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 A mystical experience - Dr. Lata Surendra e-mail: latasurendra@hotmail.com Photos courtesy: NCPA August 17, 2024 If dance is music made visual, then its absolute endorsing was explicit at the Tata Theatre, NCPA, Mumbai. An excellent evening (August 11, 2024) it was, that highlighted a quest for sacred spaces diminishing in an increasingly disharmonious world by the luminary in Bharatanatyam - Malavika Sarukkai. Love, abandon, bliss once again stirred our hearts as the experienced dancer urged us "to see, to listen, to feel, to be touched!" With a canvas pulsating with magnificent soundscape, lighting and a performance that lead us as rasikas, to fresh openings of thoughts and feelings, the veteran had us seek answers, through an exploring that was powerfully abstract, free flowing and yet so aesthetically rooted. Through its sheer weaving of abstract movements and simply woven nritya, with strong and soft intonations as a dialogue between the percussion and feet that was intriguing yet soft, capsuled yet flowing, in the freedom and abandon coming with practiced ease, Malavika had us journey with her to hitherto unventured pathways. She had us relate and connect to the divine voice within each of us ...the voice of our conscience - the voice of Krishna. Shrouded in the orb, her voice reached out to our hearts as she dedicated her performance to one of the most renowned Indian classical dancers of the 20th century - the legendary Yamini Krishnamurthy. Malavika highlighted how the artistry within her awakened through witnessing of her performances. She recounted how her charisma had awakened her to the dance within - a dance resonating in the space within and all around. Her voice - soft yet impacting, throbbing with emotion, set the prelude to the evening's search... a quest through dance.  The poetry of soft lighting (by Niranjan Gokhale) created the aura for the visual etching of the Sun, 'Aditya' - Soorya, through Sooryashtakam. The soft and strong emphasis in footwork that elicited variations in mridangam, the lyrical exploring flowing in harmony and in sync with the melodious exploring through chords, created pathways to have us awaken to a romance unfolding within the dancer. Blissful and isolated in her holistic experience of existence and yet, ever so gently urging us 'to follow her, to feel, to awaken and see' and gather the sepulchral immensity of existence and the mastery of the creator. It was an unhurried exploring and etching as 'hastas' painted intangible dimensions and gave form and voice to the magical life giving rays of the sun caressing creation. This was followed by 'Seasons' reflecting the duality in nature and the embalming equanimity of the epicenter - Krishna! At some points one seemed to be drawn to a climax that seemed to titillate and evade us and then it seemed as though the threads were urged into a continuity to resolve and find its conclusion in the climax again. Krishna's subduing of Kaliya was very impacting. The poison that took lives and the nectar of life bequeathed by Krishna, as the dance of existence revived was sheer mastery at work - absolutely spontaneous, captivating and aesthetic. Two very evocative pieces from Andal's 'Nachiyar Thirumozhi' verses led the evening to its climax with verses, wherein Andal and the Ayarpadi gopis who are struck by Krishna's munificent form and at the same time aware of his penchant for mischief beseech him to spare the sand castles made by them with a lot of care. The dancer was at her endearing best, light footed and strong, eliciting a smile in us with her mirroring of the very young Gopis entreating Krishna not to trample their creations. In the piece 'Vrindavan', it was sheer beauty to gather the dilemma of the Gopis who were drawn towards Krishna with resurging emotions and questions playing within them. One related to the voice of Krishna as the 'voice of the conscience' that we sometimes lose hold of in our quest for the material in this world. The accompanying musicians were Neela Sukhanya on nattuvangam, Krithika Arvind on vocal, Nellai Balaji on mridangam, Venkat Subramanian on violin and Sanjay Sasidharan on flute. The musical score was brilliant and at times, it almost had one's attention drawn away from the dancer!  Over the years, Malavika has developed a signature style of her own. One could espy a synergy of Bharatanatyam with a flavoring of the footwork in the style of Kathak and a lacing nritya in combinations not very intricate. Yet it had an innate mesmerizing quality. It was seemingly like the power inherent in the silent eloquence that lovers shared, isolating the witnessing world and yet standing out in their obvious oneness. A power that had a potency of its own, in its created magical and mystical orb. The soul it was that was the concern; we were just incidental spectators witnessing the quest endorsed in a search within the landscape of the dancer herself. As dancers we always resonate with aspects in various artistes motivating and inspiring us. Watching her - the dancer par excellence I had adored through the years - relate to her spontaneous abandon in the theatre, was to realize how much she had evolved as a performer / choreographer and transformed to a mystic! A mystic who had journeyed and found her voice in the echoing intangible galleries of the timeless that she quite simply sought to experience again and again, with us as rasikas merely as an excuse for doing so. It was as though she was allowing the witness to partake of what was personal and intimate and which she chose to share through sequences with us - the collective all around. It was ultimately her own dialogue with her soul, abstract yet rooted, where dance transformed to a language and the form to a voice. I returned homeward as always post a profound baptism realizing that the dance is as Elliot states... 'Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance' Thank you, Programme Head -Dance, NCPA, Dr Swapnokalpa Dasgupta for curating such meaningful performances that awaken us through the didactic potency of the fine arts of life. I truly appreciate the efforts made by NCPA to impact with the dance and ensure its propagation through the outreach in corporation schools of Mumbai so very remarkably. My heart went out to the cute moulds - the future of India, from diverse corporation schools seated in the theatre, with a lot of anticipation and an expression of 'awe' all over their countenance. Do we need to search the divine truly, when the creator resides as our conscience and reaches out through His creation all around? I found my answer in the organized lines of children getting into waiting buses post-performance, holding their distributed food packets untouched, close to their hearts. I smiled to myself and marveled at the therapy and miracle that is Art. When the soul is full, even hunger takes a back seat! Kudos to the backstage team and NCPA for a memorable page, that awakened me to my voice within but left me speechless at the end of the day!  Dr. Lata Surendra is a performer, mentor, an imaginative choreographer, a sought after curator, a dance journalist, a committed independent researcher, a sensitive poet and in the field of dance for over six decades. |
