Romance of rain, dazzle of peacock
RUPA SRIKANTH
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Colours captured the mood at the IDA show.
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Photos : M. Karunakaran
DRAMATIC VISUALS: Captured at the IDA event.
As has been the tradition, the 23rd edition of the dance festival presented by the International Dance Alliance, Madras, and Narada Gana Sabha, showcased 12 dancers in solos or group choreographies, each packaged into crisp 17-minute capsules.
Also as per tradition, the IDA honoured two eminent Bharatanatyam gurus, Adyar K.Lakshmanan and Ranganayaki Jayaraman.
There was one problem pertaining to the theme of the two-day festival, ‘Vande Guru Parampara.’ It was projected as a salutation to dance gurus, but the presentations did not reflect the theme. The saving grace was the finesse in organisation.
Fine job
The hostesses, dancers cum television personalities — Lakshmi Ravichander and Saraswathi Krishnakumar — did a fine job; the décor of fresh marigold garlands in orange and yellow was beautiful; the lighting by Murali was good and the timekeeping professional.
Day 1 had presentations by well-known dancers, Uma Muralikrishna, Urmila Satyanarayanan and Binesh Mahadevan, whose group choreographies dealt with the heavenly damsel Menaka, Krishna and Surya, the Sun God.
While Lavanya Sankar’s ‘Pulane Puniya Porule’ was a well-researched production on mahans who attained moksha through each of the five senses, Rajeswari Sainath’s ‘Dance of Shiva’ incorporated many complexities in rhythm.
Ramya Ramnarayan, the only soloist in the festival, presented a scene from the Ramayana toWestern Jazz music.
Day 2 was as colourful with some dancers from Bangalore, Mumbai and Muscat. The most colourful and the most dramatic that evening was ‘Mazhai’ presented by Premila Ramesh and her group. It was akin to watching a 70-mm movie in 17 minutes. Stunning earth-hued costume, jazzed-up Carnatic music (courtesy Rajesh Vaidya), a rain dance by children, a love duet, an Umbrella dance with colour-coordinated umbrellas, an after-the-rain dance and a message on the environment as well. It had good energy, good visualisation and it was well-rehearsed, but most importantly, every dancer radiated the joy of ‘Mazhai.’
It was interesting to see how important costumes are in capturing the imagination of the today’s audience.
“Hazaaron Khwaishain” a Kathak piece by Hari, Chetna and Nupur Academy was one such beneficiary. Dim mood lighting in blue and red on predominantly white Anarkhali-churidars created wonderful imagery.
Added to the dramatic visuals were the wonderful sounds of hundreds of ghungroos beating in unison in the parans and tihais.
The problem here was the carry over of the same ‘uniform’ style into the emotive segments. For instance, dancers sporting identical expressions in unison — not quite aesthetic! Suffice it to say that they truly destroyed Bahadur Shah Zafar’s soulful ghazals on God and love.
Another piece in which the costumes stood out was in ‘The Peacock’ presented by Kavitha Ramu and her dancers.
The dancers were in ‘peacock’ colours of sea green, blue and purple accessorised by peacock feathers, colour-coordinated jewellery and glittering sky-blue eye shadow. Yet the overall impact was pleasing.
Within the grammar of Bharatanatyam, the essence of the peacock was presented through varied texts like the Mayil Viruttam, Greek mythology and a Kavadi Chindu.
Energy and content
There was energy and content,what the segment lacked was visualisation and coordination. It is a promising work, a beautiful work-in-progress. Though ‘Karunada Sri Kauvery’ had some unusual salwar kameez-like costumes, the emphasis of dancer Padma Murali’s presentation was the mythological story on the birth of the river Cauvery.
In between the long story of Surapadman’s atrocities and Sage Agasthya’s kamandalam, the dancer managed to introduce group dances.
This was just as well because they were the best part of the show. Barring the good music that grabbed attention, this piece had an uneven appeal — it sparkled in places and sagged in the others.
Even the bright orange-yellow and parrot green dance costumes could not save ‘Gam Ganapathim’ presented by Prakriti Bhaskar and the Nritya Mandala Dance Ensemble. It was one long invocation that lasted 17 minutes. There was no break from the repetitive movements and the low-energy choreography and one must laud the four sincere dancers for their patience. The biggest regret here was that the lovable Ganesha had been shortchanged.
Dancer Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala’s tribute to her father-in-law, Ghantasala Venkateshwara Rao, through group dances to his famous songs like ‘Krishna Mukunda,’ ‘Shivasankari’ and a folk number brought the curtain down on an eventful festival put together by Leela Sekar, Radhika Shurajit and Revathi Ramachandran.
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