SRI KRISHNA GANA SABHA
As graceful as the glide of a swan
RUPA SRIKANTH
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The visualisation of the timeless love story was somehow lost in the recurring group scenes.
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Photo: K.N. Muralidharan.
RICH VOCABULARY: Bharathi Sivaji (centre) and group.
She is right when senior dancer and choreographer Bharati Shivaji says that Mohiniyattom is ideally suited to portray the swans in Tchaikovsky's classical score Swan Lake. The grace, delicacy and gentle lilt of the dance style characterise the swans perfectly while a similar parallel can be drawn between the distinct white and gold costume of Mohiniyattom dancers and the white plumage of the water birds.
The indigenous interpretation of `Swan Lake' by the dancers from the Centre for Mohiniyattom thus had a rich movement vocabulary to take from, well-adapted costumes, good dancers and good lighting to highlight the effort. Yet the one-hour production never really took off. It opened to a beautiful scene featuring the prince and the evil sorcerer who chances upon the lake while hunting. The swans swayed into focus in a pool of blue light and the musicality of their gentle steps created waves of arresting visuals.
This first impression was stunning, but the same ensemble and the same group choreography lost its charm when repeated. The visualisation of the timeless love story was somehow lost in the recurring group scenes that dominated the show for too long. The palace scene or the ballroom scene, as it is referred to where the three brides are paraded before the prince, was almost the undoing of the entire evening. Overcrowded and contrived, it took away from the aesthetic value of the rest. Though the last scene was a choreographic delight, one had seen too much of the swans already.
The individual performances were commendable. Bharati Shivaji as the Queen Mother was dignified, while Vijayalakshmi as the sensitive Odette and the evil Odile was charming and seductive alternately. The swans were collectively graceful and elegant while Santosh Nair and Anil Panchal, who played the roles of Prince Siegfried and the evil Von Rothbart, were brilliant. Their style of ballet-influenced Chhau was actually the best part of the show. There were 21 dancers in all, the three brides were Manjula, Mom Ganguly and Ashwati. Some of the others were Anjali, Olga, Vidya and Sangeetha.
The lighting by Milind Srivastav was very predictably colour-coded but effective. The costumes were clever adaptations of the indigenous ones.
Swan Lake was conceptualised and adapted by Vijayalakshmi, Bharati's daughter and Mohiniyattom dancer. It was commissioned by the Ministries of Culture, Government of India, and the Russian Government for the Festival of India in Russia in 2005 for its inaugural event at the prestigious Bolshoi Theatre. The passion was there, the raw material was there, but in between was a gap that was never filled.
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