Dancer- musician Smitha Madhav stands on the threshold of having completed two decades in both the fields of art. To mark this milestone, she is presenting a unique performance, ‘Desika’ where she comes on stage as a Carnatic vocalist and Bharatanatyam dancer, a rare achievement for a performing artiste these days. Meanwhile, she has also nurtured disciples with loving care and they are going to showcase their talent too in music and dance.
“I had my arangetram on October 25, 1995 in Hyderabad, under the aegis of my guru Rajeswari Sainath. And 20 years down the line, the day and date seemed to return having made a full circle. Had I been in a technical or academic field, by now, I would have taken a VRS and relaxed. Here I’m still tagged as an ‘up-and-coming’ artiste; that’s the difference between opting for classical arts as one’s life objective and any other field of science and technology!” quips Smitha as she unfolds the sequence that led to her decision to celebrate her coming of age as a dancer, musician and guru. An interesting anecdote with the head of the newly launched Telugu television channel Bharat Today, where Smitha premiered the promos on one of their programmes, ‘Gopuram, Gokulam, Gurukulam’, led her to the theme of her forthcoming presentation which is a veneration to guru(s), the teacher, mentor and guide. The title, ‘Desika’ refers to a real teacher/guru who is supposed to have certain sterling qualities to qualify his status.
The presentation to be held at Ravindra Bharati on Sunday evening, will comprise four segments: two solo Carnatic vocal and dance recitals and two group dance and music concerts. The latter to be performed by Smitha Madhav’s disciples will intersperse her solo music kaccheri and dance. Her Carnatic recital with which the programme Desika opens will figure compositions revering gurus like Thyagaraja (by Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar), Paramacharya of Kanchi and Mahatma Gandhi and a Kabir bhajan on the greatness of a true teacher. Her solo Bharatanatyam will also be on the same theme venerating Adi Sankaracharya, Swami Dayananda Saraswathi and all the great souls who have walked this land making it a worthy place to live in. The group chips in between the two solo performances with pieces from ‘margam’ (dance) and a few kritis. Steering away from the run-of-the-mill, Smitha opts for a quasi-intellectual approach to the theme to drive home the point as well as make it appealing to her audience.
