Obeisance through dance

DEEPA H. RAMAKRISHNAN

Dancers re-dedicated themselves as Natyanjali was celebrated at the Chidambaram Nataraja temple.

Dancers from all over the country paid tribute to the Cosmic dancer, Lord Nataraja, on Sivaratri at Chidambaram Natyanjali on February 26.

Over 200 dancers performed for an appreciative audience beneath a sky studded with stars. That it was the 25th year of the five-day festival enhanced its significance.

Among the well-known dancers were Rhadha, Padma Subrahmaniam, Sandeepa Palit and Bijayakumar Sahoo.

On the inaugural day, Padma Subrahmanyam impressed with powerful depictions of both nayika and nayaki.

IMPRESSIVE: Presentation by students of Kathak Kendra, New Delhi.

Padma's niece, Mahati Kannan enchanted the viewers with the supple grace that marked her presentation of ``Someswaram," Swami Dayananda Saraswati's composition that narrated the story of Markandeya.

Elegant performance

On the second evening, Rhadha, sister of Kumari Kamala, gave an elegant performance. With her fast changing emotions and expressive eyes, Rhadha described the locks, eyes, smile and other aspects of Siva through her movements for Balamuralikrishna's ``Pirai Aniyum Peruman."

Rhadha's students, Tara Raman and Preeti Hariharan, performing for the first time at Natyanjali, followed their guru with songs well-depicted.

Guru Sudharani Raghupathi chose to let her students perform this year. Priya Murle, Aruna Subbaiah, Priya Dixit and Prabha Dixit, dressed in yellow, green and maroon danced in unison to ``Jaya Jaya Shambo," a composition of Madurai Krishnan.

Next came a piece about Eesaniyam, one of the nine directions, and navasandhi, which is part of the temple ritual dance. Well-timed pauses in singing helped these dancers take the message across through bhavas and actions. "In these past 25 years of the Chidambaram Natyanjali, our dance school has been represented every year either by me or my students," Sudharani pointed out.

Mohiniyattom, Odissi, Kuchipudi, dance drama, Kathak, Chau and so on were all represented at the festival, which also featured renowned gurus such as Dhananjayan and Sonal Mansingh.

Equal importance was given to group performances and Anita Guha's students presented a huge dance drama production "Natrunaiyavathu Namasivayave." Students of various dance schools including the faculty of Fine Arts, Annamalai University, Bharathiyar Palkalai Koodam, Pondicherry, and Sivasakthi Dance School, Chidambaram, performed.

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