A stroll in the garden – Margazhi dance round up

 Sreelatha Rajan

As soon as a palpable chill descends on Chennai, a suppressed enthusiasm envelops me, for Margazhi is just around the corner, holding the promise of a beautiful garden. A beautiful garden, with flowers of different sizes and hues, to wander in, admire, and savour the nectar of rasas. I think, the feeling must be enveloping the rest of my family as I find them joining me or offering background support.

The afternoon programmes at the Narada Gana Sabha’s Isai Natya Nataka Vizha 2024 offer a very convenient time slot to watch performances of upcoming artists. Here is a compilation of all the performances I had a chance to savour.

Prithvija Balagopal - Narada Gana Sabha: On 15 December 2024, Prithvija Balagopal, a disciple of Sheejith Krishna performed on stage at the Narada Gana Sabha. She commenced with the tisra alaripu before moving into the varnam ‘Sami ninne kori nannura, theevu nanneru kora’.  A ragamalika composition by Ponnyya (Quartet), it described a nayika’s love for Brihadeeshwara. Dancing to her own choreography (jatis by Arjunan Puveendran), Prithvija’s nayika was young and bold, determined to win her place beside the Lord. In the Pallavi, Prithvija introduced the nayika as a studious girl, who reluctantly looks up from her books. She sees the Lord, falls in love, and pursues him relentlessly. The nayika was unconventional, devoid of melancholy and appealingly raw. She was unhesitating in her pursuit and was seen questioning “What all should I do, so that you will accept me’’? The story unfolded through sancharis that were overly elaborate. Keeping the focus on the nayika and not elaborating every branch of her thought in the sanchari would have made for a concise story. Prithvija’s choreography was beautiful, but she missed an opportunity to take advantage of the vastness of the stage.

Prithvija advanced in age as she proceeded to dance to a lullaby ‘Palna mein lalna jhulavai’ (Ragam Brindavana Saranga). She transformed into Yashodha, alternately cradling the baby and admiring him, effortlessly merging into the patra. This was followed by a Kshetrayya padam ‘Indendhu vachithivira ’(ragam Suratti, Choreopgraphed by Bragha Bessel). The nayika waiting for the hero, confronts him with anger and sarcasm, dignified and devoid of drama. The performance concluded with a short tillana in Sindhu Bhairavi (composition of M.D. Ramanathan). The orchestra (K.P. Rakesh, Nandhini Anand, Karthikeyan Ramanathan, T.V. Sukanya, R.S. Advaith) needed more synchronisation.

K Sarveshan – Narada Gana Sabha: A disciple of the Dhananjayans, Sarveshan presented a set of compositions, on the framework set by his gurus. He commenced with a Mallari (Gambira Nata, Roopakam, Nellai D.Kannan) and a not-often-seen Surati varnam (Subbarama Dikshithar, Roopakam) ‘Sami entani telpudura Sudati Sugunamunu’. This varnam elaborates the mission of the dhoothi, who is sent by the nayika with entreaties to the king - Muthuswamy Ettendra of Ettayapuram.

As the dhooti, Sarveshan was graceful and generous, extolled the physical and inner qualities of the nayika and enacted her lovesick, cupid-struck state. In the second half of the varnam, he portrayed the king, his generosity and God like stature leaving no doubts about why the nayika was besotted. Interspersed with scintillating jathis, Sarveshan’s dance breathed the musicality of the varnam. An artist with mastery over yoga and Kalari, his nritta was swift and strong and abhinaya was deep.

Árunachala Kavirayar’s ‘Yaaro ivar yaaro’ followed the varnam. Playing Sita and Rama alternately, Sarveshan brought alive the budding romance between them with his heart warming abhinaya. He concluded with ‘Neelakantare vaarum’ (Begada, Adi, Sujata Vijayaraghavan) and a short ‘Bhavayami Gopalabalam’. Here as the devotee, Sarveshan beseeches Neelakanta to come down to set right the current world like how he had in the past when a poison spill threatened to consume the universe. Sarveshan depicted smoking and vehicular pollution as the cause for the Earth’s state, ignoring the greed of humankind that is driving the catastrophe. The beautiful dance composition missed an opportunity to delve deeper through the sanchari and make people think. The orchestra (nattuvangam: B Harikrishnan, vocals: Mithun Madhusudan, mridangam: Sivaprasad P.K., violin: Eswar Ramakrishnan, flute: Sujith Maik) and their chemistry with the dancer was beautiful.

