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MUSIC ACADEMY

Photo: V. Ganesan

Fine dance: Kalakshetra troupe performing ‘Kutrala Kuravanji.’

This dance-drama, at the 1944 premiere of which Rukmini Devi played the heroine Vasantavalli, Sarada Hoffman played her sakhi and N.S.Jayalakshmi the kurathi or soothsayer, was based on the format of the kuravanji natakams that were fading out of existence at that juncture.

In creating the production, the brochure informs us, Rukmini Devi invited Karaikkal Saradambal to help her with suggestions. As a choreographic work of Rukmini Devi, however, ‘Kutrala Kuravanji’ is unique, a format which even she did not repeat in her later productions. It is dance theatre not in the sense in which the term is used today, denoting a theatre production in which dance is an element. Here the theatrical element is produced through dance.

Once the main characters — the sakhis, the heroine and the kurathi — come on stage, they have no need to exit, because all action takes place within a limited area. The spoken word is not made use of, as in Rukmini Devi’s later productions. Thus poetry, dance and music carry forward the action. Light and set designing are kept to a minimum, and scene changes are not required. Therefore the responsibility of holding audience attention is squarely on the shoulders of the dancers. To help them in this, the choreographer wove in elements such as symmetry and asymmetry, group and solo dancing, changes of pace and musical forms, besides the traditional elements inherent in kuravanji natakam.

In the performance at the Music Academy, while the form of the original production was maintained, with a high level of nritta, the spirit could not be, perhaps due to the inexperience of the dancers. While Rukmini Devi’s productions were never ostentatious, she nevertheless had an excellent sense of showmanship. For example, she made sure that in those parts of the production where only one character was supposed to dance and the others to watch, that watching should not appear static. She left her dancers to adlib their reactions to the events going on before them. This gave a layered look to the scenes, and much thought went into how to make the characters appear live without their disturbing the main action. This adlibbing did not happen at the Academy performance. Right after the sakhis appeared from behind the traditional handheld curtain, they began to dance and stop with switch-operated precision, reacting neither to each other, nor to Vasantavalli (Revathy Sharma), whose display of jugglery with the ball (pandattam) is her introduction to the play. This was a pity, because it took the shine off the hard work put in by all these fine dancers. Percussion by Anil Kumar in the pandattam sequence was effective.

The way the dancers adhered to the demands of difficult adavus at high speeds, compromising neither on araimandi nor the high kicking heels, drew applause on a few occasions. What seemed missing was the abhinaya aspect, of which also they seem eminently capable, with guidance. During the long stretch when Vasantavalli sings to the moon, for example, and then to Manmatha, the sakhis remained seated on the floor with expressions that were sometimes worried, but mostly blank. Later, when asked to take her message of love to Siva, they volunteered without much eagerness. Even their concern for Vasantavalli, when emoted, could have done with more variety of expression. Things picked up when the kurathi (Meera Aravind) made her entry.

Apart from veterans Adyar Lakshmanan and Rama Rao, the orchestra consisted of Anil Kumar on the mridangam, Srinivasan on the violin and Sashidhar on the flute.

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