Besides Jaya Prabha Menon’s dazzling Mohiniattam performance, the week gone by also witnessed Santosh Nair’s riveting group performance ‘Nataraj’. LEELA VENKATARAMAN
Riveting Ensemble work by Santosh Nair
When and how a dancer makes that paradigm shift, making the art form leapfrog to a state beyond mere technique is difficult to say. It was there for all to see when Mohiniattam dancer Jaya Prabha Menon, a disciple of Bharati Shivaji performed at the India International Centre that she had evolved beyond just pretty dancing. Familiar with what used to be in her case, a too sugary version of a lasya form like Mohiniattam, the outward silence with inner alertness of her abhin
aya came as a surprise. Stripped of all exaggerated mukhabhinaya cushioning, the interpretative part spoke of the awakening of the inner dancer. And fully in consonance with the tone of the abhinaya, the vocalist Kotakkara Jayan of International Centre for Kathakali provided most moving and sparsely designed music, the emotional impact not lost in too much melodic density. The dancer’s current researching under Guru Kavalam Narayana Panikkar would seem to have spurred the artistic evolution. Yashodhara, Kavalam’s own succinct and poignant libretto set to music in Mukhari and Shivaranjini ragas and Ayyadi talam, provided a strong takeoff point for portraying the wife of Buddha struggling to come to terms with the reality of the Buddha being the same prince Siddhartha, the husband she was wed to. Much like Mythily Sharan Gupt’s Hindi Yashodhara, Jayaprabha did the item full justice.
Mohiniattam dancer Jayaprabha Menon
Full fettle
The sambhoga sringar in the Ashtapadi “Nivrutta Nikunja” (Keshi Mathanam Udaaram) the ragamalika music rendered with bhava, saw the dancer in full fettle, the ‘prathama samagam’ recapitulation by Radha not lost in the slippery isles of too much coyness. The economy of gestures in reverse proportion to the intensity of feelings made for memorable moments – though the veena orchestration to express love climaxing is now a hackneyed addition. Kurukshetra in its frankly natya thrust could easily have been over-dramatised. But Jayaprabha never lost control while portraying Arjuna’s dilemma, Krishna’s Vishwaroopa or Draupadi’s humiliation in the Kaurava court. “Manasu oru krukshetra bhoomi”, (the mind is a Kurukshetra field) went the loaded sahitya. Satajeeva in exploring multiples of seven in rhythm had a gradual ascent to a peak and then quietude. Mahesh Somasundaram (maddalam), Trichoor Muralishekhara (veena) and Irinjalakuda Nandakumar (edekka) provided fine support.
Delectable Nataraj
The other riveting performance was Nataraj conceived and choreographed by Santosh Nair and presented by Sadhya at Habitat’s Stein auditorium. The production was a tribute to creativity inspired by tradition but going beyond it. Based on the unfathomable and infinite nature of Siva – from whose dance evolves the entire cycle of creation with its polarities, whose rhythms are the source of all movement, who is the supreme ascetic and lover partnering Shakti and who as creator and destroyer presides over the eradication of evil – the group production sparkled with a superbly trained agile troupe of dancers. The manner in which movements of Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Mohiniattam and Chhau became part of one grand arrangement, the strong dancers with their leaps and jumps, the perfect movement synchronicity, the music of Upamanyu Bhanot which like the dance borrowed from the classical but was modern Indian, the sensitive lighting and the costumes spoke of very high production values. Santosh himself as Siva with the broad sweep and ambit of leg and hand circles in air was a delight to watch. Chhau movement here has inspired a new creative dimension.
Students of Kavita Dwibedi performing at Habitat’s Stein, impressed with their good technique particularly the senior students like Madina Andassova a Russian, Kaori Naka a Japanese and Ortal Kohen from Israel, who have an angasuddha that many Indian aspirants lack. Despite the vocalist being off key in places, the music was well organised.
Dancer Ranjana Gauhar’s students performed at the Habitat basement in what was a very well organised show. The Odissi by students of varying age groups with different degrees of expertise while enthusiastic need more finish and clarity. The Dasavatar frozen cameos, while the highlight, should emerge in the flow of the movement and not as sudden poses. Music was tuneful and well rehearsed.
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