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![]() Welcoming
the contemporary arts:
April 6, 2010 The hinterlands of Northern Kerala have attracted many a connoisseur of art time and again. For the intense Kathakali performances in the evenings, the festive nights of spectacular Theyyam, the meditative and dynamic martial arts of Kalaripayattu at dawn… the neighbourhood temples illuminated with a thousand oil lamps seems to keep aglow those ancient ritualistic art forms for hundreds of years now.
Samudra, a budding dance company with a dozen young dancers trained in the traditional dance, theatre and martial arts of Kerala, now experimenting with contemporary movements and those inspired concepts, set the festival on roll. In fact, Madhu Gopinath and Vakkom Sajeev of Samudra, collaborated with Government of Kerala to actualise this very first modern dance fest in Kozhikode. As a curtain raiser, their performance titled ‘Cosmic Dance of Siva,' a one-and-a-half hour choreography, was befitting. A stage lit with colourful lights and smoke introduces three dancing girls stretching with prayer like movements inspired by the Kalari Namaskaram, followed by dancers gyrating in and out of the stage space in sets of three, two, and four, one and more! Fusion music overlapped by chants was the background score that saw finely trained dancers in meditative and yogic postures in the following sequences: My pick was the Ardhanaarishwara, where Lithin Raj and Lithi, artistically, intensely danced to depict the divine entity of Siva and Shakti. The choreography reaches a crescendo when Madhu and Sajeev in a hearty burst of Ananda Tandava of Nataraja, culminate with the classic sculpturesque stance of Siva standing over a dwarf! Earthy colours for costume against psychedelic lighting effects, made quite a visual feast. The Samudra dancers are undoubtedly, serious about their chosen style of dance - athletic, acrobatic and awesomely entertaining the masses.
Connoisseurs who knew the mother and daughter duo, late Manjusri Chaki Sircar and Ranjabati Sircar, missed more than ever those creative and cogent choreographies of their company, Dancers Guild. What remains of this dancing company from Kolkota is really gloomy. Striving to continue their founders' style called Nava Nritya or Modern Dance, the present set of dancers have a long way to go even to revive their mentors' creations. Their performance at Kozhikode, saw them in bits and pieces titled ‘Usha'- prayers to the Sun, ‘Matrika'- earth mother, ‘Janani' - woman, etc. but none that the audience could take back home to remember.
The four-day
modern dance fest attracted huge crowds, a fact reiterating that this city
by the sea loves art in all its hues - tribal, traditional, classical and
now modern!
Pratima
Sagar is an artist and cultural commentator based in Hyderabad. She was
dance critic for The Hindu for six years, before venturing into publishing.
As, founder director of Bhairava Publications, Pratima Sagar has edited,
designed and published coffee table books and catalogues based on performing
and visual arts, archeology and ancient arts, apart from producing documentary
films on tribal and folk arts of India and Africa. Pratima is presently
pursuing her doctoral program in ‘ethnology of temple sculptors and dancers’
from Folk Culture Department of the Central University, Hyderabad.
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