Evoking deities through dance
MESMERISING ACT
Bharatanatyam recital marked the celebration of Maha Shivaratri.
The City recently witnessed an enthralling dance recital by senior disciples of Padmashri Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan, an expert in the Tanjore style of Bharatanatyam on the occasion of Maha Shivaratri.
The five dancers who dressed as Lord Shiva and danced to mark the occasion were Gyanendra Bajpai, Tanvir Vehnival, Shamshur Rehman, Amrit Sinha and Ipsit Chopra.
After the event Saroja said, “We are privileged to have performed on the occasion of Shivaratri.
The special thing about this act was performance by male dancers who are rare these days. The audience praised us a lot and I am honoured that my disciples performed today in front of such a receptive crowd.”
Kalashree Amrit Sinha, one of the five dancers said, “It was a privilege for us to perform in front of such esteemed audience who really respect art and artistes. As male dancers this was an exception. We have a plus point that we have got such a guruji who also trains males. We know Delhi doesn’t have many male dancers and it was a new experience for us.”
He also added, “We all represented Lord Shiva through our dance and began the performance with pushpanjali. The audience just loved our performance.” Amrit added, “We just had one week to practice as most of us do not live in Delhi.”
The performance included items like angikam bhuvanam shlokam with pushpanjali with nagendra haraye (shiv panchaksharam stotram), natanam adinaar (Tamil Kriti by Gopal Krishna Bhartiyar), bho shambho padam, shivashtakam, nrityanjali (pure nritta portion), tillana based on ragam desh and aadi tala composed by Saroja.
According to the Hindu calendar, Maha Shivaratri is celebrated a day or two before the new moon in the month of phalgun (February-March). Lord Shiva is considered one of the deities of Hindu trinity, the other two being Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu.
