Swift portrayal of emotions

One never gets to see many mohiniyattam performances in the City, so Bangalore-based dancer Swapna Rajendrakumar did well to create a certain awakening among the people, when she performed in the City recently.

There were, among the audience, people who appreciated mohiniyattam and those who were well-versed in it.Swapna performed at Yavanika as part of the ‘Every Friday Cultural Evening Programme’, organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Department of Kannada and Culture.

 Swapna began her performance with, Ganapati. Talking about the why she chose to start with Ganapati, Swapna explains that all traditional mohiniyattam recitals always start with a dance in praise of Ganapati and Saraswati.

 “Ganapati is a baby elephant-headed god, son of Shiva and Paravati and is considered to be  the remover of obstacles. Saraswati is the goddess of learning and arts,” says Swapna.

She moved on to perform the padam, poontein nermuzhi, which depicted a mugdha nayika who is anxiously awaiting her Lord Padmanabha. In the piece, the nayika praises her friend and then describes how she had prepared the chandana paste, made garland for her lord and how she tuned the veena for him.

The next item, sanjakao was a musical taken from shri krishna karnamrutham and choreographed by Kanak Rele. Here, Swapna portrayed the devotion of the gopis for Lord Krishna and depicts how application of kasturi thilakam on the forehead, the gold-studded pendant on the lord’s broad chest, the flute on his lips, the bangles and the vyjantimala, amplify the mesmerising beauty of the idol.

The musical piece was set to ragam kalyani and talam ayyadi.In the next piece, the shlokas were taken from Bharata’s natya shastra, the oldest treatise on drama and dance.

 It describes the eight classical situations in love and portrays the varying moods. Here, Swapna proved her immense command over abhinaya and her skill with expression.

She portrayed the eight nayikas and the eight levels of relationship in love and the emotional situation.

Another interesting piece was Jeeva in raga anandabhairavi and tala adi.
Here, the dancer depicts the soul of the art — Jeeva. Swapna did well to portray emotions and the act wherein the soul merges with the eternal artistic soul to create supreme bliss.

It is based on the ritual of jeevaprathistha.Swapna confessed that she has trained in bharatanatyam but began learning mohiniyattam only because of her interest to popularise and propagate the dance form. “Mohiniyattam is not as rigid as the other dance forms. There’s a certain swiftness about it. My guru is Kanak Rele,” says Swapna. 

The audience was enamoured by the performance and swift portrayal of various emotions.

Sujatha Menon, a dancer, says, “We never get to see mohiniyattam recitals in the City and this one was exceptional. She has a great command over abhinaya.”
Gurunath Reddy, another member of the audience concludes, “She can easily switch her emotions and that’s what is most captivating.”

Swapna was accompanied by vocalist Kalamandalam Gireeshan, S Shankar Raman on the veena, Satish on the mridangam and P Nandakumar on the edakka.