Mid-summer drama!
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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Summer is when young talents get more chance to perform.
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Feather in the cap Purnima Roy, a disciple of Nandini Singh, in performance.
Summer, with the less crowded performance timetable, opens the dance scene to really young talent, showcased in various venues during the week gone by. At Sai auditorium, Kalashram’s Yuva Kala Utsav in an integrated events schedule relating to several art forms from painting, music and dance, to a walk for art and culture marking World Dance Day, received overwhelming response from the capital’s school-going children. What amazed the organisers during the walk
was discovering the unmitigated ignorance on any matter of art in the young minds – names of legendary figures in classical dance, music and painting evoking not a flicker of familiarity from any of the young. “Kalashram is determined to bridge this colossal gap, with interactions enabling a basic understanding of arts, as part of the school’s training,” said a teacher.
The performance of Teen tala nritta by junior students was followed by ‘Bhaya’, capturing frozen stances and expressions portraying the mood of fear. Involved, the sudden halts, the imaginative sound track and the 13-matra nritta and Mamata’s sensitive abhinaya solo made for high points in the production. The costume drama ‘Wrana Rang’ based on Tagore’s “Hori Khela”, had seniors like Mamata Maharaj, Tushar and Shankar raising the performance graph of the well rehearsed production.
At Chinmaya Centre students of Jayalakshmi Eshwar – Pavitra, Priyanka, Sakshi, Maitreyi, Sreeja – featured in an evening of Bharatanatyam. With her clean lines, grace and precision, Pavitra led the group with a pushpanjali solo in Kedaram, a composition of late O.S. Sreedhar. The mechanical smile on the dancer’s face, now off and now on, struck an odd note in what was otherwise a very competent rendering. Choreographed by the teacher for a group presentation, the jatiswaram in Kapi, violinist Durgaprasad’s composition, found the dancers performing without a flaw in dance profile. Structured in the varnam format, but in the pure bhakti mode, O.S. Sreedhar’s composition in Durga and Rageshri, “Devaki Nandana Yashoda Natkhat” was choreographed with two interwoven levels, with Pavithra as the main dancer/narrator in the ekaharya-lasyanga mode interacting with simultaneous group episodic narration visualising each musical statement. The item c
limaxed in the “Shankha Chakra Gada Padma” refrain in the charanam. The tillana in Kuntalavarali, too crowded with movement, had gati without the sculpturesque ‘sthithi’ contrast of this item.
In a well-knit programme, the otherwise fair compere, grossly mispronounced raga names. S. Vasudevan’s generally satisfactory singing strikes sudden uneven sruti-less patches. Jayalakshmi’s nattuvangam was taut.
Kathak hopefuls
Nandini Singh’s Kathak institution Vaasuki Natyashala aims at making teaching a churning of the Kathak waters for dance ambrosia (in the manner of Vasuki the mythical serpent). Amidst its group of several young Kathak hopefuls training at the centre, were two main performers of the evening at Chinmaya auditorium. After the curtain-raiser with a group presentation of Vishnu vandana (“Shantaakaaram Bhujagashayanam”), nine-year-old Shivika Vikram in her Teen tala tigulban
di exposition with tihai, Ganesh paran, slick tukras with a Kalinganartana episode thrown in, all rendered to the accompaniment on percussion provided by the two young sons of tabla exponent Naushad, Zohail Ahmed and Subhan Ahmed, showed confidence and a relaxed precision in anga and rhythm.
The other, a highly polished performer Purnima Roy, was as graceful in movement as immaculate in rhythm. A feather in the teacher’s cap, one was struck by the gems of Jaipur gharana in her recital – the dha taka thunga in three layers, the rare kavits, the deer in different moods in mriga-trishna (a composition of Hiralalji) and ladis and tihai that Purnima has been taught by Nandini. The get-up of the dancers was aesthetic.
Odissi dance drama
Shri Jayadeva Kala Kendra, under the direction and choreography of Guru Samir Kumar Behera, a disciple of late Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, presented the dance drama ‘Shakuntala’ at Stein auditorium. Competently organised, the evening had its delays and varying levels of performance and scene depiction, the Vishvamitra/Menaka throwback in the narration rather contrived. While the plain stage with dance alone giving the message was good, the music with its synthesiser and mixed influences jarred. The bits done to traditional Odissi music had a truer ring.
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