Full of poise and grace
ANJANA RAJAN
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Navia Natarajan's dance reflected a solid foundation in Vazhuvoor bhani.
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NAVIA NATARAJAN
Navia Natarajan gave a zestful Bharatanatyam performance under the aegis of Kartik Fine Arts at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. A disciple of Padmini Ramachandran of Bangalore, and earlier of Radhika Kalyani of Chennai, Navia combines the poise and flowing grace of the Vazhuvoor bani with a youthful exuberance of her own.
The decorative jatis, full of little surprises, in the ragamalika varnam dedicated to Lord Brihadiswara, designed to play with jaati patterns and with plenty of jumps and quick turns, were well suited to the dancer's personality. Navia's kartari jumps are particularly alluring. The varnam she chose to perform was one by the Thanjavur quartet, "Swami Ninne Kori Nannura." A solid grounding in the basics helps her to maintain clarity of footwork at high speeds, not to mention unflagging stamina.
In the abhinaya aspect, Navia shows a freedom of expression not hampered by the `pretty pretty' syndrome. The portrayal of the nayika's total immersion in love for her Lord had moments of abandon that are necessary if the presentation is to rise to the level of an individual statement. This is an encouraging start, but abhinaya is an open road, and the only years add to its richness. Her interpretation of the Puranadaradasa composition, "Balakrishnaney Baaro," a devarnama in Yamuna Kalyani, was endearing and quite natural in its depiction of Yashoda's relationship with her adorable son Krishna. While Navia has a good capacity to hold the sthayi bhava, she could consider more variations in her interpretations.
Navia's choice of a tillana in Amritavarshini elicited titters from the audience, since this raga that is often sung to persuade the rain gods to shower their munificence already seems to have rewarded Tamil Nadu in excess. This bit of irony notwithstanding, the closing piece was executed with the verve and clarity of line she had established right at the beginning.
Navia had a supportive orchestra in Balasubramania Swami (vocal), Prasanna Kumar (nattuvangam), Janardhana Rao (mridangam) and Narasimhamurthy (flute).
A surprise addition to the programme was the Bharatanatyam performance by Girish Kumar Panikar, who performed in place of the originally scheduled dancer, Sulakshana Jayaraman. Trained at Kalakshetra, Chennai, Girish has been in Singapore since 1996.
Besides his powerful nritta, interesting segments of abhinaya made the programme memorable. The Ambujam Krishna composition depicting how Krishna's flute mesmerises all creatures was given interesting treatment by the dancer, who incorporated the idea that the very desire to follow the spiritual path is a blessing not bestowed on ordinary mortals. A gopi sees a vision of Krishna surrounded by the forest creatures and the cowherd boys and girls and realise she is lucky to have been granted this vision. Her friends are unable to see what she sees. The gopi following Krishna in gay abandon and Krishna quietly reassuring her, were some nice images.
The varnam dedicated to Lord Siva, a composition of Pandanallur Srinivasa Pillai, also had its share of memorable images, though not all were soothing. That Ravana assuaged Lord Siva after annoying him by playing on a veena strung with his own intestines was a story well documented. Rather than evoking the supreme devotion of the demon king, Girish's depiction was reminiscent of the gory detail often found in Kathakali presentations of the killing of Hiranyakashipu by Lord Narasimha. Though a virtuoso in terms of execution and speed of adavus, this energetic dancer did not reflect his Kalakshetra credentials in terms of presentation style. Despite the spiritual themes, the performance seemed unsettlingly loud in volume, in rhythmic intensity not juxtaposed with moments of quietness and in the choice of costume colours — orange, light blue and darker blue, all in electric shades that positively pierced the eyes.
Girish was accompanied by an able orchestra comprising Jayanti Subramaniam (nattuvangam), Gomati Nayakan (vocal), Veda Krishnan (mridangam), Sivaraman (violin) and Tyagarajan (flute).
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