Divya Ravi – Narada Gana Sabha: Divya Ravi presented a set of joyful dance compositions that traversed the four South Indian languages. She began her kutcheri with a Swati Tirunal composition from Utsava Prabhandham (Pantuvarali, Adi), describing the 10^th day of the arattu festival at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple. It was interspersed with a mallari composed by Sharan Subramanian. Through brisk dance, Divya brought alive the procession replete with musical instruments, elephants, horses and beautiful women and described the mighty Lord, as the one reclining on Anantha and riding the Garuda.

‘Vanajaksha’ was the Ata tala varnam in Reetigowla (Choreography: Mavin Khoo, Jatis: Vijay Kumar) that Divya performed. Looking for the loved one, the nayika sees his lotus eyes in all the things around her. On stage she was seen exploring the garden, looking for her loved one and pausing to admire the leaves, eyes of the deer and peacocks and delighting in their resemblance to his eyes. Further into the anupallavi and charanam, she deepened the nayika’s yearning while weaving in references to the hero’s noble qualities. Divya chose to explore the metaphors throughout the varnam, and while she managed to keep it real and beautiful, the essence of the nayika or the sthāyi remained elusive.

In the next composition, Divya portrayed the besotted Andal, talking to the Panchajanyam through the verses ‘Karpooram naarumo’ from Nachiyar Thirumozhi (Choreography: Mavin Khoo). As the sensuous young Andal, she let the audience into her intimate thoughts and questions which made for a delightful watch. The performance ended with ‘Baro Krishnayya’, a festive dance composition welcoming Krishna home during Janmashtami and a short version of Adyar Lakshman’s Sankarabharanam tillana. The harmonious orchestra (vocals: Sharan Subramanian, nattuvangam: Renjith Babu, mridangam: P.K. Sivaprasad, violin: T.V.Sukanya, flute: Vivek Krishna) added depth to the performance.

Dance For Dance Festival 2024

Praveen Kumar: On the concluding day of the festival, presented by Kalavaahini and curated by Malavika Sarukkai, Kalavaahini’s senior Fellowship awardee, Praveen Kumar, presented three compositions which appeared to represent his outlook on life and the universe. He commenced the evening’s performance with a composition that depicted the friendship between Arjuna and Krishna. Praveen etched out episodes of Krishna the giver and Arjuna the receiver, bound together in a friendship with the verses ‘Anupama maitreya madhurya nidhiyae’ (raga: Hindolam). The amazing choreography expertly glided through the swayamvarams with Subadhra and Draupadi, the Khandava dahanam and the Viswaroopa darshanam on the battlefield. Praveen deliberately portrayed an unbalanced friendship, with Arjuna never being the bhaktha. One could not but wonder why we fight shy of depicting Krishna’s friendships in a more balanced manner, where he is not just the giver but also the receiver.

Illike barandhu solli seithavalalli’ a padam (Pahadi) depicted the hero waiting for his beloved at the appointed hour. It was a short composition where the hero was a Nireekshana nayaka, observing what was happening, recalling the receipt of the rendezvous seeking message. He was at the appointed time and the place. He kept watch, merely stating, observing, wondering, and waiting without judging. One could empathise with him and carry the mantle of judging the one he waited for.

The final composition for the evening was ‘Shvaasa vishwaasa - The Life breath.’ Through carefully thought-out interplay of verses, music, choreography and light, Praveen painted onstage a lush natural landscape replete with visuals of a tiered rainforest. Using wind as the sootradhaar, to the verses that rang ‘Jeevana yaanam, sneha sudha rasa paanam’, the dance elaborated the different symbiotic relationships between abiotic and biotic entities existing there – the clouds and rainbow, the sun and the flowers, the vines and the trees.

The verses for these compositions were penned for Praveen by Shatavadhani R.Ganesh a Sanskrit scholar, polyglot, and an extempore poet in multiple languages. The orchestra and the lighting added additional dimensions to the spectacle onstage. Vocals and music composition – R.Raghuram, nattuvangam - Anoor, khanjira - Vinod, tabla –Shyam, mridangam – Vinay Nagarajan, flute – Mahesh Swamy, lights – Surya Rao.

Dance For Dance Festival 2024,

Rama Vaidyanathan and ensemble: Rama Vaidyanathan along with her ensemble of 11 dancers, presented ‘The storm before the calm’ at the festival, elaborating the journey of a dance production. It unfolded in three major parts (five acts) - the making of the dancer, the taming of ideas and the finale onstage.

