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Entertainment
Fine attempt at fusion
Ramya with the jazz band... interesting show.
THE COMPERE was at great pains to inform the audience on January 15 at Bharat Kalachar that it was a humble attempt at doing something different. In that context such efforts need to be lauded especially when it is so easy to be typecast and relegated to the background.
So here was Ramya Ramnarayan, performer-teacher-choreographer who along with Bedam, a contemporary jazz group from Amsterdam, made an attempt at fusing dance and music.
It did not quite start like that - the margam was given its due with the kautuvam; alaaripu, padam, and the only indications of this fusion were stands for the musicians from Amsterdam to keep their notations. Ramya disregarded this arrangement and went on to give her all to the dance.
A student of Swamimalai Rajaratnam Pillai and Kalanidhi Narayanan, Ramya runs the Nrithyanjali Institute of Dance in New Jersey, U.S. and proved to be a conscientious artist.
Even the alaaripu was done with a passion. One could say the same of the padam, which detailed the navarasas with quiet confidence. When it was time to introduce the Bedam group it was an item that had them playing first followed by the suddha nrittam, which was complementary to the rhythmic flow of jazz.
A ragam tanam pallavi by vocalist Jahnavi Jayaprakash had the jazz musicians following the nuances of the Carnatic style. It was a very good attempt by those to whom this is still very alien in mood. They may have mastered the notes, the swaras and the melodies (they have spent five years learning the Carnatic style) but when it comes to playing it, the western origin shows.
While all this was done to introduce Ramya's concept of fusion, the finer aspects of her individuality came through with jazz music played to the events leading up to the banishment of Rama in the Ramayana.
Of course Padma Subramaniam has done the Jatayu Moksham to the accompaniment of classical western. But this, as Ramya put it, was contemporary music with classical Bharatanatyam! The jazz artistes arranged themselves on stage - key flute- Ned, base guitar- Mark, violin-Uney, base clarionet-Thobias, keyboards-Joseph, trumpet-Khais and in the traditional style was Jahnavi Jayaprakash, B.C. Manjunath on the mridangam, Sri Hari Rangaswamy on the kanjira. In the midst of all these was Ramya performing some truly fine abhinaya. Her portrayal of Kaikeyi and the asking of the boons from Dasaratha seemed very apt for the music in mood and ambience.
At the end of it all it didn't seem like a humble attempt. It was an interesting one.
CHITRA MAHESH
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