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 Sphurita: A festival for budding artistes (Day 2) - Chandra Anand e-mail: chandra6267@yahoo.co.in Photos courtesy: Nrithyodaya October 4, 2024 Nrithyodaya Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA), a 49 year old classical dance institution in Mumbai, was founded by Dr. Jayashree Rajagopalan (senior most disciple of Dr. Padma Subramanyam).  Dr. Jayashree Rajagopalan & Aishwarya Harish In its nearly half a century of service to the arts, it has organized many seminars, workshops, academic forums, cultural outreaches, and festivals to make art and culture more relatable and identifiable. Its focus has been to marry theory and practice when it comes to understanding art. In its wake to its Golden Jubilee, with able assistance of her daughter Aishwarya Harish as the cultural coordinator, Dr. Jayashree has initiated two festivals - The Anugraham Festival and the Sphurita Festival - one to honor great composers of India who have contributed to dance and music and another to encourage young talent committed to classical performing art forms through performance, respectively. Nrithyodaya, Mumbai held a dance festival Sphurita for the "budding artists". Held for two Saturdays in Mumbai, the event was co-sponsored by 'Fusion Kaapi' and 'Multiples'. Day 2 of Sphurita festival was held on 31st August 2024, at Saraswathi Auditorium, Mumbai.  Shruti Nadar and Saayali Vispute Shruti Nadar and Saayali Vispute, students of Purva Pandit, presented a well-coordinated Kathak duet. Commencing with a Shiv Vandana, for the verse "Nagendra haraya" they depicted padhartha abhinaya. Shiv-Dhrupad verses (Amarnath Bholenath) revering Lord Shiva were danced to in two ways; these were interspersed with nritta piece, ending each section with an elegant pose. The item ended with pooja and aarti to Shivling. They were expressive and graceful in the delineation. Showcasing their aptitude in taalpaksh, they performed intricate compositions in Teentaal, starting with vilambit laya, featuring thaat and a tihai, transiting to madhya laya showcasing traditional bols of Raigarh Gharana like aamad, parmelu, paran and kavitt, and into drut laya - presenting 2 gatnikas, an anagat and tihais. They enjoyed their performance resulting in an ambience of joy. They had forceful nritta and soft abhinaya. Without panting, they recited the padant exhibiting good stamina and laya control. For abhinaya, they presented a thumri, a beautiful Jhula Geet composed by Maharaj Bindadin, "Jhulat Radhe Naval Kishore," in raag Desh, taal rupak that described the playful banter and deep affection between Radha and Naval Kishore (Lord Krishna), symbolizing the blissful union of the soul with the divine. They rendered padhartha bhava with transient expressions ending with a nritta piece representing the peacock and another short thaat piece. Coordinating well with each other, they held picturesque poses too. The accompanying artistes also gave superb support.  Pooja Sankar Pooja Sankar, student of Kala Srinivasan, in her presentation of Bharatanatyam form presented Krishna Varnam (Kalyani, adi), a Tamil composition by Late Guru Rajee Narayan portraying various episodes of Sri Krishna - as the heart throb of Gopis, the slayer of Putana, the conqueror of Kaliya, the protector of Draupadi and philosopher to Arjuna. With engaging histrionics, she captured rapt attention of the audience. Her nritta had neat lines, strong footwork and energetic appeal. This was followed by a Nritta Padam, "Idadu padam thooki" (Kamas, adi), a composition of Papanasam Sivan describing the cosmic dance of Lord Nataraja and his magnificent form. Showcasing with great verve and delight the various poses of Lord Shiva, Pooja aptly brought forth all features of Lord Shiva infusing few karana movements too. By mastering a relaxed aramandi stance, the main feature of Bharatanatyam, she will reach great echelons in the art form.  Priyanjali Rao Priyanjali Rao, student of Revathi Srinivasaraghavan, in her Bharatanatyam recital, commenced with a shloka "Charitram Devadasya Mahadevasya pavanam" (Khamas) from Shiva Raksha stotram, as a prelude to Natesha kavuthvam (Hamsadhwani, adi) revering Lord Shiva - the cosmic dancer, embodying strength and divinity. Priyanjali, gracefully and energetically, held neat lines of Shiva poses, showed padhartha bhava with brief expressions. She rendered another viruttam - Kanakasabha sadaye (Sahana) - from Shivageetimala which averred one praying to Lord Shiva can cross the bhavasagaram of rebirths. Thus building up the power and grace of Lord Shiva stepped into the uttaraangam of the varnam "Samiyai azhaithodi vaa" (Raagamalika, adi), a composition by Guru Dandayudapani Pillai, where the nayika passionately expresses her boundless love and devotion for Lord Shiva, describing him as the one who is venerated by Lord Vishnu, one who is thousand times more beautiful than Manmadan and carries the sacred river Ganges in his matted hair. In her jathis, danced with verve and grace, cadences of movements with alapadma gesture were used in abundance. She culminated with an engaging performance of Abhang (Brindavani, adi) by Sant Janabai, envisioning Lord Panduranga dancing joyously to Namadeva's Keerthan. The dancer shows bhaktas picking up the dust from where Vittal has danced and anointing themselves and showering the dust on themselves believing this will help them cross the ocean of rebirths. The bhakti theme was done with a lot of involvement.  