From vintage Odissi to spellbinding Mohiniattam, the past week was filled with goodies for Delhi's dance lovers and leading the pack was Seher's Ananya, the festival of group choreographies of Classical dance forms against the backdrop of time-sculpted Old Fort.
The juggernaut festival was organised in collaboration with Union Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Govt. of NCT, Delhi and Delhi Tourism along with Indian, FCI and Hyatt Regency, Delhi. Personally for this writer, the festival would be remembered for Mumbai's Dr. Kanak Rele and her students' Mohiniattam, which had the geometric precision of Bharatanatyam, lasya of Odissi, theatrics of Kathakali all rolled into one.
Kanak's presentation, the Lure of Lute, ran parallel histories of Krishna's outer journey from being Radha's lover to becoming a king and Rukmini's husband ; and Radha's inner journey from being vexed about Krishna's dalliances with others and her heartburns to her realization that the Lord resided within her. The motif of Lure, therefore played at two levels, firstly with Krishna's flute and love pulling Radha's heart strings in the first part of the production and secondly the lure of Radha's tapsya that pulled Krishna to visit banks of Yamuna with Rukmini where she waited
Highly crisp, with no room for melodrama , the simple sancharis made the entire production impeccable. The visual versatility of the production- from Krishna's raas with Gopis to his departure for Mathura, was accentuated by seamless dance movements.The sequence involving the granting of beatitude to the hunch backed Kubja, was brought out forcefully by Kanak, as she juxtaposed her fear of applying sandalwood to Kamsa with her hesitation to apply it on Krishna. Kanak's winsome smile and her dance-weathered body carved their memory on the scalded stones of Old Fort. Her students raised the bar for any future Mohiniattam performance in Delhi.
Kanak's troupe was supported by a talented orchestra led by MS Girishan on Vocal, C Gopalakrishnan on Nattuvangum, KNP Nambisan on Edek, N Murughan on Mridangam, Shekhar Tanjavur on Violin and Kumarakrishnan on Flute.
The concluding day of the festival was earmarked by a brilliant Bharatanatyam performance by the students of B Bhanumati from Bangalore. Neat and extremely innovative the production clearly pointed to the rigours of training and discipline that must have gone into crafting perfect lines and poses. Clean hand gestures and relaxed but confident foot work were the common feature for all the students. Though, the music built up the evening with much gusto, it was the sheer ability of the dancers to appear as thorough team players that worked most for the production. Be it the knitting of episodes from Shiva's life with refined nritta portions in Shiva Stuti or the miniature effect of Subrahmanya Namah Stuti showcasing the Lord and his life at parallel points, the items highly skilled items had as much imagination quotient. The dancers executed a jati one second and the other sculpted a pose, with perfect balance.Bramha Nandan Tyagaraja addressed to the significance of music as a path of realization was lyrically choreographed as well. The only flip side to the production was shaky Nataraja poses. Perhaps, it made for an ironic statement since the production held its ground firmly!
A quick word about recent Odissi recital by Kumkum Lal held under the aegis of Sonal Man Singh's Centre for Indian Classical Dances. But for few glaring audio glitches, the fact that Kumkum chose to dance on the 1979 recording in which her Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra played pakhawaj while Parvati Brahmachari gave vocal support and legendary Bhubneshwar Mishra supported on violin, provided the audience with a rare opportunity to relish the golden music of yore, which had a balming effect. Kumkum's performance was not so much about the neatness of dance but about the rasa, that was so magnificently created by the music. Her long introductions before every item, while testing patience to an extent, graciously brought forth a humble student, who's love for dance and her Guru had stood the test of time. Perhaps, Kumkum's best tribute in the evening was in being faithful to the choreography of her Guru, be it Nahin Ke Kori Dela or an excerpt from Geeta Govinda.
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