Tales of wisdom

Photo: Nagara Gopal

Narrating themes Ananda Shankar and her team’s performances mesmerised the audience.

Panchatantra is a compendium of moral stories dealing with friendship, Artha Neeti (economics), theory of ‘karma’ and worldly wisdom.

It is a mirror to human life, but more told through animals, birds, aqua life and with an occasional mention of men and women.

At the request of king Amarasakti, a scholarly Brahmin Vishnu Sarma is said to have used this medium of story telling to enlighten the princes Vasu Sakti, Ugra Sakti and Aneka Sakti. And these stories are segregated into five chapters and hence called ‘Panchatantra’. How could these stories laid out in the animal kingdom be retold in dance art that too without the support of narrative lyrics, is the question. Noted danseuse Ananda Shankar Jayanth and her team accomplished the job choosing five popular episodes from this masterly work. The ballet format was titled as Dancing Tales...Panchatantra, presented purely through expression, movement, body language and mimicking, backed by hi-fi sound of instrumental music added with Jayant Dwarakanath’s narrative in English of its gist and its moral.

The pre-recorded theme music with classical and folk elements complemented the dance well. Some dance sequences were presented to pure swara syllables in a variety of ragas suiting the mood.

Veteran Carnatic vocalist Prema Ramamurthy did an excellent job using a variety of musical instruments and varied rhythmic instruments that mesmerised the audience. Choreography by Ananda was a combination of all styles including folk. It is indeed a yeoman task for any classical dancer to narrate themes of Panchatantra without the support of the word.

The use of rope as the main prop for the entire narration was an innovative idea.

This ballet, presented by Sankarananda Kalakshetra was sponsored by TATA Indicom.

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