JOIN USDance-lovers were in for a delightful evening as danseuse Leela Samson took the stage as part of the ‘Nirantara Narmada Festival 2014’ at JSS Auditorium, Jayanagar recently. The one-day festival was held in memory of Sangeeth Natak Academy Awardee, Natyavisharade Guru Narmada.
Poornima Gururaja, the founder-director of the Kalasindhu Academy of Dance in the City and one of the disciples of Narmada, started the festival to propagate Narmada’s style of bharatanatyam.
Talking about the festival, Poornima said, “Guru Narmada’s skills and her jathi compositions are widely recognised. She gave a platform to the most number of up-and-coming bharatanatyam artistes in Karnataka from the 90s to 2006.
Many of these artistes went on to become highly accomplished and recognised. The mission of this one-day festival was to celebrate her contribution to the field of dance through a kala daana (offering) of the best performances to the kalarasikas (art-lovers) of Bangalore.”
She added, “We were overwhelmed by the response we received for the show, especially with popular faces from South Bangalore turning up. It was an evening of high energy.” The music team comprised of Sheejit Krishna on nattuvangam, Srinkath on vocals, Vijay Raghavan on mridangam and Raghunandan on flute.
Speaking about the performance, Leela said, “Some traditional pieces were performed. And I didn’t follow a theme. I perform in the City on and off but I am not familiar with the dance scene here. But there are some talented artistes here.” She added, “I always give my best. How the audience receive it is up to them. There are so many other factors dependent on the performance.”
The audience made their way to the venue despite it being a weekday and were an impressed lot. “I am a dancer myself and that’s why I am here. Although I’m into Odissi dance, I thought that this would be interesting since I had heard a lot about the performer.
The live music coupled with the graceful moves of the performer left me awe-struck,” said Leila, a member of the audience. Radha, who attended the show along with her family, said, “We are fond of cultural programmes and try to attend bharatanatyam performances whenever we can.
This is one of the better performances that I have seen recently.” Mohan, another member of the audience, said, “We enjoyed the solo performance and are looking forward to seeing many more performances like this.”