JOIN USColourful dance fest
The Venkateswara Natya Mandira conducted the annual “Rasa Sanje” dance festival last week. During the 4-day event, nearly 100 dancers – both young and established – performed to make festival a success, under the direction of Radha Sridhar, veteran artiste.
Supriya S and Varsha R N, students of Radha Sridhar gave a Bharatha Natya recital on Tuesday. Both are young aspirants and they are not short of stage experience, as they have already taken part in some of the productions of the Mandira. Their “Thattu-Mettu” is steady as was evident from the two-tier invocatory of the Pushpanjali (Hamsanandi raga) and a sloka. The climax of the programme was a varna “Mohamaeeye”. Description of Shiva with the story of Bedara Kannappa, Kaala Samhara Moorthy, Dakshina Maruthy etc were neat and performed changing the roles with good understanding. Their Nritha and Nrithya was good and presented with ease and assurance.
Lively Kathak
Chethana Hari (of the dancing couple Hari and Chethana) along with few students of Nupura Nritya Shale performed a fine Kathak recital. In the opening piece, seven students neatly presented Tukuda, Thihay etc in teen thal, neatly. The second item ‘Jugalbandi’ was like a rhythmic dialogue and concluded with a composition on Shiva. Their performances was lively and attractive.
Continued Parampara
With a vocal recital of Rithvik Raja, curtains came down on the 8-days Yuva Sangeethotsava held under the aegis of the Bangalore Gayana Samaja, on Sunday. Raja, a disciple of T M Krishna, has performed already in a few sabhas – both in and outside Chennai and has won prizes in a few competitions.
After a number of Ragas and compositions, Raja crowned his concert with an interesting Pallavi. It was a ‘Chatur Raga Pallavi,’ well woven in Shankarabharana, Kalyani, Durbar and Thodi. It is by no means a very melodious voice, but with his sincerity and relish intonates, the number make for pleasant listening.
Earlier, his artistic discernment was further embellished in the melodies like Bhairavi and Brovabaramma. The swara phrases round Gandhara was pleasing and the nerval (Merusamaana) enhanced the impact of the concert. He also sang ‘Brochevarevarura,’ the all time favourite of the listeners. Apoorva Krishna on violin, Avinash Krishna on mridanga and Sunad Anoor on Khanjari supported well on their respective instruments.
Kudos to Gayana Samaja for encouraging young and upcoming artistes and hope the ‘Yuva Sangeethotsava,’ will continue every year.
Festival of Mohiniyattam
The International Centre for Performing Arts (ICPA) in collaboration with Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademy and Department of Kannada and Culture and Karnataka Sangeetha Nritya Academy conducted the “Mohini Nrithyathi” – a festival of Mohiniyattam. There were performances by both young and celebraty dancers on all the 3 days.
In the “Samavesh”, lecture and demonstrations were held by scholars and senior artistes, on interesting subjects. On the opening day V. Kaladharan, veteran scholar, delivered the key note address. He explained in detail how Mohiniyattam is different from other forms and a exclusive heritage of Kerala and how it is taking new dimension in aesthetics and undergoing transformation.
He also appealed to maintain the classicism and purity and not to dilute it. His lecture was educative and informative. Senior artiste Kalamandalam Kshemavathy spoke on the “Aesthetics of Abhinaya in Mohiniyattam”. She dealt with the subject in detail and made it interesting by a number of illustrations.