Music & dance reviews

Nrithya neerajana

Ananya conducted two-day ‘Nrithya Neerajana’ with discussion (Creativity with Classicality), demonstrations (Choreographing - an Indian musical and ‘Alararipu - a spiritual metaphor’), apart from performances (Bharathanatya, Kathak and Kuchipudi) in association with Sri Vani Education Centre.

Divya Venkatesh, who gave the inaugural programme, was born and brought up in Geneva. She has learnt dance from her mother (Sujatha Venkatesh) and has taken active part in the "Omkar Productions" and has performed in many parts of the world. The Malhari (Gambhiranata raga) was negotiated with an unerring sense of rhythm. Varna, a composition that tests the mettle of a dancer, revealed that the artiste had a good grasp of both form and spirit of "Maathe". She performed with ease and confidence. The recorded music - vocal by Balasubramanya Sharma, Natuvanga by Praveen Kumar, mridanga by Gurumurthy, flute by Mahesh and violin by Dayakar - suited the needs of the occasion.

Musicians festival

Mageri Ramachandra was one of the good vocalists of Bangalore, who met with a premature death. The family members are conducting a “Young Musicians’ Festival” every year, in his memory. It was held under the joint auspices of Nadajyothi Sri Tyagarajaswamy Bhajana Sabha and Ananya. Vivek V Krishna, who gave a flute recital in this festival on Friday, is a disciple of H S Venugopal and Neyveli Santhanagopalan and has performed under many banners, in and outside the country. The ragamalika varna gave him a bright start. The invocatory piece ‘Gajananayutham’ was in the raga Chakravaka and the brief swara for ‘Venugana Lola’ was pleasing. It was followed by one composition each in the ragas Vasantha and Bilahari. He tried to make the concert more interesting by presenting a ‘Dwiraga Pallavi’. Kambodhi and Thodi flowed easily and the Pallavi was reposeful. With some more concert experience and listening, Vivek can bring depth and maturity to his music. He concluded his concert with few devotionals like -Venkatachala Nilayam, Baro Krishnaiah, Sadaennahridayadalli - which were enjoyable. G Rajesh and Anirudda Bhat supported on violin and mridanga, respectively.

Mobility of expression

The second programme of the evening was by Ramya Janakiraman, a senior student of Rasika Academy of Performing Arts. She is good in Natuvangam and a teacher too. She opened her programme with Pushpanjali, customarily. Her confidence, suppleness, a neat sense of rhythm and mobility of expression came to the fore in the composition of Subramanya Bharathi. She concluded with a fine Thillana. Guru Kiran Subramanya (natuvanga), Srivathsa (vocal), Sriharsha (mridanga), Mahesh (flute) and Chitralingam (veena) - were in charge of music.

A  promising dancer

Sreeja S who gave a Bharathanatya recital last week, is a student of Rasika and is also studying Bio-Technology at BMS College of Engineering. Her grounding in Laya is sound as witnessed in the Pushpanjali, vouching for a neat "Thattu-mettu". The second item was a devaranama by Purundara Dasaru. She disposed of the "Theermanas" in the Varna (Swamy - Natakuranji) with ease and assurance. The Uthakadu composition was performed convincingly and the whole performance was lively and full of promise. Kiran and Sandhya (natuvanga), D S Srivathsa (vocal), Srihari (mridanga), Maheshswamy (flute) and Chitra Lingam (veena) - inspired the artiste from the wings.

Malaysia dancer  

The last programme was by Kandasamy Shankar, Head of the Department of Bharathanatya, the Temple of Fine Arts, Malaysia. He is known not only as an artistic director, but also as a choreographer and performer. After the Pushpanjali, Kandasamy chose a composition, Madhure Muralidharan, in the raga Keeravani. It was based on the story of Anjaneya and has meandering form while being descriptive in content. He depicted the story through stylised Bharathanatya motifs, reflecting in the neat body line, postures and attractive synchronisation of footwork and thala. Praveen Kumar (natuvanga), Nanda Kumar (vocal), V. R. Chandrasekhar (mridanga), and G.S. Sridhar (flute) - supported from the wings.

‘Nritya Neerajana’ was successful in attracting large gathering, through a variety of programmes.