Ideas that count
Manjari Sinha
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A festival in the U.S. highlighted the thriving Indian classical dance scene overseas.
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CHISELLED `Navarasa' by Anuradha Nehru and troupe
IDEA (Indian Dance Educators Association) is an organisation of dance professionals dedicated to raising the profile and appreciation of Indian classical dance in the United States. Its members include representatives of 14 dance schools from the Washington Metropolitan area, which teach a total of 400 students six classical dance styles of India. By providing workshops, lecture demonstrations and organising dance festivals and seminars, IDEA helps in increasing the understanding of Indian cultural traditions among non-Indian populations also. Its main annual event is a dance festival that includes performances and panel discussions, etc. that draw diverse dance groups, mostly from within the U.S. and from India.
The focus of this year's two-day festival, DANCelebration 2005, held recently, was new choreographic works, which offered the audiences a glimpse of recent work by several Washington-based dance groups and two outstanding dance offerings from Madhavi Mudgal's Odissi group and Nirupama Rajendra's Kathak group.
The curtain raiser was `Navarasa: Expression of Life', by Kuchipudi Kalanidhi, conceived by the artistic director Anuradha Nehru and choreographed by Kishore Mosalikanti, both disciples of Guru Vempatti Chinna Satyam.
The nine moods or emotions were given context through an episode from the Ramayana, setting the stage for a more abstract depiction without the immediacy of a narrative, abandoning the verbal and arriving at the origins of emotion and mood through music and movement. With the highly evocative music by B.V. Balasai, and the chiselled dancers, the enchanting choreography had an unmistaken signature of Guru Vempati.
`Dance Kaleidoscope' was a bunch of short presentations with modern and traditional themes by several local dance companies like Natananjali School of Dance run by Lakshmi Swaminathan, Nataraj School of Indian Dance, Mayuri Dance Academy of Sukanya Tagore, DDPS & Co, mirroring the multiple identities of second generation South Asians with Bharatanatyam and Modern dance, Kuchipudi Dance Academy, a Kathak piece by Arpita Roy and `Waves' by Jayamangala, et al... mostly mediocre stuff.
Show stealers
Madhavi Mudgal and her troupe stole the show, offering a glimpse into the endless possibilities in the dynamic and lyrical Odissi through group, duo and solo explorations. Starting with Ganga Stotra, going on to Dwidha, an Oriya Song, the Arabhi pallavi, Saagarika - a poem by Rabindranath Tagore - to the concluding Pallavan, the mesmerising music and the poetic choreography were a class apart.
The second day at the Thomas Jefferson Theatre, Arlington, Northern Virginia started in the forenoon with the panel discussion focused on the Relevance of Indian Classical Dance to 21st Century Youth. Among the panelists were Dr. Sunil Kothari, Madhavi Mudgal, Nirupama Rajendra, Pallabi Chakravarty and others.Christel Stevens from Maryland moderated with great sensibility. But the discussion came alive only when the young participants from the audience started interacting
The main attraction of the concluding evening was `Bhaav Raag Taal', the spectacular show presented by Nirupama Rajendra and Abhinava Ensemble from Bangalore, which was preceded by a very elementary Kathak ballet `Taal' and a Manipuri dance based on Lai Haroba by local artists. Right from the Mangal Dhwani the beginning, the Raas, Ta-Dha, Angikam and Kadam-Kadam each and every item in `Bhaava Raag Taal' was a picture of perfection. Angikam based on the grammer of body language from the Natya Shastra of Bharatamuni was specially commendable.
It was heartening to see a wonderful, rich and thriving Indian classical dance scene in the U.S. that made this kind of an event a grand success.
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