REVIEW / REPORT

Ode to Yantra: Yantra invoked on Dance Day

Photos: Ankit Digital

May 4, 2026

The prelude to the morning celebration of Dance Day (at Mysore Association Auditorium, Mumbai) was set by the Presiding Guest, the Monarch of Indian and Latin Ballroom, choreographer, actor, columnist, dance reality show judge, dance therapist, Ted X Speaker - Sandip Soparrkar, who invoked Aristotle's Poetics through chosen lines to illustrate the triumph of Art over wealth. This dramatically presented piece set the pace for the exploring of Yantra - the theme set for the event.

Saraswati Yantra by Sunil Sunkara & group

The exploring opened out interestingly through the creation of Saraswati Yantra through Gayan, Vadan, Nartan, and Chitram by Sunil Sunkara, Sumeet Patil, and Satish Krishnamurthy. The sacredness of the Saraswati Yantra and Goddess Saraswati descended through a four-fold alchemy of the senses. Dr. Sunil Sunkara is truly a thinking artist, and one appreciated the thought given to a theme ever so evocatively. Through Gayan, the voice became a resonant geometric line, carving the void into celestial melodies that echoed the Yantra's silent heart. In Vadan, the instrumentalist's touch awakened the strings and skin to pulse with the rhythmic architecture of the cosmos, while Nartan breathed life into form, as the dancer's geometry mirrored the Yantra's interlocking petals in a fluid, living prayer. Finally, in Chitram, the silent stroke of the brush captured this divine resonance in pigment and gold, pinning the ephemeral vibration into a visual anchor for the soul.

Kaikottikali

Being the new year, what better way to gather the beauty of Kerala than the Kaikottikali! Choreographed by Dr. Vijayashree Pillai, a dance that brought out the sacred geometry with the circle coming to life through movements reminiscent of the caressing palms of Kerala, choreographed aesthetically by Dr. Vijayshree and complemented by her beautiful disciples - Greeshma, Nisha, Natasha, Angita, Rit, Aishwarya, Mrunal, Manju, whose movements mirrored the intricate lines of a Yantra, transforming the performance floor into a living map of the cosmos.

Dr. Sarmishtha Chattopadhyay (Angik Dance Academy), the city's very creative choreographer, teacher, and Odissi exponent, through her group - Meera Nambiar, Getikka Rao, Samyukta Raghavan, Siddhi Mhatre, Matrika Ghosh, Akshita Panigrahi, reached out with Yantra: through musical instruments - mridangam, flute, manjira, and veena. Dance is music made visual, and the well-coordinated dance endorsed how when the sangat - orchestral support awakened chords draping lyrics, the body that is energized dust transforms. Through this vibrant harmony, motion abandoned its physicality, transforming into a breathtaking prayer, a visual poetry of pure devotion. In that flawless union of sound and motion, the dancer in each vanished as from tangible to intangible, the soul found its path to God. A signature choreography by the imaginative choreographer Sarmishta.

Shiva Yantra by Sujatha Ramanathan

Sujatha Ramanathan continued the Ode through an evocative and powerful defining of Shiva Yantra, invoking "Shivoham" through the Nirvana Shatakam by Adi Shankaracharya. The dancer transformed into a living Shiva Yantra, a sacred geometry of flesh and spirit. Every mudra became a silent syllable of the Nirvana Shatakam, peeling away the layers of "I" until the ego dissolved like incense smoke. In this divine Aradhana, the body was no longer a prison of bone but a vessel of the Pancha Bhuta. Sujata did not just perform; she surrendered, shedding the mind and the senses at the Divine Feet of the Lord, thus finding the ultimate and only path to Mukti, with the eternal resonance of Chidananda - the soul breathing its ultimate truth: Shivoham. Shivoham.

Moksha by Nivedita Mukherjee & group

Disciples of renowned Odissi exponent, teacher, choreographer Guru Nivedita Mukherjee (Aratrika Institute of Performing Arts) presented Moksha - the rhythmic dissolution of the "I" into the "Infinite," where the dancer's body becomes a living conduit for the divine. As the tempo accelerated, the boundaries of the self shattered against the resonant beat of the mardala, transforming movement into a transcendental stillness. The performance was truly a physical pilgrimage. Through the stirring choreography - the creative genius of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and the vision of Guru Nivedita Mukherjee, the dancers navigated the sacred geometry of the stage, spiraling toward the center - the Bindu (The Point of Origin): The final invocation and the vibration of "Om" representing the return to the Bindu. Herein was the highlight as the geometry of light and shade merged. The music faded into Bhairavi, and the individual soul merged into the cosmic whole.

