Penchant for the narrative

A WHOLE hour beyond the scheduled 7 p.m. start, Kavita Ramu took the stage for Krishna Gana Sabha before a much depleted audience on December 13. Neither dancer nor audience could be fully involved in the invocation Manikya Veenam, with the cameraman either standing like a wall, cutting out the dancer from view, or blinding the audience with the glare of the camera lights. His choreography, pacing back and forth, covering the entire expanse of the breadth of the stage, was a distraction, to say the least. Organisers must impress upon family enthusiasts to find less intrusive methods for making a video film of performances. The complete disregard for the audience convenience is not right.

The Ragamalika varnam, Samagana Priyane, a composition of Madurai Muralidhar was a departure from the beaten track of Adi talam and Roopakam, in its 14-beat metrical cycle, and the homage to Siva visualised him as the God who is propitiated by Samagana. Sculpturesque and statuesque in approach to movement, Kavita Ramu, a disciple of K. J. Sarasa has a penchant for the narrative, in common with many other followers of this guru. Episodes like Ravana's lifting of Mount Kailash, in a misdirected show of might, and his appeasing of the enraged Siva by singing verses of Samagana, were enacted with aplomb. The image of Siva seated on the Bull, was central to the abhinaya imagery, an entire teermanam rendered with the hasta mudra symbolising Siva in this attitude. Barring the Kaana Kan Kodi Deivame statement in Varali, the total impression of the dance was more theatrical than introspective. The teermanams are well-conceived and set, and with greater familiarising through repeated rendition, are bound to generate more thrust in the rhythmic accenting, with a togetherness in nattuvangam and dance giving the impression of two strands of activity bound by a united rhythmic purpose.

Baro Krishnaiyya in the elaborating parts of the musical statement like Baliya Manage Vamana Bandante and Bhagiratanage Gange Bandante again tended to become anecdotal, and while the dancer gave a very involved presentation of the devotee calling out to Krishna, one wished for something out of the oftrendered padam or Javali repertoire to bring out the thrust of a pure sringar-based theme. Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman's tillana in Maand, a lilting composition, ushered in the finale. If the rendition did not go beyond formal correctness, with little of the joy and rhythm in movement, which the number should have evoked, one can put it down to the late hour and just a smattering of people seated in the auditorium.

Ananda's best came towards the end

A full time officer of the Indian Railways, with an equally active dance involvement, Ananda Shankar Jayant of Hyderabad would seem to accommodate living in two worlds simultaneously, with ease. With a lively stage presence, Ananda tends to give the dance a chirpy hype, which at times needs to be tempered by an inner serenity, to give that feeling of a still centre. Her dance has a restless feel more often than not. One particularly felt this in the Swati Tirunal composition Shankara Sri Giri in Hamsanandi, in which the majesty of Siva to whom the song is addressed, got lost in a kind of bouncy exuberance.

In the Todi varnam, Mohalagiri Konden Swami, portraying the smitten nayika pining for Rajagopala, the very extroverted abhinaya would have acquired more subtlety through greater internalisation of feelings. Groomed at Kalakshetra, which places so much emphasis on technique and dance line, Ananda has now come to a stage in her dance when she needs to have another intense look at the adavu exercises, for the profile of below the waist stances is marred by the feet being placed too far apart and the knee deflection not being fully sideways as it is meant to be. In general the geometry of lines leaves much to be desired. The rhythmic passages linking up the interpretative parts of the song lacked pinpointed accuracy with nattuvangam accompaniment having to be provided by a comparatively inexperienced student of the dancer.

The dancer seemed to come into her own, towards the second half of the recital. The Kshetrayya padam in Huseni (Aligiee Bhagyamaye mare mi vaa Daligitee), portraying the responses of a nayika who in an apparently accommodative fashion seems to be resigned to the fact that she is no longer the favoured woman of her angry beloved, was done with greater containment of emotion than one had seen hitherto in the artiste. It is my luck if my beloved is angry, she says. But reliving in her mind the days of shared joy and intimacy in the past, she says that it is after all the same Muvagopala.

Geetopadesham, which was rendered as the finale after the Tillana in Jonepuri, saw Ananda at her best. Arjuna's plight in having to wage a war against friends, relatives and elders and Krishna's counsel andphilosophising on Dharma and on the imperishable soul which needs must discard its old and aging body and acquire a new exterior, were all caught in a moving dance narrative, the score by Pandanallur Srinivasan and Prema Ramamurthy providing an ideal base. Right from the stirring Shivaranjani to the Revati when the Lord reveals his Cosmic identity to Arjuna, the verses from the Gita were most tunefully sung by singer Venu Madhav. Shakti Vel on the mridangam provided percussion accompaniment, which was supportive without being flashy. Shikhamani on the violin provided very melodic interventions.

