Shwetha Vijayaraghavan stole the show with her abhinaya and strong footwork.
Shwetha.
It was music all the way at Shwetha Vijayaraghavan’s Bharatanatyam recital for Kartik Fine Arts. The evening was dedicated to Maharaja Swati Tirunal and the Narada Gana Sabha Mini Hall revelled in the beauty of the great composer’s music. The musicians were egged on to give of their best by an appreciative audience that included stalwarts such as Narasimhachari in the front row and the ensemble of Murali Parthasarathy (vocal) Srinivasan (violin) and Ramesh Bab
u (mridangam) did not disappoint.
The violinist proved the most evocative though, and his brief but tuneful raga overtures were always greeted with spontaneous applause.
The vibrant Sankarabarnam (Adi) invocation to Lord Siva, ‘Nrityathi nrithyathi,’ made a strong impact right at the start. The musical component remained powerful in the subsequent Dhanyasi (Adi) varnam, ‘Ha hanta vanchitam,’ through the Utsava Prabhandam keerthanam in manipravalam, ‘Kanakamayammayidum’ in Husseini (Adi) and in the Behag javali, ‘Saaramaina’ in Telugu.
The finale was the not-so-unusual Dhanashri (Adi) thillana. To her credit, the dancer rode this musical wave with confidence and single-minded focus.
Skilful movement
She is a young dancer, a professionally qualified company secretary, who has a skilful movement vocabulary and accurate time-keeping ability.
She is expressive as well, and this is what gives her interpretations the necessary depth. There is room for improvement though, and the dancer should make a serious attempt to overcome the slack elbow and the absence of the seated stance that mar the landscape.
Shwetha has had the guidance of revered gurus such as Adyar K.Lakshman, Kalanidhi Narayanan, C.K.Balagopalan of Kalakshetra and Nagamani Srinivasa Rao. That evening she was guided by the now-experienced nattuvanar, Roja Kannan, and they combined well to keep the performance on track.
The dancer kept up her energy despite the summer heat and humidity and made good use of the cramped stage. The nritta segments were marked by strong footwork and an enviable posture.
But it was her suggestive abhinaya that caught one’s attention whether she was the heroine longing for Lord Padmanabha’s attention in the varnam or the young, excited girl wondering who this resplendent figure in the procession was in the Husseini kirthanam.
There was one defining moment in the varnam when the heroine admires the Lord and His consort in procession; the dancer brought the picture alive just by her overawed reaction. There was no need for any words after that. This is what good dance is all about.
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