A kaleidoscope of dance forms
Sailaja ... presenting Kuchipudi
THE NATYANJALI festival at Sri Natarajar temple, Chidambaram, recently witnessed a huge turnout of audience on all the five days. Apart from eminent artistes, youngsters also had an opportunity to show their talent at the festival.
The festival was inaugurated by industrialist A. C. Muthiah. S. Jayaraman, chairman, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, released a book titled, `Chidambara Paattu' written by musicologist B. M. Sundaram on the occasion. The first copy was received by Devaki Muthiah. The book is a guide comprising songs sung in praise of Lord Nataraja.
The dance recitals of Uma B. Ramesh, Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala and Revathi Ramachandran were appreciated by the audience. Meenakshi Chittaranjan's dance drama titled, `Sundarar' was an appropriate theme for Sivarathri Day. Vani Madhav from Bangalore presented Odissi while Sailaja from Chennai performed Kuchipudi. This was followed by Mohiniyattom by the students of the Regatta Cultural Academy, Thiruvananthapuram. The first day's programmes concluded with a Kalinga Narthanam recital by Pavithra Bhatt from Mumbai.
Lajja Sambhavnath
The second day's performance included a presentation by the students of Uma Rao from Mysore Lalitha Kala Akademi, followed by a Kathak recital by Lajja Sambhavnath of Ahmedabad. A disciple of Kumudhini Lakhia, her nritta won appreciation from the audience.
Uma Murali Krishna and Dhivyasena presented a scintillating Kuchipudi-Bharatham jugalbandi which was a non-stop performance of 40 minutes. Rajeswari Sainath from Hyderabad and Jayalakshmi Easwar gave a group presentation with their students.
Parvati Ravi Gantasala and group
`Nandanar Charitham' by the students of Sheela Unnikrishnan opened the third day's events. This was followed by a dance presentation by Naviya Natarajan from Bangalore and Sandhya Purecha from Mumbai. She also announced a relief package for rural artistes affected by tsunami.
Performances by Archana Narayanamoorthy. Jyotsna Jagannathan, Mathura Viswanathan and other students of A. Lakshmanan marked the fourth day. The students of Madurai R. Muralidharan also performed. Jun Obi of Japan and Sinnamanay Vabhendra Ruby from Sri Lanka represented their countries.
Radhica Giri and the students of Tharang Institute, Thiruvananthapuram gave a memorable performance on the concluding day. Aishwarya and Charanya, students of Anitha Guha, proved to be a promising pair. The nattuvangam provided by Suryanarayamoorthy. Saranya Thiagarajan performed the Arutpa and nritta, in consonance with the jathis played on the mridangam.
Mohiniyattom .. graceful show by the students of Tharang Institute.
The one glaring aspect of the repetition of some items which the organisers should try to avoid at least next year, which is Silver Jubilee for Natyanjali.
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