Spilling energy and vitality

Mysore Maargam, a bharatanatyam recital, was organised recently by Vasanta Vedam, along with Karnataka Nritya Kala Parishat and Vishruta School of Dance.

The event saw a packed house. A group of six dancers from different schools of dance performed to the compositions of S Rajaram and M Vasudevachar in the Maargam format.

A couple of dancers were from Chennai, one of the dancers was from Mysore while the rest were from the City.   The choreographer and the organiser of the event, Vasanta Vedam, said that she had planned the event a long time back but did not get time to organise the performances.

“It was only now that I got the opportunity to present it. The dancers are extremely talented and I have choreographed the dances on the compositions of two stalwarts S Rajaram and M Vasudevachar.

The programme was based on the Maargam format of bharatanatyam, which entails many aspects like Alarippu, Jatiswaram, Varnam, Kirtanam, Javali, Tilana and Slokam,” said Vasanta. The show opened with a Pushpanjali in raga Nattai (Adi Talam).  This was followed by a Alarippu in Chaturasra Talam, the Jatiswaram was based on raga Arabhi, composed by M Vasudevchar, and choreographed by N S Jayalakshmi.

 Swift hand movements and great co-ordination could be seen in the entire presentation.  “The dancers were great on stage and the Varnam went off very well. We had two boys from Chennai who were impressive on the stage and many people, who had come to see the show, noticed the energy and vitality that they brought to the show,” said Vasanta.
The second half of the show consisted a Varnam, based on raga Sankar (Adi Talam), a Kirtanam based on raga Simhndra in Adi Talam. The choreography was unique and entertaining. 

The dancers were especially great at Abhinaya and bringing out the expressions and meaning of the verses. The Javali, based in raga Kaanada, set in Adi Talam, was rather unique.

 Based purely on abhinaya it projected the hero talking to the heroine as against the norm which is, the heroine talking to the hero. 

Bright costumes and interesting choreography added to the beauty of the performance and the dancers were appreciated by the audience. 

“The dancers were very focu­ssed and a lot of hard work has been put in for the show. I hope many such shows are done in the future,” concluded Vasanta.