Despite it being a rainy evening, Nritya Sinchana organised at the Seva Sadan recently, saw a full house.
A thematic dance series, Nritya Sinchana was organised by Ananya and featured two dancers par excellence — Anuradha Venkatraman and Vidhya Subramanian. While Anuradha performed a ballet titled Pratham Parth (meaning the first born of Parth-Kunti), Vidhya Subramanian presented Mudrika — Unity of Duality.
The evening started with Anuradha Venkatraman’s performance. Pratham Parth was a thematic bharatanatyam solo production based on the epic Rashmi Rathi by Raamdhari Singh Dinkar.
It explored the life of Karna from the time he was abandoned in the treacherous currents of a river till his fateful meeting with his brother and nemesis Arjuna in the battlefield.
Through this, the production, aimed to explore the meaning of dharma, Karna’s adherence to his dharma and his strength in deciding to break but not bend.
Later, Vidhya Subramanian, who is known for her bold, modern themes and strong choreography, took the stage.
Vidhya’s performance titled Mudrika — Unity of Duality explored the ideas of both singularity and duality.
The danseuse started with an Adi Shankara composition titled Champeya Gaurdra, based on the concept of Ardhanareeshwara, the half-man, half-woman manifestation of Lord Shiva.
She followed it up with Sringara — Sambhoga/ Vipralamba, an item that traced the romantic destinies of Radha and Heer.
Then she danced to a Purandaradasa composition Yadavaraya, where a devotee seeks to completely immerse himself in Krishna till nothing is left of him.
She then presented her adaptation of Padmanabhan’s short story before ending
her performance with a thillana.
“Nritya Sinchana is a wonderful idea and gives us a platform to present what we have done,” explained Anuradha Venkatraman.
“It was a beautiful experience to perform at the Seva Sadan. I love the ambience of the place and it gives great vibes,” she added.
Speaking about the theme of her performance, she said, “Karna has been my favourite character in The Mahabharatha ever since I have been listening to it since I was a child. As far as the poetry is concerned, my brother who is into theatre came across this poem and had wanted to explore it as a dance.”
The audience was totally awed with both the performances.Sandeep, a member of the audience, enjoyed the dances a lot.
“I don’t know much about dance but I was able to understand today’s dances. They were interactive and presented in an easy way. So even the ones who are not well-versed with dance could understand them. I was amazed by Anurdha’s expressive eyes.”