JOIN USA young Odissi dancer Supriya Nayak, came up with a dance recital dedicated to the Yamuna. This was followed by a Bharatanatyam performance based on Thyagaraja’s Naukacharitramu and had been directed by the renowned Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer Justin McCarthy.
The Yamuna is and always has been revered and sacred, indeed personified as a munificent goddess, yet today she is in great peril because of being a highly polluted river. The dance ensemble sought to explore and acknowledge these two aspects of the river. The festival which is on at the India Habitat Centre ends today evening with a solo recital by Justin.
Based on the Naukacharitramu written by the 19th century Carnatic music composer Thyagaraja, the recitals revolve around the depiction of Lord Krishna and the Gopis on an outing in a boat on the Yamuna.
Talking about her performance with Metrolife, Supriya later said, “My dance was choreographed around the Yamuna. We all know that the river is sacred and finds a mention in Indian literature, so my performance revolved around the various manifestations of the river.”
In her nearly one hour recital, Supriya presented Mangalacharan – a prayer
to Lord Jagannath, another form of Lord Krishna; then Pallavi and then two
abhinayas – one on Radha and gopis meeting Krishna on the banks of Yamuna and another on Radha’s separation from Lord Krishna and her yearning to be with him, i.e., Ashtapadi and finally ended the recital with Moksha.