Guru Lata Bakalkar's disciples (Aditi Nrityalaya) Riya Naik, Aditi Bakalkar, Tanmai Bakalkar, Meghana Varadkar, Mitali Shetye, Saumyaa Khot etched Damaru as Yantra through folds of Kathak. Between the stillness and the storm was the Damaru, the hourglass of eternity cinched at the waist. In the hands of the Great Weaver, Lord Shiva, it came to light as the loom where the Yantra of existence is spun. Two hollowed skins face outward - one for the 'echo of birth', the other for the 'silence of the grave'. The two sides became the twin peaks of duality: light and shadow, spirit and matter, the inhale and the exhale of the cosmos. As the leather struck the drumhead, the separate halves dissolved. In that rhythmic thunder, the "I" and the "Thou" crushed into a single vibration that gave rise to the Nada, the primal sound that stitched the fractured world back together. With tabla by Swapnil Bhise, vocals and music by Krishna Bongane, the item was very intense and graceful and beautifully coordinated.

Ganapati Yantra by Meghna Arun

Meghna Arun, disciple of Guru Jayaprabha Menon, International Academy of Mohiniyattam, Delhi, presented a powerful and uniquely choreographed piece etching the Ganapati Yantra. There was an intensity about her as she invoked Ganesha through beeja mantras. Here was an artiste who was one with the art; whose truth was etched there on the center stage as she carved the Yantra, as she invoked the Lord. She was there and yet not there. She was the tangible leading the soul to the intangible. Her eyes glazing with eloquence at that 'still point' of time where the dance absolutely was!

The city's established Odissi exponent Mitali Varadkar (Sanskrita Foundation), disciple of Guru Shubhada Varadkar, with Avantika, Pragya, Shrija, Tanvi, elaborated the Devi Yantra through "Shive shringara ardra," the 51st verse of the Soundarya Lahari penned by His Holiness Adi Shankaracharya. "Yantrasringara" - the sacred ornament of the Goddess's expressions - specifically focused on how her divine glance transformed according to whom she looks upon. With the ease coming with experience, Mitali described the various emotional expressions, or nuances, in the divine glance of Goddess Parvati. The "Soundarya Lahari" verses came to life as not mere poetic constructs but as being encrypted with the profound secrets of Tantra and Mantra through the thoughtful and meditated upon choreography.

Shakti Yantra by Shree Paavitra Arts Academy

Guru Dr. Nandhini Ashok (Shree Paavitra Arts Academy) highlighted the primordial feminine energy through the Shakti Yantra. The powerful Yantra, as we know, is akin to the silent roar of the Divine Mother, where the static meets the ecstatic, and strength finds its home in stillness. Dr. Nandhini Ashok and disciples elaborated Shakti's dance of creation and the fire of transformation evocatively - a sacred balance that turned chaos into harmony and grace into power.

Manipuri by Purbita Mukherjee & group

Renowned Manipuri exponent, teacher, choreographer Purbita Mukherjee (Baikali Association) with disciples Sudipa Ray, Arpita Roy Datta, Tamasi Samaddar very beautifully depicted the Yantra that is the human body itself. Very skillfully, Purbita chose the melodies of Tagore songs to interpret this. The beautiful lyrics awakened each rasika to the allegory of the human body and the flute. Our physical form was so much like a flute - a simple reed waiting in the silence, emptying everything within until God, the eternal musician, breathes into it a meandering consciousness leading our awareness to the high hills and hidden valleys of our soul. Manipuri, when performed as a group, transforms as fluid poetry, and on the day, it quite simply found its way to all hearts.

The Bangle as Yantra

Aditya Garud Dance Company & The Angikam Dance Foundation with the city's imaginative, intense, dedicated Aditya Garud and team of dancers Harshada Borge, Manashi Jambekar, Vaibhavi Joshi, and Yukta Joshi presented a unique choreography with the bangle as the Yantra. At the hands of an imaginative choreographer, a bangle transformed. It was no longer mere ornament; it was a Yantra, a geometric ritual cast in glass. It was a closed circuit where the pulse met its own echo. In its perfect, unbreaking curve, it mapped the geography of a life: the cold slip of memory, the fevered heat of desire, and the hollow ring of absence. To wear it was to enter a loop. The wrist, one realized, did not simply move; it orbited. Like a finger tracing the rim of a bell, the wearer followed the line of what was, circling the void until the emptiness itself felt like a weight, a presence, a shape.

Sri Yantra by Natesh Art Foundation

Kangna by the young choreographer stole my heart that day. The talented buds of imaginative mentor Pallavi P's Natesh Art Foundation - Meera Manoj Murudkar, Bhairavi Tushar Bane, Bhargavi Tushar Bane, Sharvari Shankar Girme, Shubhra Vaishal Mhatre, Swara Shailesh Shinde, Avantika Pawar, Chaitali P. Madkaikar presented Sri Yantra. The powerful choreography created the geometry from the outermost square to three circles, lotus petals, triangles with the Devi herself in the form of Bindu at the center of Sri Yantra.

Padmini Joshi of the Padanyas Nritya Kala Mandir presented in a subdued and dedicated way the Vithoba Yantra representing devotion in its purest form, as sacred geometry that channelized surrender, balance, and divine presence endorsing that the devotee and the divine are not separate, but connected through rhythm, form, and intention.

