Section Synopsis (FEBRUARY 2007)

NEWS & NOTES

Ranga Parichaya Festival in Irinjalakuda - G. VENU

Natana Kaisiki, the Mohini Attam Gurukulam of Natanakairali, organised the third Ranga Parichaya Mohini Attam Festival from 26th to 28th of December 2006 at the Nattarangu of Natanakairali in Irinjalakuda, Kerala. The three-day festival was inaugurated by Swami Hari Om Ananda. At Natana Kaisiki students are trained in Mohini Attam, the graceful classical dance-form of Kerala performed by ladies, according to the methodology devised by Nirmala Paniker, who is the founder director of the institution and a disciple of Guru Kalamandalam Kalyanikutty Amma. The festival commenced with a demonstration by Nirmala Paniker and her disciples in which she demonstrated the hand gestures she had derived from the Hastalakshana Deepika to suit the style of Mohini Attam. She also elaborated on how they could be integrated into the present repertoire of the dance form. At the end of the session, well known exponents like Kalamandalam Kusumam Gopalakrishnan and Apsara Ram Gopal congratulated Nirmala for the method devised by her. They expressed the view that the demonstration was noteworthy as it had integrated the richness of the ancient text in its totality into the present repertoire of Mohini Attam. The innovative training system of the dance form had taken its present shape after many years of extensive research guided by great maestros and scholars in the field of performing arts like, Kalamandalam Kalyanikutty Amma, Kalamandalam Satyabhama, G. Venu, Sadanam Krishnan Kutty, Guru V.P. Ramachandran (Kathakali), and the legendary Koodiyattam Guru Ammannur Madhava Chakyar

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The IPAP (Indian Performing Art Promotions Inc.), an organisation based in Washington D.C. under the enthusiastic leadership of Pratap Das, specialises in mounting international festivals of Odissi. Its third International Festival in the series, held at the Orissa capital of Bhubaneswar from 26-30 December 2006, was a marathon event spread over three performance spaces of the Rabindra Bhavan, the mini auditorium of the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya in the adjoining compound, and the newly built amphitheatre which was ideal for group performances before large audiences comprising the general public. With innumerable Odissi dancers, critics and scholars participating, the sheer size of the festival was mind-boggling. For the first time, practitioners of Odissi in India and in fifteen countries abroad had the opportunity of interacting and being exposed to one another's work. This in itself was a massive achievement. The festival was made possible by a generous grant from the Central Sangeet Natak Akademi. The government of Orissa provided the all-important logistical support. But with all this goodwill, the festival had to contend with lack of coordination among the different agencies involved- particularly with regard to the disbursement of funds. Pratap Das could not have fathomed the problems of running a festival so far from his home in the U.S.A. Top bureaucrats who were eager to offer every help when the idea of the festival was mooted were no longer in the same posts by the time it was held and the new incumbents had their own priorities in terms of planning. So, in crucial areas, the IPAP found itself having to deal alone with situations it clearly had not foreseen. Dealing with oversensitive artists and scholars proved even more difficult, with individuals running to the local Press with their own grievances, real or imagined. And with local dailies, English and Oriya, ever on the lookout for spicy news, insignificant ego problems and differences of opinion made headlines in local papers with the overall picture seeming to disappear from the horizon. But despite snafus the festival rolled on like a Juggernaut.

Bleary-eyed with talking and watching Odissi from 8-30 am to midnight, you felt all appetite for the dance was being obliterated through a glut of performances. At times you sat through the recitals of twenty dancers in a slot to find only a couple of them worth mentioning. Selectivity is always a problem in such an once-in-a-lifetime event, where every dancer wants to find a slot. Since there was no nodal agency to weed out all but the best the organizers, being based outside, settled for the safer option of fitting in as many dancers as possible under different groups of 'Gurus', 'Padma awardees', 'Senior dancers', 'Purush or male dancers', 'International (those outside India), Solo', 'International Group', 'Established Dancers', 'Promising Solo' in both Indian and foreign categories, and 'Group Performances presenting New Dimensions

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Nalanda Dance Research Centre which began as a dance academy in 1966 was founded by Dr. Kanak Rele, and has been pusuing high standards in dance education. In these forty years Nalanda has progressed into a three-tiered Dance Research Centre devoted to imparting training in the Indian classical dances, encouraging research as part of academic programmes on dance pedagogy, and viewing dance not only as a cultural phenomenon but also as an adjunct to human development.

Bharatanatyam dancers in Mumbai are forever thirsty for opportunities of workshops and practice sessions with senior guru-s from Chennai and New Delhi. Understanding this need of the Bharatanatyam dancers to open up and widen their artistic horizons, Nalanda scheduled a four-day workshop in September 2006. This workshop was conducted by Delhi-based dance exponent and guru Saroja Vaidyanathan who taught traditional kriti-s like Netrandi nerattile and Aadaadu asangaadu. Over 200 dancers participated in the sessions which were open to all Mumbai dancers. Saroja"s expertise in the dance idiom and teaching method was a hit with the Mumbaiites.

