A delightful treat for dance-lovers

The Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts presented an evening of contemporary dance titled, Santhulan, meaning balance at the Alliance Francaise recently. This production focussed on bringing together community and professional dancers from different backgrounds and enabled them to create a work, unique to their styles.

Attakkalari runs an extensive education outreach programme, in contemporary dance practices, in the City, which involves community dance classes at the centre and various schools around the City. The evening primarily comprised performances by the students of the community classes held at
Attakkalari. The show even had performances by the Attakkalari's Dance Repertory Company.

The evening featured seven different performances. The show began with a traditional bharatanatyam performance by the students involving a Pushpanjali and a Tilana. The piece was choreographed by Hema Bharti Palani. This was followed by an energetic dance piece called ‘Liquid Dance’, performed by the children’s batch and choreographed by Ronita Mookerji. This set the tone for the evening and was a burst of free-flowing energy, on stage with the children, mesmerising the audience with their brilliant acrobatic leaps turns and co-ordinated rhythmic movements.

Another notable performance titled ‘As You Like It’, by one of the adult batches, tried to capture and manifest, through movement, the metaphorical essence of creation. It celebrated the power of the human mind to create possibilities and artistic expressions from nothing. There was also a short performance as a tribute to Sachin Tendulkar. This was much-appreciated by the members of the audience and choreographed by Parth Bhardwaj and Meghna Nambiar.

The evening concluded with a performance titled ‘Cinemascope’ by Attakkalari’s Dance Repertory Company. Choreographed by Attakkalari’s artistic director, Jayachandran Palazhy, the piece had a unique movement vocabulary derived from bharatanatyam and the martial art form of
kalaripayattu.

The piece tried to capture the geometric lines of bharatnatyam and set it dynamically in space.
Sharing his views on the performances, Jayachandran Palazhy said, “Santhulan is making dance accessible to a wider community in more than one way. Through this process, we hope to trigger a catalytic effect over a period of time, that will create an understanding of the long-term role of culture in shaping a nation’s history and well-being by creating a community that cares.”

Parth Bhardwaj, a performer at Attakkalari and one of the choreographers said, “The last one month has been a lot of fun for all of us at Attakkalari. The relationship between the participants and choreographers, forged during the choreographic stages of all the pieces, will always stay etched in our memories.” Meghna Nambiar, another choreographer, felt, “The effort put in by the students was evident in their performances. This reflects their commitment and love for dance.”

The audience comprised parents and well-wishers of the centre. Harsha, the father of a child who was performing, said, “It is a proud moment as parents to watch the little ones perform every piece to perfection. The dancers were very expressive and conveyed every meaning with great care.”

Subashini Rao, a dancer explained, “It takes a lot of effort to get little ones to render complication pieces to perfection. To sum it up, it was a great evening.”