Vintage Vazhuvoor
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Rhadha gave the essence. Rupa Srikanth
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Photo: R. Shivaji Rao
Rhadha.
It took only twelve minutes for dancer-guru Rhadha to convey the essence of Guru Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai’s delightful nritta. That’s how long the ‘original’ Kalyani ragam, Adi talam jathiswaram took. There was an initial warm
up with the attami and the mei adavu after which the trademark ‘Vazhuvoor bani’ features like the unrelenting pace, the flowing adavu patterns, the ‘valaivu’ or curves in the arm movements with the generous use
of the alapadma hasta, the quicksilver eye movements and the poses in the karvais took over. And as the viewers were transported back some sixty years, one could see that the ‘young’ 66-year-old dancer too was sharing the same nostalgia on stage. Her enthusiasm and ‘twinkle-toed’ liveliness could not have been much different then. Only ‘vadyar’s’ baritone nattuvangam and his male singers, S.K.Rajarathnam and K.R.Radhakrishnan, seemed to be missing.
Samples offered
Besides the jathiswaram, excerpts from other ‘Vintage Vazhuvoor’ compositions like the Shankarabaranam varnam, ‘Manavi,’ the famous Nattakurinji kriti brought into the Bharatanatyam repertoire by Guru Ramaiah Pillai, ‘Paal Vadiyum Mugam’ and the ‘Thiru Kutrala Kuravanji’ were offered as samples of the maestro’s choreography.
It was clear that visual aesthetics was important to the famed natyacharya. It is a moot point whether the style was refined with Kamala, his star performer, or whether Kamala and her sisters, Rhadha and Vasanthi, imbibed the refined style. He was an innovator, one with a keen sense of ‘auchithyam.’
He believed in dignity at all times, so the spine was always held erect and the abhinaya too was understated. It was also important for him to keep the energy of the performance at an even keel; that explained the short, crisp sequences whether in nritta or bhava. The gestural language had to be stylised and the permissible level of lokadharmi or realistic acting was minimal.
No exaggerations were allowed. It was heartening to see one of his famed disciples Rhadha in full flow during the silver jubilee celebration of her dance school ‘Pushpanjali.’ The two-day festival presented Guru Rhadha and her disciples in compositions taken from their rich portfolio of dance dramas. But the lecture demonstration session, presented along with dance researcher and musician Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, was the highlight of the festival.
Guru Rhadha has also added an impressive list of traditional choreographies to her ‘vadyar’s’ repertoire. There was one defining moment in the morning session that happened during the Kannada composition, ‘Krishna Nee Begane’ in Yaman Kalyani ragam, misra chapu talam. The mischievous child Krishna is running away when he suddenly stops and looks over his shoulder with a knowing look in his eyes — that one moment summed up Guru Rhadha’s artistry and maturity. So when she finished her two-hour presentation with a strenuous ‘original’ Kanada tillana by Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar in Rupaka talam, it came as no surprise to see the standing ovation she got.
Her musicians were in excellent form — Nandini Anand (vocal), Vijayaraghavan (mridangam), Vijay Venkatesh (flute) and Sangeetha Vasudevan (nattuvangam).
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