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Elegant performance - Vijay Shanker, Mumbai e-mail: vijaydance@gmail.com November 14, 2011 Nalanda Dance Research Centre presented a Mohiniattam recital by Kadambari Khase at the Mini PL Deshpande Auditorium. Kadambari's performance was noteworthy for its elegance, technical perfection and the innovative choreography which was well presented. Kadambari Khase is the disciple of renowned Mohiniattam exponent and dance educationist Dr. Kanak Rele and the program consisted of special numbers choreographed by Rele herself with musical arrangement by Kavalam Narayana Panikkar. Mohiniattam is the lyrical and exquisite dance style of Kerala noteworthy for its swaying movements, subtle gestures and expressional dancing based on ‘sringara’ or love, the king of all emotions. It is always a pleasure to watch Mohiniattam for its aesthetic quality of presentation, which is well performed by the dancers from Nalanda. After the invocatory Ganapatiye, Kadambari performed the Durga Vandana Mallika from Amarushatakam, followed by Mukhachalam. In all these numbers, it was a pleasure to watch Kadambari dancing with complete involvement and sincerity which was perceived in greater heights in the innovative number ‘Savithri’ that interprets the ‘Yama Savithri Samvada’ wherein Savithri cleverly convinces the god of death, Yama, that he cannot take away Satyavan, if she has to lead a family life and ultimately Satyavan comes back to life and the couple leads a happy life. Fortunately, Kadambari is blessed with ideal features and personality, suitable for the feminine oriented Mohiniattam style of dancing. In ‘Madhu Masa,’ the dancer portrays the beauty of nature and the impact of the five flowers that creates a romantic impact and the concluding number was ‘Tatvam’ that has a mystical connotation based on the srichakra wherein the dancer moves in a defined manner to reach out to the supreme being to attain eternal bliss or anandam. Kadambari received excellent orchestral support from Gopalakrishnan on nattuvagam, Gireesan for emotional singing, Murugan for mridangam, Nambisan for edakka and Balasubramaniam for violin. On the whole it was an elegant performance.