Posted by arul francis on March 09, 2007 at 09:51:20:

 saw a really nice perf of the T.Q.'s "manavi cheikonarada" in the mini hall of the music academy on march 1st. the choreography for the first two lines was really amazingly beautiful. it was by c.v. chandrasekhar. there was a marked falling off after the 1st half: I suspect the second half was choreographed by someone diff than the first half. it's amazing how powerful those original "hands" are. The last time I saw this varnam was in 99 or 2000 by valli in mylapore fine arts. That was overpowering too, but for a different reason, i.e. - valli's diva stage presence and her polished adavus. But here I had the same "buzz" feeling during the first half of the varnam from a dancer of a totally different calibre: he's fairly ordinary as a dancer and quite understated. Just goes to show that genius-choreography always shines through regardless of the individual. At the end of the show there was this funny incident where a man in the audience jumped and yelled at the audience: "what you have just witnessed is great art" etc etc and proceeded to lecture the audience as though we were sheep. bother! still, it was a good show. how often do we see T.Q. varnams w *any* of the intact choreography. I googled the varnam's name and came up with the following thread: http://community.livejournal.com/devadasis/14391.html
 

All rights reserved.