Classic and contemporary
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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The Kathak festival held at the Kalakshetra offered a bird's eye view of changing modes and shifting foci.
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TRADITION PERSONALISED: Aditi Mangaldas. Photo: M. Karunakaran.
This December season saw a Kathak festival organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Kathak Kendra and the Kalakshetra Foundation. Featuring leading artistes from Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Ahmedabad, it showcased the classic and the contemporary, offered a bird's eye view of changing modes and shifting foci in present day Kathak.
On day two, Ram Mohan Maharaj, son of the legendary Shambhu Maharaj, and Malti Shyam, offered familiar fare, starting with Krishna aradhana, and ending with gat nikas, where ovations greeted the different gaits portrayed — the peacock or the elephant. Along with the romance of thumri (``Mohe chedo na"), the artistes also demonstrated the nritta patterns characteristic of Kathak, with the charming patter that goes with it. This is Kathak as we know it.
What Aditi Mangaldas did was to personalise this age-old tradition in her choreography. The painting of the seasons retained the lyricism of the genre, its stylised footwork and naturalistic abhinaya. But they were shaped by an artiste responding to the pulse of her times.
Minimal gestures
Moonlit woods, blossoms raining from trees like snowflakes, silvery waters lit up by lotuses and swans, Aditi's wintry Sharad had a wondrous silence to it. Her gestures were minimal but her sense of timing added import. Her use of space extended the reach of the theme.
Autumnal Hemant brought a mood change. Seated on the stage, with only the flute to colour the experience, the dancer recreated the falling leaves, the tug of war between yearning and hope, and wistfulness in pondering over the unknown. Lighting played a major role, as did poetry, layering the mood in being recited, not sung.
Vaswati Mishra's Dhwani Group from Delhi presented Krishna as friend, lover, child, protector and eternal partner of the human soul.
Based on Dharamvir Bharti's verse, the choreography used no gimmicks in its depiction of bhakti and vatsalya, trying to evoke the ineffable through images of light and shadow, sound and movement.
The teasings and the tantalisings of the Brindavan myths were very much there.
But Vaswati Mishra used them to take off from the pastoral to the philosophical.
The poetry, music and lighting helped, but the dancer had to rely on herself to transform her perception into visual reality. She did do that, in parts.
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Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
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