|     |
|
| |
 Nritya Tarangini Festival & NCPA Umang featured talented dancers - Vijay Shanker e-mail: vijaydance@gmail.com May 4, 2024 NRITYA TARANGINI FESTIVAL Photos courtesy: Saraswathy Kala Kendra Nritya Tarangini festival of classical and folk dances was organised by Saraswathy Kala Kendra and Research Centre as part of the celebration of the completion of thirty fruitful years, towards the promotion and propagation of classical and folk dances. The two day festival was held on 28th and 29th March at the exquisite Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar auditorium in Mira Road, Mumbai. Saraswathy Kala Kendra is headed by accomplished Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi exponent Subitha Murali, among the few institutes that conducts classes in both the styles.  Oshin Zade, Saanvi Phulkar, Devashri Patio It was amazing to watch a plethora of several talented young dancers, exhibiting their talent in different styles. There were solos, duets and group presentations. The participating dancers were Deepa Saju from New Delhi, Honey Unnikrishnan from Nagpur, Shrobana Mitra Das from Kolkata, Thiksha Arya from Udaipur, Madhuri Pratap from Mumbai, dynamic couple dancers Yogesh Kumar and Sneha Narayanan, Ajay Shendge from Aurangabad, Mrunal Deshpande from Mumbai, Nandini Choudhary Mohanty from Kolkata, Sunil Gujra from Mumbai, Manas Sathe from Pune, Garima Sharma from Mumbai, Anushka Ramanathan from Mumbai, Subhalakshmi Subramaniam from Trivandrum, Suvarna Bag from Pune, Jaimin Kanan from Surat, Divya Dave from Mumbai, Devika Bortakur from Pune, Archana Mane from Kerala, Yogesh Tamble from Mumbai, Advi Gore from Pune, and Gargi Goswami from Bangalore.  Venkatesh Murali, Disha Poojary, Shiveli Kotian The festival commenced with invocatory dances by the senior and junior dancers of Saraswathy Kala Kendra. The senior students were Venkatesh Murali, Shiveli Kotian, Disha Poojary and Brahmjot Kaur. It was interesting to witness the young dancers perform with lot of enthusiasm and devotion. While Bharatanatyam and Kathak dominated the scenario, it was refreshing to watch Odissi, Manipuri, Sattriya, Mohiniattam and Kerala Natanam. Deepa Saju presented a vibrant and evocative Bharatanatyam performance, Honey Unnikrishnan's Mohiniattam had its element of technical elegance and subtle expressions, Shrobana Mitra Das's Manipuri was quite pleasing for its soft and graceful movements.  Yogesh Kumar and Sneha Narayanan The only couple dancers of the festival Yogesh Kumar and Sneha Narayanan presented an elevating Bharatanatyam performance with the interpretation of Bhavayami Raguramam, Besides the technical excellence pertaining to varied movements, it was interesting to watch how the husband and wife duo portrayed the varied characters of Ramayana with professional proficiency, creating a fine impression in a short span of time. The dynamic duo has already performed in some of the prestigious festivals both in India and overseas. There were only a handful of male dancers. Ajay Shendge from Aurangabad, disciple of Guru Parwati Dutta, performed Pallavi in the Odissi style and revealed his command over fine footwork in the Kathak style. Another male Kathak dancer who also performed the Gondal folk dance was Manas Sathe. Sunil Gujra presented a vibrant and rhythmic lavani dance. Yogesh Tamble performed another lavani and created a fine impression.  Ajay Shendge  Shrobana Mitra Das Kerala Natanam is another dance style that is becoming quite popular. Subhalakshmi Subramaniam from Trivandrum, disciple of Dr Gayatri Subramaniam, created a fine impression with her powerful abhinaya in the interpretation of the demoness Surpanaka who tries to entice both Rama and Lakshmana and fails miserably. Kerala Natanam dancers are attired like Mohiniattam dancers, drawing elements of Bharatanatyam, Mohiniattam and Kathakali. Guru Jaimin Kanan and his disciples presented Bho Shambho, Adaram Madhuram and Amba Parasahkti. Jaimin is a vivacious performer with vibrant movements and fine control over abhinaya. In the folk dance section, Deepa Saju and her talented team of dancers performed Kaikottikali or Thiuvathirakali with distinct and elegant movements, as they danced with circular movements with floral decoration in the centre. While the Garba dance maintained its traditional flavour and movements, the Bhangra dance went a step further to include popular Punjabi lyrics. It was a pleasure to watch the dancers dancing with lot of spirit and involvement. Organizer Subitha Murali said, "I am grateful to the department of culture, Government of India, for their support, as otherwise it's really difficult with hardly any corporate support to organise a festival of such a magnitude with dancers from different cities participating." NCPA'S PASSION FOR CONTRASTING THEMES As part of the Umang series to promote art and artistes, it was heartening to watch two brilliant young dancers being featured at the NCPA Godrej Dance Theatre on March 13. Instead of the platform being offered to solo dancers, more duets, groups and collaborative work with the combination of a variety of themes is being encouraged to quite a large extent. The experiment is interesting and novel too but a big disappointment for solo dancers as they are rarely invited.  Samrat Dutta & Santanu Roy The two presentations featured Kolkata based Samrat Dutta and his talented disciple Santanu Roy in the Bharatanatyam style, and Mumbai based Renjish Rajan Nair with Shilpa Varier in the Kathakali style. It was a program of striking contrasts, as the technique and presentation of Bharatanatyam is completely different from the vibrant and dramatic Kathakali style. Nevertheless such contrasts attract lot of attention which is necessary as most programs at the NCPA are ticketed, hence the turnout is fairly good; otherwise in free classical shows, there is hardly any audience which is disheartening. Samrat and Santanu presented highly thematic extract from the original research in Sanskrit, titled 'Dashamahavidya' pertaining to the ten forms of Parashakti, according to the Tantra portraying Kamala, Kali, Tara, Vagala, Bhairabi, Bubaneshwari, Dhumabhati, Matangi, Chinnamasta and Shorashi which also included the nine rasas pertaining to the significance of life and its well-being. It was a pleasure to watch both Samrat and Santanu dancing in uniformity, sometimes differently yet complementing and supplementing each other which created a fine spectacle but with such an intense theme much more can be desired.  Shilpa Varier & Renjish Nair Kathakali presentation was an extract from Nalacharitram about the encounter of the Kattalan (Hunter) with Damayanti. The performance commences with the scene depicting Kattalan sleeping in the forest in the natural environment when he suddenly hears some strange sounds and wakes up and wonders. He proceeds to see from where the sound is coming and is thrilled to see a beautiful lady who is being attacked by a python. Strangely he is attracted to the lady and realises that he must save her. He uses his bow and arrow and kills the python and tries to entice the charming lady repeatedly but she is not interested and at last uses her boon given by Lord Indra. Damayanti kills Kattalan and continues her search for her husband. Kattalan was enacted by Renjish Nair. It's the first time that I am seeing him playing a Karuppu thadi vesham as normally I see him playing noble characters but he justified the character extremely well with Damayanti being played by Shilpa Varier. Renjish is the disciple of the veteran Kathakali maestro Kalamandalam C. Gopalakrishnan. Renjish received vocal support from Kalamandalam Gireeshan and Krishna Mohan, chenda by Midhun Murali and maddalam by Nithin Raj. On the whole it was a programme of entertainment and enlightenment.  Vijay Shankar is a Kuchipudi and Kathakali exponent, teacher, bilingual journalist, arts critic and actor. |
