Of the countless dance festivals staged across India, this unique event hosted in the national capital of New Delhi deserves a special mention.

The festival, aptly titled Shivaarghya, features male dancers as a tribute to Nataraj, the lord of dance, who is also revered as the first dancer of the cosmos. Brain-child of well-known Bharatanatyam exponent late Saroja Vaidyanathan, it is hosted during the month of Mahashivratri by Ganesha Natyalaya, the dance institution that Saroja had founded and currently headed by celebrated Bharatanatyam danseuse Rama Vaidyanathan, disciple and daughter-in-law of Saroja Vaidyanathan.

Launched in 2019, the festival - into its fourth edition this year - is curated by Rama Vaidyanathan. Eighteen dancers representing seven Indian classical dance traditions and the lesser-known Marga Natyam were presented in it this year on February 23 at the auditorium of Ganesh Natyalaya – an intimate space ideal for such a festival. While Kuchipudi, Odissi, Manipuri, Mohini Attam, Sattriya and Marga Natyam were represented by one performer from each of these genres, Bharatanatyam had the largest contingent of nine dancers followed by four from Kathak.

Of the nine Bharatanatyam artistes featured in the festival, six were soloists while the rest performed as duet dancers.

Delhi’s S. Vasudevan had the honour of opening the festival. Disciple of legendary Vyjayanthimala Bali, under whose tutelage he had his debut, is also a trained Carnatic vocalist who sings for his own recitals. He has received training in Kathakali and Chhau as well. With a firm grip over music and training in three dance styles, the dancer in his mid-40’s has evolved his individual signature as a performer-choreographer-music composer-singer. Rasarnava – the choreography that he staged with verses sourced from Rudra Yaamala, Vigyaan Bhairava Tantra and Soundarya Lahari was based on the yogic concept of Kundalini. His lyrical limb-language and the evocative music proved his potential as a choreographer and music composer.

Like Vasudevan, Himanshu Srivastava, another Delhi based dancer, is a multi-talented thinking-dancer. Trained under gurus Saroja Vaidyanathan, Kamalini Nagarajan Dutt and Rama Vaidyanathan, he is a dancer-painter-scholar. The abandoned Gopi, that he presented as the dancer-choreographer draws inspiration from the legend of Gopishwar Mahadev from Vrindavan that delineated the essence of being a Gopi.

Vinay Tiwari, who hails from the small town of Salempur in Uttar Pradesh and based in Delhi as a disciple of Rama Vaidyanathan, presented the popular Tanjore quartet - Mohamaana ten meedil – his guru’s choreography that depicts the mood of the nayika who is intoxicated in love with Lord Siva and asks him not be indifferent towards her because Manmada is striking arrows of passion at her.

Vidhun Kumar’s dance of perfection and internalisation belied the fact that he is a senior business analyst with a top-rated MNC. Technocrat by profession but dancer by passion – he was rather born to dance than serving the IT sector - this gifted dancer from Kerala who is empanelled with ICCR, a Doordarshan graded dancer who has performed widely, left a lasting imprint on the Delhi audience with his mature presentation. His exploration of the stage-space was the best among all the performers of the festival. Disciple of V. Mydhili and currently under advanced training with the renowned Priyadarsini Govind, he staged choreographies of both of his gurus - Ganesha Mallari and Adum Chidambaramo on Nataraja’s cosmic dance by V. Mydhili to conclude with Ninda Stuthi of Priyadarsini Govind that depicted celestial conflicts in Lord Shiva’s family.

Kolkata’s Nilava Sen, disciple of Rama Vaidyanathan, was simply brilliant. The moment he entered the stage, he arrested attention of the entire audience with his amazing body kinetic. He excelled both in exhibition of energy and control over it – it appeared as if the body responded the way the dancer desired and commanded each movement. The dancer’s determination to excel apart, the brilliant choreography of his guru Rama Vaidyanathan – known for her innovations with movement vocabulary - also brought out the best in him. He performed Shambhu Natanam, penned by Patanjali followed by Eppo varuvaro, a composition of Gopala Krishna Bharatiyar that delineated the devotee’s fervent  appeal to the Lord of Chidamabaram to relieve him from his sufferings.

The youngest and arguably the best performer of the festival was Bharatanatyam dancer Bharat Gangadhar Devanpalli from Mumbai. If dance is not merely a drill but articulation of the hidden language of the soul, then Bharat, the immersive artiste, was such a dancer to the core. Disciple of Acharya Anand Satchidanandan and Jayalakshmi Anand, the dancer in his mid-20’s graduated with science but preferred to be dance teacher and thus perusing his graduation in performing arts – a wise decision indeed for a talent born to dance. Bharat performed Hamsanandi Jathiswaram and an Abhang of Saint Tukaram choreographed by his gurus.

In view of the challenges that the male dancers encounter, it was heartening to come across a father-son duo - Binesh Mahadevan and Poojith Menon – from Chennai presenting Bharatanatyam duet. Recipient of the Kalaimamani award from Government of Tamil Nadu and at present the secretary of ABHAI (Association of Bharatanatyam Artistes of India), Binesh grooming his son Poojith to follow his footsteps is certainly a sign of victory of the male dancers. Both staged choreographies of K. Lalitha, guru of Binesh.

