Pandara Purana by P Praveen kumar.

Pandara purana was a dance drama presented to us by Praveen Kumar as a part of kinkini festival 2013. It was a visual treat the performance was very good and the costume change and the transitions was managed very well.

As my new passion and interest now is photography here are few Shots of the show

Nrithya bharath day3

Manasa rao: presented to us an item of nava rasa’s, she had a very pretty smile and maintained it troughout, she had good aramandi and jumps and the definitation was steps was clear. She had classic expressions. She mostly used the center of the stage and I could hardly watch her as the camera man blocked me.

Ajay kumar a kuchupudi dancer presented to us ashtavida shringara nayaki as soon as the MC mr srinivas said this my mind raised in thoughts a guy Presenting to us a girl item? Ashta nayaki is about the 8 different nayaki’s who they wait for their beloved. This guy  was amazing , he looked so pretty and graceful. Not a sign showed it’s a guy dancing. It looked like a girl is dancing. The transition from one nayaika to other was seperated by a jatiand this concept was nice. His chain broke and the pearls spread all over the stage still there was no expression on his face he continued like nothing had happened. This is an aspect of professionality that we aall growing dancers have to learn.

 

 

The most awaited performance of the day which I was looking for. Til today I had only heard about him the eagerness ggrew to watch him dance. And fially the day came im talking none other than the splendid charles ma. I must say I learnt a lot form him and his thoughts and views about dance, art, culture and treditoin. He presented to us bharathnaatyam of 3 pieces and I fell in love with his dancing I have no words to discribe hiim and his dancing but all I would say is he was very expressive, energetic and was flying on stage.

For every dancer energy is high in the benning and get low towards the end but in case of charlie it was totally the opposite his energy was high in the begenning and grew more n more towards the end. He gave in his mind, body heart and soul to dance. I must say we all must be proud to have such dancers and such dancers are the one’s who uphold the tredition. He quotes “there is no better dance form than classical dance and no dance can beat classical dance” this was according to the MC srinivas. I do respect these words of charls. Hats off to such a man. I will proudly say “he is the best male dancer I have ever seen.”

Madeva by the tiny tots of natyanthranga. I had a jaw drop as soon as I heard the MC say this “tiny tot’s and Mahadeva are you kidding me?” Mahadeva is an item presented by the seniors and not the tiny little kids. Firstly very bad audio, no sinchronisation at all, people were looking at each other and dancing, expression less zero smile where ever it was required. The power and energy of Shiva was not felt at all.  

The second piece I expected something to their level but for my shock it was Shrungarapura I had my hands on my head. But this wasn’t that bad as I expected. There were smiles found here and therer, expression less and again no sinchronisation at all.

As soon as this item got over a dancer next to me and myself stated talking as to there are so many krishna items which suit the kids y not one of those items for our surprise the next item happened to be krishna’s 

Taye yashoda from the Morning raaga. The song is so beautiful and impactful but the dance was nt matching the song. The concept of getting one person as krishna made the item watchable.

The dancer next to me says “I pity those little kids, what else will happen if the senior items are given to tiny kids who wont even know how to feel and involve into the song.”

Seeing this the words of the greatest dance critic Mysore v subramanium striked my mind when he came to the same series of program the previous day as a chief guest he said “now a days dance is no more an art everybody wants to dance and gain fame. The day they admit their children to a class the parents will have a question when will my daughters photo come in paper? When will she do her rangapravesha? In olden days if girls danced it was great and now if girls don’t dance they don’t want to get married to such girls. If you want to learn the art for fame please don’t do it learn it for what it is and to continue the culture and tredition.” He added.

When he said those on 6^th november I swear I laughed over it but I just realised that he was absolutely true. He’s such a gem of a person thank you sir. I do apprectite that she gives chances to the tiny little growing artists which is not at all a easy job but I think there are certain things to keep in mind before giving them a chance.

Prabal gupta:presented to us the purapaat- commencement of the program, it was set to 4 taala’s the highlight of this item was the circular, semi circular and swaying movements. In raaga ragamalika set to taala malika. Very graceful swaying movements which made me aslo sway to it. The central theme Poothana mooksha taken from an episode of mahabaratha. Where kamsa get aware of the borth of krishna and wants to kill krishna to save his own life. He sends a demon called poothini to breast feed krishna with her poisioned milk which she fails to and gets killed by the lord krishna. The portrayal of this was outstanding, never moved my eyes from him. I always used to say that his expressions strike the audience stiiting in the last and I did experience this today. I was sitting littreally in the last and had the same feel of sitiing in the front. Minute of minutest thing he highlights it so well that I will want o watch him more n more. The hair prop he took out on stage was just brilliant and the same hair he uses as a beard I just loved this part of the choreography.

A person in the audience said “the more I watch him, the more I fall in love with his dancing.” And I so agree with this.

Had a wonderful experience and journey in these three days. Learnt a lot of things. For a dancer its always an advantage to watch others dance because there will be a lot to learn and you would have learnt without ur knowledge, which will be of use some or the other day.

Congratulating Shubha Dhananjaya on her successful 25^th year celebration, it was a great idea of her to celebrate it spread over four days where I unfortunately missed attending the fourth day. The best part of this celebration was to get in different forms, different people from differernt places to encourage classical art. Doing this is just not an easy task. Finally all her hard work came into a success. Wishing her all the very best and looking forward for the 50^th year celebration.

