Skilled performances
B.R.C. IYENGAR
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Young dancers excelled at the Kalasagaram's Annual Youth Festival of Dance.
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PRETTY POSE: Nikita and Niveta.
The Annual Youth Festival of Dance (Bharathanatyam) conducted by Kalasagaram is a unique forum where up and coming artistes are encouraged and provided opportunities to perform. Great artistes like Kamala, Padma, Chithra etc. were initiated in this forum. Last week's programme of the festival included three young dancers whose performances were equally challenging and amazingly skilled.
The first day's performance was by Priyanka. The 12-year old Priyanka is the disciple of Guru Geetha Ganeshan from the Uttaraa Center of Performing Arts. At this young age, she has won laurels from within and outside the Twin Cities. Endowed with enchanting looks, grace and intelligence, in the couple of items she performed on the day it is evident that she won the appreciation of the audience in her neatness of advaus and refined abhinaya. Besides pushpanjali, the ragamalika varnam she performed, revealed her confidence and excellence in expressing myriad feelings of bhava and rhythm. Priyanka elaborated the episodes of Lord Vinayaka's birth as delightfully expressed in the composition by Jayaprada Ramamurthy.
Although the long item drove the artiste to excessive wariness, Priyanaka never showed signs of it. The thrilling thillana in the raga tilang, a composition of Jayaraman was greatly appreciated. The role of mischievous Krishna was well depicted in the item, Krishna ni Begane Baro in Yamuna Kalyani. If Guru Geetha Ganeshan's nattuvangam was the hallmark of the day, the orchestral group with Subblakshmi on the violin and Subramanyam on the mridangam added ecstasy to the performance.
Priyanka.
Good footwork
The second day's programme was a Bharathanatyam presentation by Sathvika, a disciple of Guru Hemamalini Arni and belongs to the parampara of Balasaraswathi. Sixteen-year-old Sathvika has a good personality and appealing features, particularly her sparkling eyes. What is most qualifying in her art is the excellent footwork in Synchronisation with the nattuvangam.
In the overall assessment, however, the first reaction is that she moves too much on the stage, which obviously cuts down the episodes of abhinaya and needlessly overplays footwork. Choosing moments of calmness and opening events of nrithya would be a better idea. She chose the Pancharathna of Thyagaraja, Sadhinchene in Arabhi for her varnam item and did a fairly decent act although the expressions at times were unrelated to the lyric. The different acts of nrithya to go with the item too were excessive and even extraneous. To be true, the item Ananda natanamdinar in Poorvikalyani was more impressive than the varnam. The nattuvangam by Raghunandan was good but his body language was repulsive. Vocal support by Swetha Prasad was attractive.
Sathvika
Sisters excel
It was the final day's programme of Bharathanatyam by the sisters Nikita and Niveta that was perhaps the best in the festival. The young girls evidently have been put to rigorous training and during the entire programme there was no moment of monotony or deficiency. If the good looks of the young girls add charm to the event, their talent is even more so. In every aspect, be it the abinaya or footwork, the entire programme was captivating. The nattuvangam by guru Rajeswari — one of the leading danseuse in the country — was professional. The thinking that has gone into the art is evidently enormous. If one should analyse the details, the koruvais, the jathis, the change of nadais (rearrangement of pulses within the framework of the tala), the Kalapramanam and every feature of rhythm was outstanding. The orchestral support was uniformly good and the mridangam by Srinivasa was the highlight of the orchestra.
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