Dance and dialogue

CompetentSayanee Chavda Banerjee.

Performing at the IIC, Sayanee Chavda Banerjee, a disciple of Lucknow gharana Kathak representative Guru Vijay Shankar based in Kolkata, showed herself to be more mature in the nritta part, what with her special guidance from a pakhawaj expert. Expressing her preference for communicating in Hindi (though not an expert) for that was the ‘language of Kathak’ and not English (to which she reverted shakily towards the end to communicate with non-Indians in the audience), Sayanee was competent in her Teen tala vilambit with upaj combinations, tukras strung to mixed pacing, tisra jati tukra suggesting the deer, snake and bird in rhythmic tone, a slow Dhataka Thunga composition and sequence with 21 neatly spun chakkars.

But she needs to control inner restlessness for a calmer demeanour. Her abhinaya in the thumri “Dagar chalet dekho Shyam…” tended to get exaggerated in depicting a riled gopi, who tired of Krishna’s pranks, removes all her ornaments. The dancer’s concluding sequence built round the homely situation of a young brother and sister indulging in play —she with her dolls and he in his more boisterous fashion — with the mother stepping into a house in utter disorder deciding to chastise the kids, till overcome with motherly indulgence, became simplistic in interpretation. In the drut part in Teen tala with paran, the sequence in khanda jati and the improvisations within the tala cycle, the dancer revealed good control, her padhant in its tonal variations showing the understanding of laya patterns, with Shakeel Ahmed providing fine tabla support.

Husband Yogesh Chavda provided pakhawaj accompaniment with Vijai Sharma on the sitar. Madhav Prasad’s thumri singing lacked flow.

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