Santavani, a Nalanda production based on Marathi abhang-s, had its 100th show in November 2006. With its devotional music and simple stylistic choreography in Bharatanatyam, Santavani, has enchanted audiences. The pranks of child Krishna, the anger of the gopi-s and the exasperation of Yasoda were poetically and visually enacted by the Nalanda dancers. The highlight of the performance was the participation of the past graduates of Nalanda who were invited to dance.

Nalanda has also launched out into diverse streams for the benefit of dance students of other faculties. The Kathak students of Nalanda and other institutions took part in a five-day workshop under the direct tutelage of the scion of the Kalka Bindadin gharana- Guru Munna Shukla. A recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for the year 2006, Guruji's sensitive and suggestive abhinaya, which is a speciality of his gharana, was indeed a unique experience for the students. The workshop was organised by Nalanda as part of its Diploma in Kathak course

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COVER STORY

Palghat T.S. Mani Iyer - Born for the mridangam-V. Ramnarayan


Sometime in the 17th century, a Raja of Palghat is said to have invited to his kingdom many Brahmin families belonging to the Tanjavur region. They were to inculcate learning and culture into the area. These families settled in 96 villages of the Palghat district and greatly enriched the place. Many of their descendants rose to high positions in administration, business and other walks of life. Several shone as musicians. But the man who was to prefix the district to his own name and make it immortal in percussion was Mani Iyer, the mridangam maestro.

Palghat TS Mani Iyer was born on 12th June 1912 at Pazhayanur, Tiruvilvamala Taluk, Palghat District to Sesham Bhagavatar and Anandambal as their second son. The couple had many children of whom some died early and two sons (Mani Iyer and a younger brother) and two daughters survived into adulthood. Sesham Bhagavatar was a vocalist in the Harikatha troupe of Mukkai Sivaramakrishna Bhagavatar, a famous exponent of the art form. Mani was christened Ramaswami at birth after his grandfather who was a school teacher besides being a good singer.

Born as Mani Iyer was to acquire fame in the field of percussion, the forces that control fates could not have selected a better place for his birth. Tiruvilvamala, a village on the southern side of the Bharata Puzha (river) was well known for its Panchavadyam performers. 'Maddalam' Venkicchan and Konthai were famed practitioners of the percussive arts and the former was in particular greatly celebrated; receiving awards from the Maharajahs of Travancore and Cochin and the Zamorin of Calicut. Speaking of Mani's talents in later years, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar said that owing to his having absorbed the patterns of Maddalam and Chendai in his infancy by hearing these players, he incorporated them in his own mridangam playing. Mani Iyer himself later said in an interview that from the age of two, the beats of the percussion instruments used in the neighbouring temple filled his being and entered his heart.

Accompanying Sivaramakrishna Bhagavatar meant frequent visits to Palghat for Sesham Bhagavatar and so the family moved to Kalpathi when Mani was around three or four. Mother Anandambal noticed that it was percussion that attracted Mani as he invariably began jumping when his father sang and the intervals between the jumps was remarkably precise. He also had the habit of producing rhythmic patterns on any available surface. Father Sesham Bhagavatar began scouting around for a good teacher.

The first formal lessons were begun by Chathapuram Subba Iyer, a well known mridangam vidwan of the area (see box- The Gurus of Mani Iyer) when Mani was six. He was also sent to a conventional Malayalam school around this time. Within a few months, Mani made rapid progress on the mridangam and his talents were noticed by LS Viswanatha Iyer of Alappuzha, an amateur mridangist who was considered to be an authority in the finer aspects of laya and who would lend percussive support on the mridangam or kanjira whenever vidwans from Madras Presidency came to Palghat to perform. He began guiding young Mani on performing for various kalapramanas and pallavis.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

Natya Kalanidhi Awards

It is not for nothing that Chennai is called the cultural capital of India. Every year the city wears a festive look and is agog with cultural activity of a classical nature in the months November to February. This does not however mean that the rest of the year is "dry". There are events aplenty throughout the year to cater to the tastes of the layperson and the rasika alike. Although one gets caught in the whirlwind of cultural activity during the Margazhi season which hogs the limelight, it is but fair that some important events in the music and dance calendar in the past six months in Chennai are recorded.

The Association of Bharatanatyam Artistes of India (ABHAI)—an organisation of, for, and run by the dance fraternity, took a historical decision under the leadership of its President M.V. Narasimhachari, to institute the Natya Kalanidhi award to honour eminent personalities for their contribution in the field of dance. The first Natya Kalanidhi titles were conferred on 15th October 2006 on two nonagerian veterans for their lifelong service to dance— natyacharya Pandanallur Subbaraya Pillai and scholar S. (Peria) Sarada, during the 18th anniversary celebrations of ABHAI held at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in Chennai. The award comprised a purse, a medal, and a citation along with the usual shawlgarland paraphernalia.

IDA’s 20th Anniversary

Twenty years is a remarkable milestone and one must congratulate the International Dance Alliance (IDA) and its Chairperson Leela Sekhar for carving a niche for itself in the dance field. Since its inception the IDA has done pioneering work in bringing dance exponents together on stage— veteran guru-s, senior dancers, as well as young talent. It also set the healthy trend of staging group productions choreographed by one senior guru with students drawn from different dance schools. It has also showcased for the audience in Chennai the diverse dance forms from different parts of our country

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