Now for the poetry!
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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If flawless technique were to combine with inner passion, the results would be stupendous.
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Photo: Deepak Mudgal
Line-perfect Lavanya Anant in performance.
One of the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Bismillah Khan awardees of last year, now Pune-based dancer Lavanya Anant’s Bharatanatyam is meticulously flawless in line and profile, the phenomenal perfection of anga suddha ensurin
g an architectonic movement geometry of almost unbelievable correctness. With a complementing stage presence, this hard working dancer is a credit to the training of her renowned gurus like the late Guru Rajaratnam Pillai, K.J.Sarasa and Kalanidhi Narayanan. But with all these plus points, this critic, watching her at the India International Centre, could not avoid the thought: “If only this infallible prose could transform into poetry!”
Lavanya’s cool correctness and visually exquisite Bharatanatyam, if seasoned with stronger flames of inner passion, would smoulder with a conviction making her a dancer hard to beat.
The dancer had an excellent team of musicians starting with the vocalist Kuldip Pai whose mood-filled singing combined melody with classical richness. With the very capable M.S. Sukhi as mridangist, and an unobtrusively delightful violinist in Srilakshmi Venkatramani and sedate nattuvangam by Venkatakrishnan, Lavanya had all the accompanying infrastructure well in place.
Scrupulously clean
Starting with a nrityanjali, the dancer’s homage to the Divinity in the female aspect based on verses from Rajarajeswari Ashtakam, invoking the Goddess in various moods — powerfully destructive of the undivine, and compassionate in her grace bestowing magnanimity — saw the dancer portray forms like Rajarajeswari, Kali, Hymavati, Bhagavati, etc. The ragamalika score was devised by Sukhi. One must applaud the work behind such scrupulously clean dancing. But varied facial expression needs more internalised strength of feeling.
The Papanasam Sivan Nattakuranji varnam “Saami naan undan adimai enru ulagamellam ariyume”, with long jatis and frills drawing out phrases like “Bhootesha” made the love plaint of the nayika addressing Lord Nataraja too long winding, thereby diluting the message and making it more a measure of the dancer’s redoubtable stamina. And Lavanya’s own introductions too could be crisper without a word for word explanation — as in the ashtapadi taking the romance away from the grand poetry of Jayadeva, in a lyric like “Yahi Madhava Yahi Keshava”. And more bite in the Khandita depiction was needed.
The Purandaradasa Devarnama “Chikkavane ivanu” with singing and dance interpretation blending well, was the most effective item of the day, giving telling glimpses of the child/man mystery of little Krishna as recounted by the gopi. While the swaralaya conceived by Sukhi was very neatly rendered, a tillana has a definitive character which provides a perfect finish for a recital. After all the nritta passages in earlier items, swaralaya becomes more of the same.
Having polished technique to such an extent, Lavanya can now concentrate on allowing the inner dancer to express herself more freely.
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