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 Finding her voice - Anita Vallabh e-mail: anitavallabhofficial@gmail.com Photo: Aswin Vijay January 22, 2025 (Jyotsna Vaidee's performance at Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai, on the 10th of January 2025) For any artist, finding their authentic voice is an arduous and multifaceted journey that encompasses introspection, self-awareness, and creative expression. It involves a profound exploration of the body-mind-spirit complex. As the artist delves deeper, they confront both their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the complexities of their own identity within the context of society and their personal experiences. This is an artistic process - the nature of the beast, so to say. And Jyotsna Vaidee is at the cusp of finding her voice.  Jyotsna Vaidee She commenced her performance with a Puspanjali woven around Subbaraya Shastri's Janani ninnu vina in Reetigowla. The highlight of this piece was the dancer's interpretation of the word Janani - not only as a Goddess, the macrocosmic energy but weaves her personal experiences of being a mother nurturing her daughter and a daughter being nurtured by her mother, thus giving a universality to a personal experience and creating a visual narrative both emotional and devotional. The risk however was in placing this well thought out and choreographed kriti as the opening and interspersing the song with an offering, pushpanjali. The two beautiful songs just didn't work well together. Following this, Jyotsna presented a Sambandar Tevaram dedicated to Lord Kapaleeshwara, Pallaadai shadai talai mel, as a prelude to the varnam in Shankarabharanam composed by Papanasam Sivan, Karunai seididal agada. It had the same rhythms and musicality of Tanjore Quartet varnam, Manavi chekona rada. Setting the context of the varnam with a beautiful Tevaram was an ingenious move. With guidance from her singer, Venkateshwara Kuppuswamy and Prof. Raghuraman, the Tevaram was very well choreographed and performed. It imbued the varnam with depth and context, as the nayika, in continuation of the emotion expressed in the Tevaram, inquires, "Why do you withhold compassion from me, oh beautiful lord? You ingested the poison to save the world. Will you not extend the same compassion to me?" A special mention must be made of Jyotsna's depth in abhinaya in depicting her love and longing as Lord Śiva passes by, making eye contact, and then ignoring her as he continues to be taken in procession on Adhikara Nandi. The portrayal of this scene was skillfully executed. For those who have witnessed the exhilarating spectacle of an Adhikara Nandi procession in Mylapore, this moment will undoubtedly resonate as a poignant reflection of our collective yearning to behold the Lord in all his splendor and majesty. Following the varnam, Jyotsna performed a Padam, Unai thoodu, in ragam Saveri, a composition of Ghanam Krishna Iyer. In this song, the Nayika excitedly asks her sakhi, "I sent you to convey my message to my Lord, what happened?" She soon realizes that her friend is behaving strangely and hesitant to answer her questions. Then she notices her appearance. In the gradual build-up of excitement from seeing her friend and anticipation of news from her Lord, to wondering why her friend was behaving strangely, to noticing her disheveled appearance, there is ample scope for abhinaya. Jyotsna could have employed anger, sarcasm and a touch of feigned astonishment. This would have effectively conveyed the depth of the sakhi's betrayal, adding a layer of hurtful deception to the nayika's emotions. The next presentation was the very famous Javali by Patnam Subramanya Iyer, Samayam ide ra ra na sami, in Behag ragam. The portrayal of a Parakeeya Nayika, a married woman who is simultaneously in love with another, requires not-so-subtle suggestion of desperation, assurance, connivance, daring directness, and varying degrees of indifference to the outcome. Jyotsna effortlessly conveyed these emotions. She concluded her recital with a Skanda Sashti Tillana choreographed by Rama Vaidyanathan and set to music by Sudha Raghuraman. The performance, characterized by its robust rhythmic cadences, demonstrated Jyotsna's proficiency in executing nṛtta patterns with strength, stamina, and remarkable precision. She was supported exceptionally by Vijay Kumar on the nattuvangam, Venkateshwara Kuppuswamy on vocals, Guru Bharadwaj on the mridangam, Nandini Saigiridhar on the violin, and Anjani Srinivasan on the veena. Keerti Kumar, the light designer, effectively created a warm atmosphere. However, the utilization of smoke during the Padam and Javali proved to be distracting. During our conversation, Jyotsna expressed her belief in taking risks and learning. I firmly believe that she will find her distinctive voice - a unique expression that will resonate profoundly within her and inspire a generation of dancers.  Anita Vallabh is an Adjunct professor at the University of Hawaii, author, Yoga instructor and dance critic. She lives in Boston, USA. |