Nrithya bharath day-2

Prateeksha kashi daughter of vyjanthi kashi performed to us two items on this evening. The first item was taranga neele mega shareera, in raaga mohana set to adi tala. This composition is taken from  Krishna leela tarangini. She danced on the rim of a brass plate. She used the stage very well before and after she climbed on the plate. On the plate also she managed to move in all directions.

Her second piece was Bhairavi who is mainly seen as chandi in raagamalika set to adi tala. The impact of the song was very strong so was her expressions. This item involved a lot of energy and she was up to the mark. Her anger and agression expression was strong .

Barathi divya bhushn and anjana bushan presented to us a piece in praise of lord Ganesha is raga sriranjini set to adi tala. Very bad sinchronisation, excellent foot work, smile wasn’t constant kept fading away often. Bhushan the grand son of the great film actor kalayana kumar was more stable in his postures and very good at abhinaya. But anuradha was nt that great.

Brocheva presented to us in raga kamach and set to adi tala. Bushan says “this item is very memorable to us because 7yrs back we performed the sam eitem exchanging garlands and few days later we got married. He adds everything began here as a dancing couple” audio quality was bad they looked very cute in the scene where they exchange garlands. Anurada looked extra pretty and expressed much better than the first piece. Bhushan was the same as good as the first item.

Shree krishna parijatha: presented to us by anupama mohan and troupe. A very huge dance ballet. They were lip singing the whole ballet and this is the first time im watching such a thing happening. There was a moment when all the lights went off but this never effected anupama she continued dancing. Every1 did a bit of solo and then joined one another this made the balet prolong even more. The costume and jewles were the highlight of this ballet it looked very apt and lovely. The stage utilization was just perfect they moved around every nook and corner, in all directons and angles. I just loved the part where krishna convinces satyabhama.

The last item of the day was the best and it was the kalari pyattu show. I was so eager to watch it but time dint permit me to, it was 15 min past 9 n I had to leave the auditorium at any cost. I really wish I could watch that.

Looking forward for Charls ma’s and prabal guptas perfromance in the day 3 cant wait to watch these amazing dancers who I always love to watch

Celebrating 25 years Nrithya bharath- Day1

Natyantharnaga is celebrating their 25^th year anniversary in ravindra kalakshtra with dance evenings spread across for four days the 5^th,6^th,7^th and 8^th. Bringing in various dancers together and cleberating is such a wonderful thing. Natyantharanga is a dance school held by Shubha dhanjaya the naatya saraswathi.

Delaying by an hour they started their first day of the celebration. In presence of S. Suresh Kumar the minister of law and order, Mahadevan babu, Mohan Suresh, Dhananjayan and shantha Dhananjayan the oldest dance couple and shubha dhananjaya herself. The program started with an invocation song by her own student Anunavya, who sang a song on lord ganesha and seeked his blessings for the successful celebration.

They started of with the Siricinchana- a dance ballet of ashta lakshmi presented to us by shubha dhananjaya and troupe. The 8 different lakshmies were present them self on stage as adi, dhanaya, veera, gaga, shantha, vidya, vijaya and dhana lakshmi respectively and the maha lakshmi shubha herself. The make up costume and stage setting was brilliant. The concept of each lakshmi sitting on the lotus was the part I loved the most. They looked like real goddessess themselves but they went a way too off sincronisation. Mistakes made were little obvious and shown clearly on the face of the little students. Shubha just outstood looked pretty and graceful.

A person in the audience says “there was a time when shubha wiped her sweat off the tissue on stage during the performance, which was very prominent even though she was sitting and the dancers were dancing in front of her”. This is something i dint notice may be i was involved watching the growing and up coming artists dancing.

Ranjana gauhar dancer from delhi took us to a totally different world by her different form of dance Odissi. She is a padmashree awardee and also trained in kathak, manipuri and contemporary dances. She started her piece with the prayer to lord shiva seeking his blessings.  She was graceful, energetic and pretty expressive. She discribed lord shiva on the whole and his attire, apperence and his character and his moods she also played the role of an devotee of lord shiva the expression chande and shift in the roles played was very good. The expression of anger and aggression hit like a spark. Liked the ending of the item with chakars

Kuru yadu nandana opted from the geeta govinda the eternal love towards the lord krishna. The nayika here is the vasakasajja. The person who waits and waits for her saka and while waiting she dreams/ gets reminded of the times spent together. This item was very pretty and cute.  The discription was very detailed and easy to follow whats happening.

A person in the audience said “An item of krishna always and that’s one thing I would love to watch. And I enjoyed this piece”.

Dancing footsteps in rain. Based on meer’s poetry which describes the love of the monsoon. The feel she had was amazing it was like she was really dancung in and with the rain.

The stage usage in all three pieces were bad, such a huge stage and she never moved away from the center of the stage.

The oldest dancing couple Padmashree Dhananjayan and Shubha dhanjayan presented to us the rama nataka keerthana in raaga malika and aadi tala. Firstly its very difficult to dance in that age on top of that they both had super balance, stretch and bends. They were no less than the youngest couples. They were filled with energy, enthusasism and smile; they danced throughout with complete enjyment and involvement.. the fight sequence was just excellent.

Gopal krishna barathi nanda a dance portraying lors shiva’s devotee and when he’s nt allowed to view the lord shiva. In raaga maachi set to mishrachapu tala. A solo piece by dhananjayan sir Im speechless about this piece it was just “perfect”. The involvement he had into the character was shown in his face.

"Its a honour to Kiran subramanium to play the natuvaanga for his own gruru's performance". said a person in the audience. 

An amazing show looking forwared for the next shows. Spread across the next 3 days.