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 Exciting merging of two distinct classical dance styles - Vijay Shanker e-mail: vijaydance@gmail.com Photos: Yogesh Sathe January 12, 2025 Arogya Dhansampada Foundation of Mumbai Municipal Corporation presented an interesting classical dance programme, featuring two distinct classical dance styles, namely Bharatanatyam and Kathak, titled "Dwi-Taal" (Two Taals) at their hall in Navy Nagar, Malad (W) on 21st December. The two accomplished dancers featured were Shraddha Joglekar for Bharatanatyam and Rajashree Oak for Kathak.  Rajashree Oak & Shraddha Joglekar Shraddha and Rajashree commenced their performance with a brief invocation to Lord Ganesha followed with the solo performance in Bharatanatyam style by Shraddha Joglekar. Pertaining to the loyalty of both Parvati and Sita to their spouses, 'Pativratatva' portrayed two compositions, the first one in Marathi - "Shiva Shiva tumhe kon sanga" (Shiva, tell me who you are). This number was quite absorbing and interesting. Parvati is seen busy offering her prayers to Lord Shiva, who decides to play a prank and appears suddenly in the form of a commander with tattoos on his body and declares himself as Shiva. Parvati is disgusted and ignores him and after a while she is surprised to see her Lord Shiva and is excited to meet him. This number was in Kapi raga and misra chapu tala. The second number in Tamil "Kanden kanden Sitayai" in raag Vasanta portrays the scene in which Sita is in exile in Ashok Vatika and Lord Hanuman makes a sudden appearance. Sita gets scared but Hanuman convinces her and tells her he has come as a messenger of Lord Rama, gives the ring to her and she is thrilled to receive it. In both these numbers, it was truly a pleasure to watch Shraddha dancing and enacting with complete involvement with subtle ease and beautiful movements, elevating the performance by her brilliant abhinaya. Both the numbers were evocatively sung by NN Shivaprasad. The highlight number of the evening was the composition by vocalist Madhuvanti Pethe - "Sakhi ka karoon" in which both Shraddha and Rajashree describe the 'viraha' in the javali in which the heroine asks her sakhi as to how long will she suffer without meeting Lord Krishna. The papiha birds and the cool atmosphere make her more restless. It was interesting to watch how both the dancers came together to express the same emotions differently in their individualistic style. Rajashree Oak impressed the audience with her teyyari and layakari dancing complex rhythmic patterns with precision. Rajashree was accompanied by Siddhesh Kamat on tabla and Anand Ganu for lehra. Both the dancers appeared together in jugalbandi wherein the dancers danced differently but on the same rhythm, maintaining the harmony in two distinct styles of both Bharatanatyam and Kathak. Tabla maestro Siddhesh is a mature performer, hence one could expect a better performance pertaining to the synchronisation of both music and dance.  Shraddha Joglekar Shraddha Joglekar is an established performer and heads Kala Awishkar in California. Kala Awishkar was founded in 2000 in Pune and revived in 2006 in US with regular class being conducted at Dance Arts Academy in San Jose, Chinese Performing Arts of America (CPAA) in San Jose and ENACTE in Sunnyvale, California. Acknowledged as a premier dance academy, Kala Awishkar has performed for several occasions, including for NASA, various universities and diverse audiences across the United States. Shraddha performed in Mumbai after a lapse of nine years, hence it was a memorable occasion to cherish, and she thanked Madhuvanti Pethe tai and Rajashree Oak for this unique programme.  Vijay Shankar is a Kuchipudi and Kathakali exponent, teacher, bilingual journalist, arts critic and actor. |
