Annamayya kirtana Chakkani Talliki Changu Bhala in Padi, Dikshitar’s Panchashatpeetha Rupini Mampahi in Karnataka Devagandhari and a few more, well executed by students revealing rich manodharma.
This show was presented to pre-recorded music. Later, Guru Nirmala was felicitated by K. Rosaiah, Governor of Tamil Nadu, who was the chief guest at the event.
