Male moves
- Lalitha Venkat
e-mail: lalvenkat@yahoo.com
Pics: Vivekanandan
December 31, 2013
PURUSH: The Global Dancing Male, was an ambitious culmination of
dancer/arts presenter Dr. Anita Ratnam’s three year role as convener,
artistic director and curator of the annual Natya Darshan conference
series hosted by Kartik Fine Arts, Chennai. PURUSH was dedicated to
explorations of the male dancer in India and the diaspora from classical
traditions to contemporary manifestations.
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| Astad Deboo
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The performances on the evening of Dec 20 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
commenced with a scintillating recital by the master of contemporary
dance in India, Astad Deboo. Astad presented Aahavan, offering his work
to the space and body, both very integral in dance. Astad reaffirmed his
singular position in contemporary dance, whose 40 year long journey
began to reap accolades in India only 25 years ago. Slow, controlled and
distilled, his performance was a beacon for male soloists. Audience
held their collective breath as he culminated with 173 chakkars in his
final piece! The billowing costume twirling around had as much of a
hypnotic effect as the meditative quality of the pirouettes and the
entranced audience gave him a standing ovation. As Astad himself
admitted later on, “I was very nervous for it was after over a decade I
was going to do a solo in Chennai and I must say I was very touched by
the reception I got for my work. Moments like these give me strength to
continue with my struggle.”
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| PT Narendran ensemble
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After such a rousing start to evening performances, the next group to
grace the stage was P.T. Narendran and his co-dancers K.B. Madhusudanan,
Arun Shankar, Nidheesh Kumar and Sreenath who presented three items,
specially choreographed in a group format by Narendran for the Purush
festival. The invocatory item on Ganesha (in Hindi) was followed by a
Shanmukhapriya varnam (in Tamil) composed by Lalgudi Jayaraman on
Tirupathi Venkatachalapathi and concluded with a kirthanam in
Shankarabharanam, a composition of Swati Thirunal (in Sanskrit) that
describes the dance of Lord Shiva and includes a lot of pure dance. The
performance represented the Kalakshetra style of Bharatanatyam. While
Narendran’s expertise stood out for perfection of movements and vigour,
the individually talented dancers in the group somehow did not present a
cohesive whole. The Kalakshetra style of dance did not shine through
and the choice of items left many wondering where the traditional
Kalakshetra repertoire had vanished to.
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| Rudrakshya dance ensemble
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The finale of the evening was an Odissi group recital by Rudrakshya
dance ensemble from Bhubaneswar headed by Guru Bichitrananda Swain. This
group has been creating waves wherever they perform in India or
overseas and they definitely did not disappoint. Lesson in superb
coordination and teamwork, the dynamic evening was a rousing, foot
stomping showcase for masculinity, vigour and high octane energy.
Mangalacharan (Surya Stutee) was followed by Tala Madhurya in pure dance
composed of sculpturesque poses, intricate footwork and composite body
movements. The beauty of the dance form on male bodies shone through the
well coordinated movements of dancers Lingaraj Pradhan, Abhijit Dev,
Abhaya Kumar Parida, Rashmi Ranjan Barik and Sameer Kumar Panigrahi. The
recital concluded with a solo abhinaya Karna, performed by Lingaraj
Pradhan at his evocative best.
Lalitha Venkat is the content editor of www.narthaki.com
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