| Report
Dances of
joy
- Lalitha
Venkat, Chennai
October 22,
2007
Sunday mornings
are usually relaxation times, when most people sit glued to their TV sets,
so it was a pleasant surprise to see an overflowing Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
on Oct 14, 2007. It was the premiere show of Creative Connections 2007
International Young Performers Tour, with a group of twelve talented 12
to 18 year olds, hand picked by The Dhananjayans. They have been training
rigorously under the guidance of Sumathi Sriram and Divya Shiva, senior
disciples of the Dhananjayans and teachers at Bharatakalanjali.
As we looked
at our watches, guru Dhananjayan started the program on the dot of 10.30am.
The presentation included folk dances of India, animal and mythological
stories and classical Bharatanatyam repertoire. The classical items were
on Shakti and a Swati Tirunal composition 'Chaliye Kunjanamo.' The Mohini-Bhasmasura
story is about how Mohini uses her charm to save Lord Shiva after he gave
a boon without thinking of the consequences, to the demon Bhasmasura. Lord
Vishnu transforms himself into the beautiful Mohini and the deception was
enacted with clever use of a tirashila. Punyakoti is the story of a cow
and tiger. Caught by the tiger, the cow agrees to feed her calf, return
to become the tiger's meat and comes back as promised. Impressed by her
honesty, the tiger lets her go free. Masks were used for the characters
and some kalari movements for the tiger character.
Mohini-Bhasmasura
story |
Mohini-Bhasmasura
story |
Punyakoti |
Punyakoti |
Some dancers are
multi-talented as was demonstrated by the presentation of a Carnatic music
number. Sachin Damianose gave a brief demonstration of kalari movements.
While the classical pieces were performed mainly by Sumathi and Divya,
the younger students let go in the folk items.
Dandiya |
Santal |
Bhangra |
Bhangra |
Dandiya from Gujarat,
Santal from West Bengal, Kurathikummi from Tamilnadu and the vibrant finale
number Bhangra from Punjab saw the stage in a blaze of colorful costumes
and accessories, foot tapping music and vibrant movements of the dancers
who seemed to enjoy every minute on stage. The somersaults and energetic
moves of Bhangra had the audience cheering loudly even as the young dancers
invited the audience to clap and sing along. The quick changes in costume,
brief explanations and smooth presentation were salient points of the program,
while the highlight was the joy of the performers as well as audience!
Kurathikummi |
 |
The chief guest
of the program, David Hopper, the US Consul General in Chennai, summed
up the program in one word, "Wow!" that surely found an echo in all those
present.
The music has
been composed by young Karthik Jayaraman, grandson of mridangam vidwan
TK Murthy. The beautiful, colorful costumes are by Uma Dresses. The young
dancers on the US tour include: Yatin Agarwal (disciple of Anita Guha),
Gautam Gopalakrishnan (disciple of Hariharan), Sachin Damianose (disciple
of Kalari guru Shaji), Hariganesh Muralidharan (disciple of Shobana Balchander),
Dasarathi Varatharajan (disciple of Sivakumar), Krupaa Lakshmi
Visweswara (disciple of Shobana Balchander), Aarabhi Badri (disciple of
Radhika Shurjit), Krithika Shurajit (disciple of Shobana), Reshma Malliknath,
Swapna Sridharan and Priyanka Ganesh of Bharatakalanjali, Madhavi Chandran
(disciple of Girija Chandran and Dhananjayans).
Children from
different countries have much to learn about and appreciate in other cultures
and Creative Connections uses art to enhance such cultural awareness among
children. Sumathi Sriram and Divya Shiva will perform, give lecture/demonstrations
and perform with the young dancers between Oct 20 and Nov 11 when they
will visit and interact with school children of the Tri-State of New York,
New Jersey and Connecticut in the US.
|
