JOIN USShweta Venkatesh presented a bharatanatyam at Yavanika in the City recently. That she was graceful and deeply evocative would be an understatement. Shweta was also confident and swift in her movements.
She began the evening with an adaptation of the Poorvaranga rituals.The opening piece titled, Pushpanjali, had the dancer offering floral tributes to the deities of eight cardinal directions and to the bramha mandala with a prayer.
This was set to raga kadhyothkanti and adi tala. The invocation concluded with a kouthvam in chaturashra eka tala.
She then moved on to perform Keerthane of Sri Muthuswami Deekshitar set to Kedara raga mishra chapu thala. This devotional composition was addressed to Lord Shiva, who manifested in the Chitsabha of Chidambaram.
Shweta also chose to perform a varnam in raga khamaj, roopaka tala and the lyrics are excerpts from the literary work Vallibhaaratam. “The hero or the nayaka is Muruga and the heroine Nayaki is a virahothkantitha nayika, one who is desperate to meet her love and is separated from him.
The nayaki, addressing her sakhi, asks what she could do having been evoked in intense love towards Muruga. She confides that she would go to any length to meet her lord,”
explains Mysore B Nagaraj, a kathak exponent and Shweta’s guru.
Shweta concluded the evening with a desh raag based tillana, where the concluding lines are dedicated to Lord Pattabhirama. This was a composition of Ranganayaki Jayaraman. The programme drew to an end with a mangalam.
“A teacher can only teach you but as a student you have to spend hours mastering the art form. And I practised hard for my performance,” said Shweta. Shweta began learning bharatanatyam under guru Nandini Mehta.
She is also learning kathak under the guidance of Mysore B Nagaraj. Interestingly, Shweta also devotes a lot of time along with her mother Suparna Venkatesh in training the visually challenged in bharatanatyam.
Her performance was appreciated by those present. Mysore B Nagaraj said, “Bharatanatyam, as an art form, requires 60 per cent of inborn talent and Shweta has it. A guru can only teach the basics, the student has to explore on that.”
Shweta was accompanied by D S Shrivatsa, G Gurumurthy on the mridangam, H S Venugopal on the kolalu.