Varied emotions of devotion
Bharatanatyam recital
Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), in collaboration with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, presented the bharatanatyam dance recital of Vasudev Raghupathy, artistic director of Guru Guha Natya Gana Nilayam, at the Khincha Auditorium in the City recently.
The performance was part of the ‘Horizon Series’ and had Vasudev’s friends, relatives, students and lovers of Indian classical dance watching it.
The hour-long performance saw Vasudev perform pieces in praise of Lord Shiva and he even portrayed tales from the ‘Mahabharata’. The recital began with an invocatory song titled, Mallari set to raga Gambhira Nattai in Adi Thala, which is usually performed in temples.
This was followed by a slokam in raga Revathi in praise of lord Shiva. The second piece, Ganesha Sthuthi in raga Sri Ranjani, set to Adi Thala, was in praise of Ganapathy. His expressions were perfect and he held the attention of the audience with his fine footwork.
His continued his performance with a varnam titled, Sri Krishna Nrithyopaharanam set to raga Reethi Gowla in Adi Thalam.
This piece described and depicted the Kalinga Narthana, Krishna Jananam, Kamsa Vatham, Gopika Vasthra Apaharanam and Geetho Upadhesham — all knit into one.
He swiftly moved, narrating through dance a small story from ‘Mahabharata’, in which Bheema feels the presence of the God when he is alone and in trouble. Next was a Shiva Sthuthi,
titled, Shankara Shree Giri, which was set to Hamsanandhi raga. It described the embodiment of Lord Shiva. Vasudev concluded the performance with the recital of Tulasidas Bhajan in Misra Poorya Dhanasri Raga in Misra Chapu Thala.
This piece depicted the beauty of Rama.
The audience was spellbound after the performance. Sitalakshmi, a dancer, said, “Vasudev is so precise with the steps and his knowledge of history comes through in the performance. I was thoroughly impressed.”
Vasudev was accompanied by vocalist Balasubramanya Sharma, V R Chandra Shekar on the mridangam, Somanna on the violin, Vivek on the flute, Betta Venkatesh on the morching and khanjira.
Others who helped were Vijayalakshmi Shivakumar and Sandhya Shetty.