Swarna Mondal Swarna Mondal, student of Sangeeta Rajan, began her performance with a pallavi (Khamaj, jhumpa). She danced gracefully and joyfully to the original choreography of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. "Brajaku chora ashichi khenijebe" (Kapi, Jati), an abhinaya piece, finds mother Yashoda trying to put baby Krishna to sleep. She initiates the audience to the joyous relationship with Krishna by playing with little Krishna in different ways. Then she prepares to make Krishna sleep. Her baby however has other ideas. She says if he doesn't sleep, a thief will carry him away. The helpless look she gives for being unable to put him to sleep was so cute and natural. She coaxes and cajoles, threatens and scolds her little one and finally plays with him for a little more time till he gets sleepy. Finally when Krishna sleeps she indicates to the audience to not make noise and wake Krishna up. Swarna gave a very involved performance, where a mother's efforts to put a child to sleep very patiently was projected.  Nidhi Sathish & Ashlesha Shinde Nidhi Sathish and Ashlesha Shinde, students of Bharatanatyam acharya Asha Sunilkumar, performed permeating bhakti rasa. "Devi" performed by Nidhi offered salutations to the three forms of Devi - Mookambika, Kali, and Meenakshi describing their features, strengths and graces in padhartha bhava. The dancer expressed that one can receive vision of the Devi, enlightenment or moksha itself by portraying the rise of Kundalini Shakti through meditation on these forms of Devi. The shlokas used were select verses from the Sri Mookambika Stotram and Meenakshi Stotram composed by Adi Shankaracharya. Nidhi brought forth the different forms to the fore effectively. With clean lines and precision, she showcased her nritta with a jathi wherein the sollukettu was rendered with a background music resonating of the incantations of "Om aim hreem shreem sri matre, shiva priyayai namo namah". Ashlesha presented viruttam, "Kunitta puruvamum" where she describes Lord Shiva and indicates one who sees his form gets relief from rebirths. A small jathi piece where poses of Lord Nataraja were put together was rendered with good postures and in sync with rhythm. She continued with "Thodudaiya Seviyan," a Tevaram, composed by Gnanasambandhar, which describes Shiva, who is adorned with beautiful earrings, who rides a bull, is adorned with a crescent moon, and is the Smashaanavasi. At his lotus-like feet, even Lord Brahma seeks salvation. Hearing one's prayers, Lord Shiva definitely will bless the devotees. She was in sync with the words and managed her expressions. Ardhanareeshwara Stotram composed by Adi Shankaracharya was presented with Nidhi and Ashlesha representing the male and females aspects respectively praising the contrasting form of Ardhanareeshwara with awe. A jathi and korvai pattern was also interspersed in the item. It was well presented with good coordination.  Sanjana Varma Sanjana Varma, student of Indu Santosh, performed a Keerthanam in praise of Lord Shiva; "Ananda natamidum padam" (Kedaragowla, adi), wherein the bhakta expresses wonder at the ecstatic and joyous dance of Lord Shiva, describing the damaru, crescent moon and Naga that he adorns dancing in abandonment with him. The bhakta calls him the Lord of the 14 worlds, the Compassionate One and the bestower of all boons. She aesthetically expressed padartha bhava in two ways - standing and taking a walk in S formation - and took the Nataraja poses well. "Krishna nee enne ariyilla" (Ragamalika, khanda chapu) is a Malayalam poem written by Sugatha Kumari where a lovelorn Gopika constantly thinks of Krishna. She connects to Krishna by painting a portrait. She having been tied down with her household duties, has not been able to seek his company, either at the riverbank to fill water or when he played Raas and regaled all with his flute music. As her love for Krishna remains unrequited, she longs for that one moment when she would be able to see him and be with him. When Akruran takes Krishna away to Mathura, grief descends on Gokulam. All of Gokulam collectively mourning the leaving of their beloved Krishna was shown very well. The nayika, stepping out of her house upon hearing the cries of people outside, sees that the cows are sitting with sullen faces, the peacock has closed its feathers, flowers have all closed their petals and the trees have lost their lustre. She expresses that all gopis have been in Krishna's company as a mother, sister, and lover and hopes she will also get to play a role in his life. Thus on a positive note she seeks her union with the Supreme Consciousness. Sanjana gave a deeply touching performance. The event was well attended by senior gurus and connoisseurs of the art form. In her vote of thanks, Dr. Jayashree Rajagopalan said this festival was to present young artistes committed to classical dance forms and hopes to present many more of them in their future editions of Sphurita festival and thanked the audience who stayed through the event for their support and encouragement of the artistes and the event itself.  Chandra Anand is a Bharatanatyam artiste and teacher. She has an MA in Bharatanatyam from Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, and her series on 'Education in spiritual values through Bharatanatyam' is featured in narthaki.com. |