All the three soloists that the festival featured in Kathak segment were from Delhi – Akash Dwivedi and Tribhuwan Maharaj belonging to Lucknow gharana and disciple of Pt. Jai Kishan Maharaj while Vishvadeep Sharma trained under gurus Narain Prasad, Nandini Singh and Prerna Shrimali represented Jaipur gharana. Tribhuwan is also the son of his guru.

Despite lack of live orchestra and foot mikes – integral to Kathak concerts -  the three dancers managed to maintain the tempo of their recitals. Both Akash and Tribhuban performed choreographies of their guru which were popular numbers on Lord Siva – Damaru Har Har Baje and Aadidev – respectively.

Vishvadeep, a Kathak Kendra repertoire member, presented Chaturang that delineated the four nuances of dance and music and concluded with Ravana depicting the duality of his personality.

It was a pleasant surprise and rare opportunity to watch a male Mohini Attam dancer in the event - Ajeesh Menon from Coimbatore – who is a Carnatic musician as well. Thanks to his mentor Methil Devika, a distinguished and dynamic Mohini Attam exponent from Kerala, that this dance of the enchantress has now seen entry of male dancers breaking the barrier of gender discrimination. His recital comprised choreographies of Methil Devika: cholkettu – based on Soundarya Lahari – followed by Kottichettham from the Tamil epic Silappatikaaram based on the concept of Ardhanarishwara.

Assam’s Sattriya was represented by Delhi based Bhabananda Barbayan, recipient of the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Prativa Puraskar. His Isha vandana described the beautiful attributes of Lord Krishna followed by Dasavatar.

Sinam Basu Singh from Imphal, the first male dancer to receive the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Prativa Puraskar for Manipuri dance, lived up to his reputation of being a widely performed and much appreciated artiste who has also shown signs of a promising choreographer. Kamadeva Nartan, his first presentation, gave glimpses of his intelligent approach as the choreographer who tells the story without any lyrics but with the impact of the accompanying instrumental music. His other impressive presentation of the recital was Ardhanareeshwara.

The lesser-known and seen Marga Natya generated much curiosity among the artists and the audience alike as it is a recently reconstructed dance genre by Kolkata based Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee and eminent scholar Piyal Bhattacharya based on his extensive research on Natya Sastra. His well-trained and talented disciple Akash Mallick from Marga Natyalaya, Delhi, presented the style. The dancer, mostly positioned at the centre-stage and enacting repetitive movements brought in monotony into the concert.  

Odissi was represented by Sanjeev Kumar Jena from Bhubaneswar, disciple of fabulous choreographer and trainer guru Bichitrananda Swain who is known for grooming the best of male dancers in Odissi that was construed earlier as a feminine dance form. Sanjeev has been a member of guru Bichitrananda’s globally known all-male dancers’ troupe namely Rudrakshya Ensemble. He performed Ananda Bhairavi pallavi, a pure dance number followed by Shurpanakha, an expressional dance number that portrays the much-misunderstood complex character of Ravana’s sister from the epic of Ramayana.

Venakat Deekshitulu, a budding and graceful Kuchipudi dancer from Hyderabad, showed his promising venture into choreography at such a young age. His mother  Lakshmi Shankar, founder-director of Kuchipudi institute Nruthyadeekshalaya, being his mentor, Venkat has chosen Kuchipudi as his profession like the duck takes to water. As the dancer-choreographer, he presented Jatadhara Shankara Devadeva that delineates Siva’s Ananda Tandavam.

A fitting finale to the festival was a of Bharatanatyam-Kathak jugalbandi staged by Pritam Das and Gaurav Bhatti. Both the dancers are emerging fast as passionate and dedicated professionals. Pritam, from Kolkata, who moved to Delhi as a disciple of Rama Vaidyanathan, has been a twice-winner of the best young dancer award from The Music Academy, Madras in recent years. Similarly, Gaurav Bhatti is a Canadian dancer-choreographer trained in Kathak by gurus Saveeta Sharma in Ottawa and Lata Bakalkar of Mumbai and has received advanced training under the highly innovative choreographer and Kathak exponent Aditi Mangaldas in Delhi.

The duo presented their duet titled Sam that delves into the flow of the three nadis - Ida, Pingala and Sushumna – which govern the body. The concept portrays Ida nadi as shakti and Pingala nadi as Siva while their union is the Sushumna nadi that strikes the balance between the both symbolising their union. It was a contemporary interpretation of the immensely popular and age old concept of Ardhanareeswara.

Thanks to host Rama Vaidyanathan’s vision that the dancers featured in the festival were lucky enough to have the presence of several luminaries from the field of culture as special guests - who matter a lot to Indian dance scene - that included former Director General of ICCR Karan Singh, dance historian and critic Ashish Mohan Khokar, scholar-arts administrator Arshiya Sethi and SPICMACAY artist convener Ashok Jain apart from curator Rama Vaidyanathan herself who was sitting on the floor in the front row along with her students observing each performance with rapt attention.

The entire Vaidyanathan family deserves a special mention for hosting such a unique dance festival with a very personal touch – while Saroja Vaidyanathan envisioned it and Rama Vaidyanathan continues to curate and host it, Rama’s IITian better half C.V. Kamesh handled the extremely important responsibilities of light and sound designing; their elder daughter and Bharatanatyam dancer Dakshina Vaidyanathan anchored the event and younger daughter and percussionist Sannidhi Vaidyanathan was seen silently coordinating with the entire Ganesh Natyalaya family to ensure the best management.

by

SHYAMHARI CHAKRA

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