Picturesque presentation
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Ancient temple ritual of drawing figures through dance was recreated in Kuchipudi style.
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Aesthetic presentation The string of dancers draw figures by foot
Thanks to her father and guru late C.R. Acharya (Kuchipudi), Voleti Rangamani has emerged as the sole practitioner of figure-drawing technique of Kuchipudi dance style. Acharya had studied several ancient books, including Thala Patras and recreated this ancient technique. He made a few changes in this dance form for performing on the modern stage. Some of the Kuchipudi artistes of renown of previous generation too learned this art from Acharya.
This time in her show, held last week at Thyagaraya Ganasabha, under the auspices of Abhinaya Darpana Academy, Rangamani made five of her disciples to draw pictures of Mahalakshmi Udbhavam (lotus), Simhanandini (a picture of lion, the mount of Durga) and Mayura Kautvam (picture of peacock). She had named it as ‘
Aalaya Natya Sammelanam’
(a compendium of temple dances). These figure-drawing dances are said to be part of temple ritual of olden days. The figures were supposed to be drawn by the dancers in front of the temple chariot (ratham) prior to the start of the Rath yatra during festivals. To symbolise the tradition, Rangamani made arrangements to carry Goddess Lakshmi in a ‘pallaki’ (palanquin) in the auditorium.
Rekha Madan created Maha Lakshmi Udbhavam while dancing on a powder sprinkled on a mat kept on floor. Ramanujam and Bhargavi together danced on a separate mat, creating the picture of a peacock (Mayuram). And Pava
ni and Maheswari joined together in creating another picture - of a lion Simha Nandini. The speciality of this show was that all the five dancers had created these pictures simultaneously. The first part of the programme was devoted to
presenting traditional Kuchipudi solo and group numbers like ‘Ganapathi Stuthi.’ Ramanujam, Bhargavi, Pavani, Maheswari, Pranavi, and Samyukta took part in ‘Dasavataram’ which was a kind of mini-ballet . Then there was an Annamayya keertana – ‘Thandanana Hure’ a song with a touch of the folk. Rangamani conducted the nattuvangam with vocal support by D.S.V. Shastry and mridangam by Rajagopalacharyulu. Muralidharacharyulu on the violin and Venkatesh on the flute added to the orchestral richness.
G.S.
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