JOIN USClad in vividly coloured saris and adorned with ornaments, three young ladies took the stage and captivated the audience at Seva Sadan with their grace, expressions and presentations.
Ananya Nrityollasa, a bharatanatyam recital, was recently conducted by the Ananya Cultural Academy to encourage budding dancers to showcase their talent on a recognised platform.
“Nrityollasa is a great blend of expressional and emotional dance,” says Priya Raman, who is a part of the group. Classical dancer Kruthika B Jayakumar, a student of Guru Mithun Shyam, skillfully performed three dances.
The first one was Ganesha Stuthi, which showed various attributes of Lord Ganesha and described how he goes around his parents for the fruit of knowledge.
In the main item, Neela Megha Shyama, she elegantly moved to express her prayers to Lord Krishna and beautifully danced to show how she escapes to see the raasleela with Krishna, when everyone’s asleep.
Kruthika mesmerised the crowd while depicting the colour of the sky and the sound of flute. She then moved on to show the navarasas of Lord Krishna in her last performance Ranjani Mala.
She depicted the nine expressions — sringara, veera, karuna, adbhuta, haasya, bhayanaka, beebatsa, roudra and shantha with elegance.
With a chorus of applause from the spectators, Nitya Sheshadri, from Kalakshetra in Chennai, took over the stage with a Maatangi Kautuvam. Matangi is the equivalent of Saraswati in the Tantric belief and is regarded as the goddess of art and music.
She portrayed with poise how Kalidasa first got a glimpse of Goddess Kali and praised her in the form of Matangi. Nitya delightfully portrayed the beauty and splendour of Goddess Matangi.
She then went on to perform Shankara Srigiri Nada Prabhu, which is in praise of Lord Shiva. The song is preceded by a sloka taken from the Shiva Purana, which describes the time when Lord Shiva danced in the cosmos.
Her expressions while she described the main emotions in the piece, adbuta and bhakti, were remarkable. Her other performances included a javali and keertanam.
The stage came alive when Madhulika Achar, a student of Guru B Banumathi, started with Jaya Janaki Ramana, a piece in praise of Lord Narayana in various forms. She performed the shrungapuradhishwari with great composure and praised goddess Sharadha as Sakala Kala, goddess of all arts.
Madhulika marvellously depicted the aduvum solluval, thillana and kannanidam. The recital concluded with a dashavatara mangalam.
“It is our duty to support young talent who will represent our country and culture. With all the temptation that one has to make quick money these days, we tempt them to stay back and carry forward our rich culture by providing a platform that will give them recognition,” explains Raghavendra, the managing trustee of Ananya Cultural Academy.