Talented and dedicated Bharatanatyam exponent Sayantani Chakraborty brought out the power of Shakti Yantra. Through the ritualistic chanting of bija mantras and verses activating the Yantra's layers, the body transformed into a living deity representing Annapurna, Mahakali, and Rajarajeshwari, merging diverse divine forms into a single consciousness as the devotee moved toward the central Bindu!

Body as Yantra by Monaswini Mohanty & group

There was power, there was beauty, there was the merciless and the merciful, and the one Yantra - the body etching it all. Dedicated Odissi exponent and mentor Monaswini Mohanty (Pratha Academy of Performing Arts) with disciples Dhrutiprava Sutar, Lakshita Pradhan, Sadhya Hota, Anwita Panda, Sanvi Bhoi presented a stirring 'Namami' through the Mangalacharan - the traditional opening of Odissi. The brilliantly choreographed Mangalacharan by the legendary maestro Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra invoked Lord Ganesha, as the allayer of obstacles. Transforming the jeeva to the Yantra, it evoked divinity within the temple that is the body, transforming it as the medium to light up meanings as light.

Then came an interesting synergy of Odissi and Kathak. The two artistes Aditi M. Thomas and Aditi Yadav very beautifully highlighted Lord Shiva as the ultimate paradox: the motionless meditator and the ecstatic dancer. His manifest and unmanifest form embraced in the Shivapanchakshari Mantra composed by enlightened philosopher Adi Shankaracharya with each of the five elements represented in each syllable in "Na ma Shi va ya." Using the language of the two Yantras, mardal and tabla, the two imaginative young dancer, teacher, choreographers gave a new dressing to the oft-presented beautiful composition.

A beautiful Kuchipudi performance by Dr. Vijayashree Pillai, Anika Pillai, Manju Nair highlighted the Devi Yantra through 'Mamavathu Sri Saraswati' dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, the deity of knowledge, music, and arts. The body of the dancers acted as a focal point to invoke the bestower as "Varade" with energy to boost memory, concentration, and creativity. Samidha Shinde (Samidha's Institute of Performing Arts) and her students - Khyati Patra, Ruchira Rachakonda, Anagha Kurada, Mugdha Gawde, Shanmukha Gayathri, transformed the stage to a living Kali Yantra, where geometry breathed and sacred shapes took flight. From the silent, pulsing Bindu - the seed of all creation - dancers unfolded like the eight-petaled lotus, their limbs tracing the sharp, obsidian edges of the inward-pointing triangles. It was a choreography of the soul; a rhythmic ritual that spiraled through the circles of time to the heart of the void.

The Kathak by established exponent and imaginative choreographer Sheetal Kapole, complemented by the equally dedicated exponent and teacher Saritha Joshi that followed was the bridge between primordial silence and the pulsating rhythm of creation. It was an interpretation of the living Yantra. Each movement of the body transformed not merely as a gesture but a precise line of sacred geometry - a transient architecture carved in air, reflecting the unchanging structure of the cosmos. In their sacred interplay, the Yantra was no longer a static diagram but a breathing form, and the dance was no longer mere motion but a silent structure made manifest. Together, the two complementing practitioners of Kathak revealed a truth as old as the stars: that in the heart of every rhythm is the stillness that outlines the movement as meaning.

Richard D' Costa and team

Richard D' Costa and team presented a unique exploring of Yantra through contemporary dance form. A question emerged in the choreography. Are we not slaves to the Yantra that is the body? It was a unique take with a question mocking at us. Is the Yantra controlling us or are we controlling it? Disciples of Gayatri Acharya (Nrityasurabhi Kalakendra), who is a very senior disciple of Guru Chhaya Khanvate and who is herself a teacher, competent nattuvanar, and an excellent choreographer, presented a unique exploring of the journey of knowledge as divine feminine energy, in alignment with the theme. Beginning with Saraswati as vidya - pure, unmanifest knowledge - it evolved into sculpting visually Shyamala (Raja Matangi), the embodiment of sound, music, and expression. Through a Pushpanjali interwoven with Shyamala Dandakam, the piece performed by Rajalakshmi Iyer and Kasturi Shinde traced the movement from stillness to sound to embodied expression (vak), invoking Saraswati Yantra evocatively.

Lavani by Nilesh Auti

On Dance Day, the Lavani by the very experienced Lavani artiste Nilesh Auti energized all with its signature coquettishness, eloquence of the eyes, and arresting movements. How beautiful it was that the Lavani 'Chabidar Chabi' was dedicated to the very versatile dancer Late Sandhya Shantaram.

The ultimate finale was the thin line between the rasika and dancers dissolving as all were drawn to a beautiful garba by Suhrad Soni of the Soni School of Garba. On International Dance Day, dancers celebrated their forms not merely as entertainment, but as a "silent voice of devotion" that transformed physical motion into a visible song of the soul to have their bodies transform to a Yantra resonating cosmic harmony.

The event was curated by Dr. Lata Surendra in collaboration with Dr Rekha Gour (AIAA- Simla).