Innovative choreography
G.S. PAUL
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Vinitha Nedungadi's Mohiniyattom recital showcased her skills as a dancer and choreographer.
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ELOQUENT PERFORMANCE: Vinitha Nedungadi's strong grounding in literature helps her in adapting literary works into the grammar of dance.
Vinitha Nedungadi's Mohiniyattom recital at Regional Theatre, Thrissur, was an articulate demonstration of the dance form. The two-hour performance emphasised her skills as a choreographer and her inclination to the intrinsic cultural elements of Kerala.
In conformity with the traditional repertoire, Vinitha opened with cholkettu. She exuded grace in the execution of the adavus. The extremely slow tempo in which she chose to present the cholkettu considerably enriched the lasya ingredient, the singular trait of Mohiniyattom. Vinitha, daughter of writer P. Narendranath, has a strong literary foundation. Small wonder then that she could commendably adapt a few Malayalam poems for her recital. Select lines from Thunchathezhuthachan's Mahabharata, Edassery Govindan Nair's `Poothappattu' and Kavalam Narayana Panicker's lines `Karukare kaarmukil' enhanced the indigenous touch of her performance.
`Niranja peelikal' from the Mahabharata describes Krishna as seen by Salyer, Karna's charioteer in the battlefield. Even while depicting a graphic illustraion, the dancer never failed to remind us that the venue was the battleground. It was performed to Sree raga in Adi tala.
Adapting `Poothappattu'
The credit for adapting `Poothappattu' in Mohiniyattom goes to Vinitha. The audience were spellbound as the 40-minute performance composed in ragamalika and talamalika highlighted the dancer's histrionic prowess. Vinitha's range of emotions while portraying characters like Nangeri (the child's mother) and the ogress was exemplary. Introduction of pure dance sequences in between long abhinaya sequences was an index of her choreographic ingenuity. The music was scored by Kottakkal Madhu.
`Kekiyattam,' (peacock dance) depicting Kavalam's lines, captured the excitement of the peacock as dark clouds crowded the sky. It was set to Samanthamalahari raga and Chaturasra eka tala.
Following the Swati Tirunal padam `Poonthen ner mozhi' in Anandabhairavi, Adi tala, Vinitha concluded her recital with `Thiruseva' in Bhageswari, Chembada tala. The music support was excellent. The programme was organised by Bharatham.
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