Excellent sense of timing
RUPA SRIKANTH
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Manaswini Sridhar's natural stage persona translated into easy and effective elaborations.
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Manaswini Sridhar.
At 9 a.m. on a lazy Sunday morning when even the arterial roads of Chennai were blissfully free, the Jaigopal Garodia Hindu Vidyalaya school compound reverberated with activity.
Under a makeshift pandal on a small, makeshift stage, Rasika Fine Arts was conducting its third Annual Music and Dance festival. That morning was the dance recital of 11-year-old Manaswini Sridhar, a student of Suma Mani.
This was classical art presented in its most basic form, the only concessions to modernity being the sound system and the lighting. But neither the temporary structure nor the lack of an audience bothered the dancer as she gingerly got on stage.
Expressive face
With single-minded focus, Manaswini quickly established herself as a dancer with an excellent sense of timing, an expressive face and a supple body. But what do you tell a child who has been taught a style that emphasises glamour rather than grammar? She has been trained to clone Shobana, Suma's teacher. But the truth is that what might pass off on a mature dancer like Shobana looks incongruous on a child like Manaswini. It would be prudent to first get the basics right and leave the rest for later. Her torso should be steadier, while the arm movements and the footwork ought to be finished properly.
There is enough raw material; all it requires is some guidance.
The dramatic affectation coloured the dancer's nritta more than it did her abhinaya. Her natural stage persona translated into easy and effective elaborations as in the story of Muruga's birth and in the imaginative vision of seeing him in everything, from the tree trunk that resembles his body to the peacock that is his vehicle, in the Lalgudi G.Jayaraman varnam in Neelambari ragam, Adi talam, `Alava Velava.'
Teermanams at lightning speeds accompanied these sancharis but Suma's soft handling of the nattuvangam saved the beautiful melody provided by Chitrambari (vocal), Bhagyalakshmi (flute) and Muruganandam (violin) from being overwhelmed. Venkat (mridangam) complimented the music ensemble with his supportive drumming.
Manaswini navigated through the subsequent kriti, `Mahadeva Siva Shambo' in Revathi ragam, Adi talam and the Maharajapuram Santhanam recordings of `Paarvai Onru Porume' in Suratti ragam, Adi talam and the Basant Bahar ragam, Adi talam, tillana with practised ease.
The Mayilai Karpagambal story in the first and the konakkol interjection recounting Krishna's antics in the second proved the dancer's talent time and again.
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