Uncompromisingly correct

Prof. Chandrasekhar's group offering Panchamahabhootangal presented at the Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, was a departure from the usual mythological spin-offs, and from the nayika playing out the bitter/sweet agony of love. The thematic engagement with the five elements in a representation evoking them as powerful forces helping life on earth rather than in a message giving a didactic thrust, was based on pure Bharatanatyam movement without any word based abhinaya, even though there were hymns introducing each element. In what one would describe as an intellectualised approach to the subject, the dance conceptualising was inspired by various sources as far apart as Abhinava Gupta's ancient treatise, the odd verse from Abhijnana Shakuntalam and the Vastu Sastra.

With all the dancers being senior disciples from Kalakshetra and of the Dhananjayans the uncompromising consistency in the quality of the dancing which in its hard-edged clarity of technique, very Kalakshetran, with no rousing display of virtuosity or long jatis with a tonal leap and swell for embroidery, was no surprise. In fact, it is this unerring feel for correctness of line and profile that some people in the end described as too predictable.

The prayer to Siva, who in his iconographic representation, embodies all the symbols of the five elements, could not have had a better dancer to translate into the idiom of movement, than the disciple of the Dhananjayans, Rajesh Kumar. In the rangy arms and legs, which have a spread and amplitude in clean extensions and a beautifully held araimandi, and with the penetrative thrust of bright and eloquent eyes, he is a delight to watch. The benediction to Siva, to Chandra and to Surya was followed by the propitiatory methods prescribed in the Shodasha Upachara where water propitiates water, flowers evoke space, Dhoopam is offered to Vayu , Sandal paste to the Earth and Deepam is to propitiate Agni.

There was a starkness and minimalism to the starting music in Shanmukhapriya ragam with just Chandrasekhar's voice and an occasional intervention on the violin, the entire effect of gravitas making a far more effective statement than ornately structured music with the swell of instruments and heavy language of rhythm. The ragas of Tyagaraja's Pancharatna Kritis, the Kingly Five as they are regarded, inspired the score for the five elements in the Upachara segment, each set to a rhythmic gait.

The introductory remarks by Prof. Chandrasekhar himself, made all the symbolism of geometry appearing as a recurring motif for each element clear as a head the horizontal and vertical line for Jala (Water) and Agni (Fire) respectively, the diagonal line for Vayu, the square for Prithvi (Earth) and the formless undefined pattern for Akash (Space). Without the explanations, which in circumstances of less financial constraints, could have taken the shape of cyclostyled introductory leaflet distributed to all, would the dance by itself have communicated? I think it would have.

But where one felt the connections would have been more difficult to establish was in the charis like the Akashchari being used for the sequence on Akash. For persons not familiar with the theory of dance, the association would have been less clear. However the group formations, one felt, could have been more suggestively used. For instance, instead of the hands of each dancer moving in an undulating wave, like pattern, the group formation could have created the wave like effect. Levels could have been exploited more in the dance designing. The metrical cycle in each case provided a repetitive base round which movement evolved. Some more variation instead of the repetitive movements would have been more exciting.

Conceptually, the music was good. The melodic mode Vasanta with its association of Spring and the pollen from a profusion of flowers, sprinkled far and wide by the gentle breeze (representing Vayu or air), the weighty Sankarabharanam for Prithvi with the dance assuming earth bound mandi adavu movements, sarukkais and leg stretches were all evocative. So was the patterning of the Fire sequence, the dancers in a circle moving hands to suggest flames with a dancer jumping into the centre representing the rising flames, the entire imagery communicating strongly. It was clever to use the leg in the air in a veeshara adavu in the Akash section.

In the presentation, as against the conceptualising, the music sounded monotonous and mechanical. A wider use of tonal variety through percussion and more of instrumental flourishes would have given greater melodic strength. But as the producer later said, while ideas were many, the chance to implement them depended on financial support, a point which needs to be addressed by dance groups. Where are the support structures for helping group endeavours, which by way of music and dance require generous assistance?

Lighting by Babu was very sensitive. The music team had Vanati Raghuraman (vocal), Professor Chandrasekhar (Nattuvangam), Adyar Balu (mridangam), Muttukumar (flute), and Sikhamani (violin).

LEELA VENKATARAMAN

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