SAARC takes centre-stage
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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The highlight of the week was provided by dance troupes from SAARC countries, who showcased regional cooperation of a different kind.
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A fine idea was the Indian performers escorting the respective troupe on to the stage in a gesture of welcome by the host country.
DEFINING IMAGES Dancers at the SAARC Pageantry presentation.
Unlike the customary presentation of unconnected variety of performing art traditions from different SAARC countries, the SAARC Pageantry presented at Siri Fort auditorium under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations became a glittering mosaic of different traditions caught on one unified canvas. Choreographer Maitreyi Pahadi has done it again, in her imaginative intertwining of so many threads into one integrated fabric, while retaining the individuality of each strand.
The entire cultural evening played out in a packed Siri Fort against the exotic jute and thermocol backdrop with delightful folk motifs designed by Anoop Giri. The castle-like arrangement topped by shikharas with flagstaff on which were the seated figures of doves symbolically underlined the SAARC message of peace, where countries of different political affiliations seek a cohesiveness.
India's professional pung, dhol, and Manipuri performers, Kathak dancers, Kalbelia dancers were all in form. After the breath-taking montage with all troupes coming together, came the Athanamili dancers from Afghanistan, waving scarves, the energetically swinging and swirling heads making the hair stand out in a choreography of variegated patterns. Bangladesh had its patriotic song followed by the Dhol and Sadher Lau dance.
From Bhutan came the traditional Zundra Tenchok and Dramitseng slow moving dances done to the drone of the long pipe, symbolising the eradication of evil. The Maldives' semi-religious dance and Nepal's Charya with the Tantric Buddhist Manjusri, and Pakistan's Leva introduced as a hangover of Arab and African legacy were all part of the fare.
Standing out for sheer proficiency in their very brief appearance were the polished Kandiyan dancers of the Chitralekha troupe from Sri Lanka. A fine idea was the connecting refrain between scenes with a ceremonial entry to the Rajasthani song "Padharo" with Indian performers escorting the respective troupe on to the stage in a gesture of welcome by the host country. After the Kandiyan dancers, the tillana performed by Spanda disciples of Leela Samson while scrupulously correct, somehow lacked the customary celebratory zing, and strangely the troupe was missing from the finale where all participants came together in one frame.
Felled by music
At the India International Centre, Chennai's Uma Murali Krishna, a disciple of Vempati Chinnasatyam, disappointed, the too soft footwork to taped music of indifferent quality (with the vocalist reaching abysmal levels of besura singing in the ashtapadi) robbing the dance of its robust virtuosity.
The plate dance linked in an original endeavour to the varnam in Gambhira Nattai was an apology, with none of the rhythmic syllables caught in the footwork.
"Sa Virahe Tavadeena" the ashtapadi was wrong in abhinaya focus, for the song is not a first person expression of Radha's tormented loneliness without Krishna, but an image painted by the sakhi to Krishna, hoping to bring the lovers together.
The interpretative message in dance, unless indicative of `who' says `what' to `whom', means little. The dancer has a fine presence and a mobile face for mukhabhinaya as clearly seen in the javali "Mariyada Teliyakana" in Surutti, but what the dancer needs is more internalisation.
Live music would have made a difference. And dancers should avoid indifferently read out hosannas between items about the dancer's achievements.
This interferes with the flow of the programme and, for the audience to form a view the ongoing recital is all that counts.
Orissa day
Orissa's Annual Day celebrations at the Sai auditorium become a kind of
introspective exercise, inauguration speeches by persons from different echelons of Orissa recapitulating on the progress and failures of the State in different fields. This critic has no quarrels with the cultural component, particularly the fare provided by the Odissi Research Centre of Bhubaneshwar. `Gopikrishna' the dance drama, choreographed by Durgacharan Ranbir, was presented by well-trained dancers, who performed to a neatly composed and rendered score.
Earlier, the Centre's Chief Executive Ramahari's vocal performance comprised a couple songs from the rich legacy of Oriya literature, with Sanskrit for good measure in the Gitagovind ashtapadi.
But with the mela-like atmosphere, with children and adults walking in and out non-stop, and with the auditorium air saturated with the smell of pop corn or chips, not forgetting the line of photographers with stands blocking the view of the stage, the evening seemed more fit for an outdoor venue.
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