The production commenced with a group of dancers moving in seemingly untrained, yet well-choreographed manner to the beats of the mridangam, depicting the natural response to rhythm. Churning the bodies through training, repeatable adavus and beautiful korvais emerge and the dancers seek the blessings of the supreme dancer (set to Muthuswami Dikshithar’s verses ‘Thyagaraja yoga vaibhavam’). Particularly elaborate and beautiful in this sequence was the depiction in myriad ways of the snakes that adorn and serve the Lord.

In the second part, in a solo padam like sequence, Rama compared the dance to a flying kite. Like a kite in the sky exposed to the elements, the multiple ideas that flutter within get streamlined (verses from Thirumanthiram, ‘Ádi adangatha ennai adaikki vaithu’), as the soul merges with Siva and the kite is steadied.

In the concluding part, the dancers in gay abandon dance to the verses ‘Bhoothanda peythanda’ from Thirumanthiram. There were beautiful visuals of the rain, the nature, the animals rejoicing. Through well-chosen verses and choreography, Rama brought home the idea of how a beautiful dance journeys and how the journey culminates in the dancer embodying Lord Siva, bringing joy to this world. The choreography was excellent, the dancers’ entrances and exits well thought out and executed. The group danced as one cohesive unit with precise timing. The lighting (Surya Rao), music (Sudha Raghuraman) and costumes enhanced the appeal.

The production stretched a few minutes too long and some editing towards the end would have been apt.

Karthik Fine Arts - Uma Sathyanarayanan – Uma’s concert at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan commenced with a Tevaram followed by Madurapuri Chokkar Kauthuvam (choreography: Chitra Viswesvaran). In this composition, Uma described Lord Siva’s beauty through his multiple adornments – matted locks, the tiger skin, elephant hide, crescent moon and the flowing Ganga. Through the Tripura dahanam and Manmatha’s incineration, she described his prowess as well.

Swati Tirunal’s pada varnam (Kalyani, Adi) was Uma’s central piece for the evening. ‘Saathura kaamini deva’ was the varnam, and had the messenger taking the message of the nayika’s unspoken and self-burning love to the Lord Padmanabha. The initial sequences had the messenger observing and empathising with the nayika. The nayika was in an ocean of despair and was seen picking the conch from the sand and embracing it lovingly. Setting this context in a beautiful manner, Uma disposed of the heroine and became the story teller. Delving into devotion, she narrated the story of how Padmanabha swamy came to dwell in Thiruvananthapuram. Sage Vilwamangalam’s upasana of Lord Vishnu, the Lord’s appearance in the hermitage as a boy, the ignorant sage’s rebuke and the pacification of the Lord were beautifully depicted. The colossal form of Padmanabha that spanned miles and his subsequent condensation into Ananthapadmanabha form visible through the three entrances at the temple were magnificent. Closing the varnam, the messenger Uma retreated with a sigh that said, ‘I have done what could be done and the rest is beyond me’. The jatis for this varnam were reworked from Kamala Rani’s collection. Uma’s approach to the dance was very fluid and honest. The ease and finesse with which she danced the music and enacted the story was heartwarming.

Moving on to the padam, Uma chose to sing the poignant ‘Yaarukaagilum bhayama’ (Begada, misra chapu, Madhurakavi Bharati) seated on a bench. Her tone and demeanor aiding the thoughts in the verses, the heroine was confident and defiant and did not care to hide or show parts of her life fearful of other’s reactions. The padam was a treat.

Uma closed her performance with a devotional composition. She danced to the Purandara kriti ‘Karuniso ranga karuniso’. As the devotee seeking divine grace, she acknowledged that she is flawed and did not possess claims to devotion as expected. Reiterating the humility through the portrayal of the stories of devotees like Gajendra, Garuda, Hanuman and others, Uma danced ecstatically to Vittala, leaving everyone in a frenzy.  The excellent orchestra was an extension of the dancer and had Sasirekha Rammohan on nattuvangam, Satish Venkatesh on vocal, Sivaprasad on the mridangam and Nandini Sai Giridhar on the violin.

That has been my Margazhi sojourn. Each flower I admired in this garden was unique, its beauty lingering in my memory, bringing to mind Wordsworth’s reflections on solitude and joy.

PC: Uma - A4 Media, Praveen & Rama (SNS Consultancy), Divya (Priyaa), Prithvija (Aswin Vijay),