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The festival marking 30 years of Sonal Mansingh’s Centre for Indian Classical Dances was reassuringly like the good old days of Bharatanatyam.

photos: shiv kumar pushpakar

Stars of tomorrow Meera Krishna

This exceptionally gifted dancer, so rooted in the Indian ethos, though brought up in the United States, is an example of the incredible heights that right grounding when coupled with hard work can reach.

In the nrittanjali curtain raiser, the joy of pure movement etched in perfect geometry of lines transformed in a flash into a deeply reverential attitude in the Saraswati vandana, the score by Bhimsen Joshi rendered in bhava-soaked melody by singer Hariprasad.

Photos: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Pallavi Saran Mathur.

In the swarajati, “E mayaladi ra na saami” in Husseni, the variations were built round each musical statement, wherein the nayika in mixed love, hurt and sarcasm addresses the nayaka — “caught in the web of the lotus-eyed one” — asking, “Who is she that has cast a spell on you with her wiles and poisoned your mind?” Never losing the dominant mood in the alleys of elaboration, Mythili’s imaginative sancharis in their fluid continuity of images fleshed out the thought in the musical line, emerging as a montage of complete statements rather than as staccato word-gesture relationships.

As for the jati teermanams, one lauded Mythili’s unerring feel for the fractional intervals of rhythm, with Mahalakshmi’s nattuvangam and Nellai Kannan’s sensitive mridangam doing the rest. Oothukadu Venkatasubbaiyar’s much-rendered Todi lyric “Thaye Yashoda” with the love/shock confused gopi complaining to Yashoda on the antics of her child/adult Krishna, and the ashtapadi “Natha Hare” (propelled by the clear sahitya in melting Sindhubhairavi sung by Hariprasad) further established the dancer’s flair for the interpretative — an aspect now pursued under the guidance of Braga Bassel.

The sculptured elegance of the tillana in Valaji ended with an involved prayer to Parashakti.

The music, never intrusive, was a fellow traveller on the same artistic journey.

Able to catch only the second day’s proceedings in the two-day Pradakshina festival mounted at the Habitat, marking 30 years of Guru Sonal Mansingh’s institution Centre for Indian Classical Dances, it was reassuringly like the good old days of Bharatanatyam with the alaripu in Tisram being presented by two of Sonal Mansingh’s students, Pallavi Saran Mathur and Meera Krishna.

Impressive Mythili Prakash.

Like the blossoming of a flower with petals opening out one by one, this orthodox introduction to the dance, in the clean linear architecture of lines drawn in space of movements flowing out of the body median and returning to it, has an elegance that dancers today seem to have little use for.

Both dancers gave an impeccable rendition. Meera ‘s evocative presentation of Muttuswamy Dikshitar’s homage to Goddess Rajarajeswari in “Panchashat Peetha Roopini Maampahi” in Devagandhari, had woven into the dance narrative the episode of Sati’s self-immolation by falling into the sacrificial fire of Daksha’s yagna, followed by Shiva’s inconsolable grief, with Vishnu’s intervention resulting in the creation of 51 “shakti peethas”.

The climax of the evening was Pallavi’s presentation of the quintessential Shankarabharanam varnam “Manavi cheko narada” with the nayika, a forlorn virahotkanthita, in her separation pleading that the Tanjapuri Brihadeeswara respond to the urgent pleas of one with faith only in Him.

With her fine presence, Pallavi combines clarity of dance lines (delightful veeshara adavus) that speak of excellent grooming under the teacher. She has an expressive face too, though abhinaya emerging as an intense statement of overpowering love will take more evolving. The nritta aspect with Sonal Mansingh doing the nattuvangam and Kesavan on the mridangam with Krishna on kanjira and morsing was impeccable.

Meera’s tillana, again not one often done today, making great demands on the balance and stamina of the dancer, was executed with unflagging statuesque appeal.

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