JOIN USSpeaking the language of dance
The performance was part of ‘Mudra — A celebration of Indian classical dance forms’. It was organised by Spic Macay on the occasion of the ‘International World Dance Day’, with the aim of showcasing the richness of Indian classical dance forms to the student community by conducting programmes and interactive lecture demonstrations by world-renowned artistes at academic institutions.
The performance began with Chitra breaking some common misconceptions about dance. “There is a certain mysticism about classical dance forms due to which people think that they cannot understand it. All you need to do is take away the blinkers. Do not look but see, do not just hear but listen. After all, there is no rasa without the rasika’,” she added.
Elaborating on the rhythmic aspect of classical dance, her student Aniruddhan Vasudevan performed the alarippu. “The alarippu is one of the beautiful examples of nritta (pure dance) and is an invocation in which every part of the body is used. It has no meaning but is the body that celebrates life,” she added.
True to her words, the joy Aniruddhan felt while dancing transcended on to the audience. From nritta, she moved on to nrithya, where abhinaya played an important role. “Movement is motivated by the mood of a person. Each gesture takes on a meaning, which makes dance a tool for communication. It is also a language and if you want to speak in dance you need to think in dance,” she added.
The lecture also emphasised on how each dance was the reflection of our times and in sync with the lifestyle of the people of a particular region. In the next piece, Chitra and Aniruddhan depicted a scene from nature where different animals were portrayed.
“It is essential to notice how even the raga creates a mood. The entire piece was in raag vasantha which as the name suggests means spring and when we started depicting the peacocks changed to amruthavarshini to depict rain. It is essential to remember that music and dance are inseparable,” she added, elaborating on the significance of music.
After depicting animals, she portrayed Sita and Kaikeyi-Sita during her Swayamvara and Kaikeyi poisoned by Manthara. This was mainly done to portray characterisation as the same gesture is used to depict a woman in Bharatanatyam.
The variation between the two women lies in the body language and abhinaya, which bring out the layers in the character.
She also depicted a scene from Ramayana, where Ravana approaches Sita dressed as a sadhu. The eye movement used to depict duality in Ravana’s character was a delight to watch.
The lecture demonstration ended with three stanzas from a devaram (traditional Tamil hymns) written by the great saint poets of South India.
Chitra Visveswaran was accompanied by Aniruddhan Vasudevan in the nattuvangam, B Umashankar as the vocalist, Adyar K Gopinath on the mridangam and Jayaram on flute.