Celebrating world dance day!

World dance day is celebrated on the April 29^th every year. This is the day dedicated to dancers and dance lovers. This is the day when all dancers and dance lovers come together and celebrate. Also remember the great dancers who are no more with us but have contributed a lot to the field of dance, art and culture. There will be various events conducted in various places like dance-a-thon: where various dancers of various institutions and age groups come together and dance their way. Dance shows in various auditoriums.

Here is one such program i would love to talk about. The dance day celebrations held at Alliance francaise de Bangalore, organized by Mr Ashish Khokar. Here we could dance groups from senior to junior artists under one single roof. It was a 12hrs program from 10am to 10pm where various styles of dances were performed by the artists. I was present there as a dancer, dance lover and a mini journalist.  I watched few performances there and im here to share my experience and feelings about my time spent watching those performances.

Kavya Shanmugam: Persented a Padam set to Adi tala. She was graceful and had a very good balance while she took poses. There was one particular pose which impressed me that was a pose of a bird where she balances on one leg with a flat back and takes a turn on one leg. Her stretches were impressive and something a dancer could grasp from her. But her smile faded in few places where balancing was happening.

Parshwanath upadhye: a student of Guru Kiran Subramanium.  He was amazing at his dancing. His energy was equal throughout a performance which is very difficult task to maintain. Each step was like a energy packet coming out. It was as powerful as Gamma rays. He did a brilliant job.

“I personally feel happy to see a male classical dancer, and a female western and street dancer.”

Kaustavi Sarkar: presented to us Varsha a dance. Her speed and brisk movement of each and every part of the body was clear and made the dance lively. I was drawn into her movements and joined swaying with her.

Nrithya Pallai: a dancer from the ancestor’s family. Presented to us a tillanna in raga kalayana vasantham. She had a composition of her very own grandfather in her item. Costume she wore was very pale and not appealing to the audience. She had a very expressive eye and the features of her face were good which added a colour to her expressions. Her smile was not constant and clear to the back of the audience. The depiction of lord Krishna was not to what it has to be. When Krishna is so jovial and fun she did not match the expectations.

Samanya Gururaj:a student of Praveen Kumar presented to us Natesha kouvtham and dance piece on Lod Nataraja a lord of dance. An item very femilar to me and which i have also learnt from my Guru. Her smile was pretty and energy was very good. Balanced pretty well.  Nava rasa naikai another item she presented expressions were better in this item compared to the previous item.

“when an item is familiar to me i try to see the difference in the choreography and try to learn so that i will have two options of choreography for the same song”

Shishir Shashtry: a student of Praveen Kumar again presented a song on Lord Nataraja. When shishir was dancing it seemed like Praveen himself dancing. His body posture was perfect in all stands and poses. This was also a femilar item to me and an item which i have learnt so i enjoyd it.

Deepa Sashidharan, Rekha Satish and Avijit  Das: kuchipudi performance of Deepa Sashindran and Rekha Satish, the item is called as Shivashtakam a classic item choreographed by the legendary Guru Vempati chinna satyam. Avijit presented a jathiswaram set to adi tala. Looking at his lean body with bones i was surprised to see the energy he had while dancing.  Shivashtakam in raga mohana set to kanda chapu tala. The audio was pretty bad. And synchrony between the two ladies missed. Expressions were good.

Probal Gupta: a male dancer in a female version. Danced to the episode from maha baratha in raga kandal. I was baffled with his performance. The grace he had was no less than a female’s grace. His expression in his eyes and face was outstanding. The stage usage was perfect. He used the full stage and managed so well. The use of his hair as a prop was a nice n unique idea. Brilliant performance! He being a male dancer to dance like a female is not a easy task but he did it with such an ease that he deserves a hats off. He said “its a tribute to a dancer like me to dance on this day.

Manasa rao: a student of Lalitha Srinivasan presented a item on goddess Chamundeshwari. Her expressions were perfect and nice. Her foot steps were strong.

Guru raju: a student of Vyjanthi kasha: a male dancer again. He was pretty good with his dancing and the usage of stage was the best part of his performance.

Padmini shreedhar and group: a teacher in Jain university and her students. They were so well trained that they never missed synchrony. They were amazing looked like a terrific Trio performing.

Manasa joshi: astudent from Naatya stem. She was so graceful and expressive. Her chakars were so clean and well defined.

Jyotsana Jagannathan: A doctor at Manipal hospital. She presented an item which involved only expression and no foot work. Her abhinaya was upto the mark that the missing of footwork made no difference.

