Love songs, ballads
The Bangalore School of Music presented an evening of timeless love songs and ballads from over several decades by the vocal-guitar duo Jude Lazaro and Robin Colaco on Friday (August 17).
Beginning with “Love”, the 1960s Nat Cole King Cole song and “Unchained Melody”, the 1950s song by the Righteous Brothers, Jude sang love song after love song.
Jude, who is inspired by love musicians sang all-time popular love hits like “Have I told you lately”(Barry Manilow), “Just the way you are” (Billy Joel) and “Sorry seems to be the hardest word” (Elton John). No concert of love songs can be complete without Elvis Presley. Jude sang the King’s songs like, ‘Love me tender”, “Can’t help falling in love with you” and “You are always on my mind.” Jude was accompanied by Robin Colaco on the acoustic guitar and the piano.
Bharatanatyam recital
Bharatanatyam dancer Pavitra Badami recently gave a recital at the Indian Institute of World Culture in Basavanagudi, showcasing not just her talent but also her interest in pursuing a traditional dance form on foreign shores. Pavitra and her family are based in the USA and had come to Bangalore for a short visit.
Interestingly, Pavitra’s recital coincided with the day the institute was founded exactly 62 years ago in 1945. She began her recital with ‘alaripu’ or budding flower, which includes pure ‘nritta’ (steps).
Then followed ‘varnam’ or the centre piece of the performance, where the dancer is tested for the capacity to perform both ‘abhinaya’ and ‘nritya’ (story expressions and steps). Here, Pavitra depicted Krishna, Radha, a village lad and a girl.
The final section, the Tillana, ended her performance in the classical section. Her performance stretched to nearly one-and-a-half hours. Pavitra rounded it off with a couple of movie numbers (on popular demand from friends and relatives gathered) like ‘Jiya Jale’ from ‘Dil Se’ and ‘Nimbooda Nimbooda’ from ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’.  Pavitra went to the USA as a 12-year-old.
She trained under Parul Dixit and has been performing for the last 15 years across the world. Pavitra has since headed back to the USA, but she said she would pursue dancing to further her interest in this Indian art form.