New vistas
Over the years, as glamour invades every profession and looks matter progressively more than work in many an arena, what hope is there for the dance world, where appearance counts for a lot anyway? So it is that glamour has hit the Indian classical dances like a sledgehammer. In the process, many serious dancers remain away from the limelight because they lack, or consciously avoid using, the skill of marketing themselves. Among such is Bharatanatyam exponent Marie Elangovan, a senior disciple of the late Guru K.J. Govindarajan.
French Canadian by birth and now settled in India for well over a decade, Marie performs in the Capital perhaps twice or thrice a year. Each time, though, she comes up with some well thought out pieces.
Married to her guru's son G. Elangovan, vocalist and nattuvanar, Marie collaborates with him in the choreography, and he composes the music and sometimes the lyrics as well. Among the highlights of Marie's recent recital in New Delhi was a piece based on a legend of the Seneca tribe of North Amrica with the theme of peace. The music and Tamil lyrics are by Elangovan. Though Marie has performed this in the past, she revamped the choreography for the new presentation. Another interesting piece was the jatiswaram in five audava ragas, all of which have the same five notes, Sa Ri Ga Pa Dha, in their sharp or flat variants. The ragas are Mohanam, Revagupti, Sivaranjani, Bhupalam and Vasanti. Then there was a tillana with sahitya dedicated to Mother Theresa. Since Marie and Elangovan both teach dance, these choreographic additions to the Bharatanatyam repertoire are likely to enrich the horizon.
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Chennai and Tamil Nadu
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Thiruvananthapuram