“Dancers like Jyotsana are the best example to prove the dedication, interest and passion towards dance never dies.”

Madhulita manopatra: peresnted an item called yehi madava yehi keshava. A depiction of virodkanditha naiyaka- were she waits for her beloved. She was outstanding in this intem. She was so much involved into the character that her expression were a blast. A wonderful performance! The eye catchy expression for me was the part where she cries, it was depicted so well.

She later was joined by Anjali Raj Urs: anajli is a person i know personally. This was an item where the rada explains to her friend about her lord Krishna. I could not move my eyes of anjali. She was so graceful and expressive.

“It so happens to me that if a personally known person is dancing in a group i cant move my eyes of them. I tend to see only them.”

Natya stem: “where stem means Space Time Energy Movement. And they need no introduction”  they perfomed sargam: by manasa rao and other two dancers. Amazing synchrony. Kalari was by the men. they were at their best as usual.

Anuradha Vikranth and Shama Krishna: they presented and item on lord Krishna Baro Krishanya a composition by kanaka dasa. A very familiar and basic item. The speciality of this item was that it was bharathanatyam by anu and kuchipudi by Shama at the same time. They were goin on so well, accidently Shama fell and could not dance further but Anu managed it so well that the absence of Kshama was nt felt.

“Wishing Shama a speedy recovery.”

B.P Sweekruth: presented to us then taal,  Which comprises only of foot work. I was off my seats to watch his foot work. His foot matched so well to the beats. Madhurastasm where he shows his love and devotion to lord Krishna. It was more of a abhinaya more than foot work. The depiction was so good felt like i was watching a movie.

“i myself am a lover of Lord Krishna. I was floating and so much involved into the item that i never even blinked.”

Sreedevi Unni: a mohiniattam performance. Involved only expressions and no foot work.

A person in the audience said “ till now all the performances was so lively but this performance almost put me to sleep.”

Aishwarya Nithyananda: student of Smt Rada shreedhar performed an item on lord nataraja and parvathi with the involvement of the 9 rasas and the 14 panani sutras in raga fars set to adi tala. The depiction of the 14 sutras as a jathi was the best part of the choreography. And her expressions was the nava rasas were brilliant.

Ashish kokhar says “she was nominated for the top 10 dancers not only of Bangalore but all over india”

Vyjanthi kashi : I have no words to describe her dancing it was that good. Its so difficult to b filled with such amount of energy and enthusiasm at this age. The dance on the plate was classic and the best part. It was a real treat to the eye.

Ashish Kokar says “vyjanthi just finish perfoming elsewere and has dropped in to perform for us”

Nritarutya: a performance bye Mayuri upadaya students. Two group dances they performed and out of words i am to explain their performance. All i can say is the deserved the standing ovation we gave. Their alignments, cuts and steps were well defined and finished, the girls in this group equalled the guys.

“I was so happy to see my choreographer Akshay D Mandlik dancing for nritarutya. The excitement i had when they were performing could not stop me wooing for them, Even though it ended up with an audience shouting at me for wooing.”

Shridhar and Anuradha Shridhar: performed with their student Kshiti scenes from mahabaratha a moving episode where kunthi meets Karna. It was a ballat. The recording was good and gave more effect to the ballet. Shridhar’s expressions outstood and was the best.

Ashish Khokar  a person without whom this event would not have been possible says “Dance is truly divine art..let us not spoil gods gift with ego, politics, games and one upmanship. 40 main dancers came together and with group art they added upto 125!! So many on one day, in one stage, without delays or mishaps, is amaing. Gods and gurus blessed us all and it was nice as 8 to 88 year olds were there! A full-house for stars is geneally seen, ocasionally but to have no standing space left most of the day, shows Bangaloreans are starved for good dance and organisation and presentation in professional way.....all credit to Alliance Francaise and our core team of dancers Madhulita Mohapatra, P.Praveen Kumar, Murli Kalva, Mohd. Imran, Deepa Shashindran, Smriti Srinivasan and Jyotsana Jagannathan. I was just the connecting link.”

“The dance was more effective with the million dollar stage. The speciality of this stage was that the footsteps ecoed.”

I conclude by saying “this was the best dance day ever i have celebrated in my whole life. It feels so good to be a dancer, dance lover and a mini journalist. I thank my parents who have been supportive to me always and not only let me attend the program at alliance francaise they also were with me in the auditorium as a dance lovers.”