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It is the 25th year of the Soorya Music and Dance Festival in Thiruvananthapuram and, as part the silver jubilee celebrations, the Soorya Arts and Cultural Society is introducing a new item called 'Parampara' in which famous artistes are introduced through the performance of their disciples. The dance programme in 'Parampara' will start with a Bharatanatyam recital by Ganga Thampi, disciple of Sarada Hoffman of Kalakshetra, on November 14. "Sarada teacher is a perfectionist, always adhering to the Kalakshetra tradition," Ganga who, entered Kalakshetra as a student and is now a lecturer in the alma mater, says. "I don't think I am fully following Sarada teacher's style. She laid the strong basis in me during my four-year diploma course here. Later, I was taught by Krishnaveni Laxmanan for two years during my PG diploma. No artiste can follow a guru's style as it is. The creativity of the artiste also works. I am following the Kalakshetra style, laid in me by Sarada teacher. However, I have brought about certain changes sticking firmly to the roots," she says. Ganga's creativity has a different root. She is the daughter of famous Kathakali artiste Madavoor Vasudevan Nair. Her father taught her Kathakali when she was 10 years old. This has helped her adapt certain aspects of Kathakali into Bharatanatyam. "Bharatanatyam has certain restrictions. It has only particular mudras. It doesn't have mudras to convey all the meanings. By the judicious use of certain Kathakali mudras, we can overcome this drawback of Bharatanatyam," says Ganga, a postgraduate in English literature. "Kalakshetra's dance dramas have adapted many of the elements of Kathakali. This has greatly helped me," Ganga, who has enlivened characters like Sita and Parvathy in the dance dramas, says.
"My father (Madavoor Vasudevan Nair) is a true artiste. He loved art and artistes more than his wife and children. This has greatly helped me be an artiste by profession," she says. "I am a bit lazy, but Thampi Annan makes me practise. His support is like that of a mother," Ganga speaks of her husband Anil Kumar whose love of dance is manifest in his hobby of taking pictures of dancing. The couple, whose only child died last year, finds solace in dancing and says they are dedicating their life to it. After all, everything - birth, life and death - is part of that great universal dance. Salil Jose Readers' response/inputs can be e-mailed to salil@chennaionline.com.
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The showers, the neem leaves that swayed to shed the drops, the drops that fell gracefully on the ground - all were but crystal reflections of the universal dance and of the great tradition that was suspended in the air of the campus. I was once again in Kalakshetra campus to feel the spirit of tradition and my visit this time had an added significance:
'Ganga is natural with abhinaya. She is endowed with a pair of highly expressive eyes. A mark of Kalakshetra is evident in her nritta… Ganga has an excellent stage presence' - this is how 'The Indian Express' lauds Ganga, who won the Madras Music Academy's MGR award and Yuvarathna award of Kaladerpanam. She has performed all over India and abroad. She has choreographed Kumaran Asan's 'Chintavishtayaya
Sita'.
