Random Thoughts at Nartaka dance festival

I was glad I had an opportunity to immerse in some wonderful dance experience at the Natyanjali Trust’s recent Nartaka festival at BVB , Mylapore. It was quite a stellar line up of upcoming talents that  drew me to the festival. I had missed the performances of couple of these dancers at the bygone December season and that made me even more eagerly look up to this festival.

I have been following the BN dance scene in Chennai  for a couple of seasons now, interacting  with dancers, attended workshops  and have had the opportunity to attend guided readings of Dance texts  and have taken deep interest in the deliberations on dance at different Natya Conference, Darshan, Disha, Seminars etc. While dancers might have prejudices about attending these events, I have had the privilege of listening to voices young and old deliberating about dance.

The ideas and the knowledge gained there in , combined with the performances at this festival offered me an ideal platform to critically analyze the dance experience. I venture to share some of the thoughts in this post.

Sooraj Subramnyam:

The festival opened with Sooraj’s  performance. I have eagerly awaited an opportunity to catch Sooraj perform ever since I read this article in the Open magazine. And when I found him participating in this festival , it made the festival all the more special to me. 

Anyone watching Sooraj is bound to be overwhelmed by his perfectly sculpted body. His ground movements and throwing of hands border on a very contemporary and modern realm. His agility and flexibility belie his age.

 I got to see two pieces performed by Sooraj. One was around the Gopis missing Krishna, and another on the Navarasas. I personally felt a deep pain at seeing  such a wonderfully sculpted body and gifted dynamics going wasted on feminine posturing in these pieces. It was difficult for me to bear to see feminine emotions sit on top of such a gifted masculine body. I am sure the Navarasas could be given a masculine treatment by a male dancer.

 I am going to have to wait to watch Sooraj  do a contemporary performance to have my fill of his talents.

Narendra:

Narendra was given the Nartaka award at this festival. I have seen him earlier perform once at Meera’s terrace. He is a dancer blessed with abundant charm. I was very impressed by the way he carried himself and talked about his dance. He was eager to share stories and experiences that made him even more interesting as an artist. 

The spunky tuft of salt pepperish hair naturally caressed to form a funk at the back and the prominent yagnopavithram embellish the spright in his dance.

I understand Narendra has a very spiritual connect to dance, that makes his dance border on a bhajan/ Kalakshepam experience. He enjoys doing it that way.

Sridhar Vasudevan

Vasu’s performance was easily the winner for me on the first day.  The prominent pauch, carefully concealed in a vest made me a bit apprehensive in the beginning, more so coming on the heels of watching two performers in great shape. 

Vasu simply won me over when he made efforts to sing while performing. This is a simple way of making a big difference to BN dancing. Young dancers who look to make a difference could take inspiration from Vasu and try and instill what was once a norm In the Sadhir form and add more value to their dancing and greater connect to the heritage.

Vasu gave a very expansive and novel treatment to the Varnam ‘Mohamana’, another inspiring instance of how one can make a big difference while still performing a very traditional varnam. His interpretation of Vishnu as the Nayika pining for Aroora was a very novel one and made perfect sense and offered scope for so much improvisation.

Meera Sreenarayan

I had missed Meera’s prize winning performance at the Music academy last season and I was eager to catch up with her performance. Her performance was clearly a class apart. The effort she puts into every small adavu and make it look very rounded was very evident throughout her performance. The perfect synchronism she managed to strike between the singing and her movements was another aspect that made her performance special. 

Her unhurried, refined execution of nrittas combined with a good video capturing technique would make for an interesting study of the geometric aspects of BN.

Right from the word go when she started by making floral offerings and invoking blessings she was very convincing and very immersed in the role play of the chosen theme. In the Narasimma Kavuthuvam, at one point she seemed to have grown several feet tall in enacting the drama, that is elucidative of the power she packs into her Nritya.

 In the swara jathi varnam Meera had chosen, there was a point when she serves the nayaka something to drink and sits on the ground beside him looking at him, at this point her gaze seemed to be at something distant rather  than on a the face of the nayaka close by. This was a a very minuscule fraction of a perturbing moment in the performance, I happened to notice it and mention it only because the rest of the performance was so thorough and flawless.

The vocal artist Bijeesh accompanying Meera made interesting improvisations that added to the fun and drama of the performance.

Lakshmi  P Athreya

Lakshmi looked gloriously tall and beautiful during this performance. While first half the varnam went by looking pretty and well, a moment when the dancer looks at the lotus and the sun with its lighting and the dancer’s posturing made for a very surreal experience, making me wonder why could not a whole nayaka- nayika piece be danced around with the imagery of say the sun and the lotus, rather than the usual nara- naari modeling.

The tempo of the performance in the Varnam picked up with the lines ‘ Kaaman enai..’. The performance had scaled up to a different level thereafter. The Meera Bhajan and the ashtakam were a visual and aural delight.

Shrutipriya

While SP was introduced as the runner up in the Music acdemy peroformances in the last season, my expectations naturally grew higher. SP had a easy grace and style about her dancing. I wish she invested a little more in the ideas that go into the Choreographing of her dance.

For instance, in the Nandanaar charithram piece, when Nandanaar is trying to get the bull to get out the way in Thirupangur, she starts off with showing a nataraja inside the shrine, which I thought was a quite a slip. She was not convincing as Nandanaar either. 

And while trying different means to get the bull to move she brings a tuft of grass to lure the bull away. I could imagine Bragha doing it if she were performing, but you have a young girl performing Nandanaar, u could attempt things like pelting a stone ( say at near the bull) to try and get the bull to move. I mean such things could make it more convincing.

Acharyas could make a big difference by choreographing with the dancer in mind rather than themselves.

Shwetha Prachande

I had missed watching Shwetha in the last season too. It was a couple of very close misses. She comes with a wide range of trainings in foreign shores to Kalari, rising expectations in her performance.

I was disappointed when she started without an invocatory piece. The invocatory piece helps the dancer to settle down to performing a dramatic piece. One cannot walk straight on to the stage and start emoting.

Shwetha started straight with the varnam, which should have caused difficulty in bringing emotions. The Varnam also happened to be one that the previous performer had performed to, something the convenor could have averted, making it a double disappointment. Moreover, Shwetha’s emoting to the lines of the varnam was almost zilch making it a difficult experience.

Meenakshi Sreenivasan

MS was quite a treat to watch. She stood out in here ease of performing to Padams. More special because these were the only padams I got to see in this festival.  Her grace added lilt to the performance. A mudra MS made for the 'chakora' bird, bringing both her hands together appeared different and ingenious. 

MS could bring a world of difference to her performance by being more convincing in the dramatics. The ‘koozhi’ piece was such a different and interesting piece, it offered a lot of scope for dramatics. She was very unconvincing while portraying the disappointment when the hero leaves all of a sudden or in her loosing cool with the rooster that spoilt all the fun. One could introduce folk elements like chasing the rooster to add value to the performance.

In concluding, i feel that while the Nritta part is something one cannot tamper much with, dancers could make a world of difference  and elevate their performance by adding more theatric and ingenious elements to the Nritya part of their performance. These are some thoughts that young dancers could deliberate upon.