 Natyanjali's silver jubilee fest
The Thirst Remains unquenched!
It is not easy to run a 'Centre for Performing Arts and Cultural Activities' for more than 25 years.
Natyanjali Trust, Chennai, founded by late Jayalakshmi Satagopan, has done exactly this, successfully and meaningfully. It is now Natyanjali's silver jubilee year. Managing trustee-daughter Prema Satish, presently continuing this good work, organised a five-day Navarathri Natya Vizha between October 1 and 5 at the
Mylapore Fine Arts Club Auditorium as part of the silver jubilee celebrations.
Disciples of K J Sarasa, Srekala Bharath (Tejas School), and Meenakshi Chittaranjan, as also of gurus Jayanthi Subramanian, Malathi
Thotadri, Adyar A. Lakshman and Chitra Subramani, took part in this entertaining festival. The talent, evidenced by 30 young danseuses, mostly teenagers, was quite satisfying and raised high hopes for their bright future. Natyanjali deserves warm praise for promoting promising potential.
Chitra Vikram, disciple of guru Natyavidushi Jaya,
Bangalore, took the trouble to come down to Chennai just for a few hours with a commitment to delight Chennai rasikas with her abundant talent. It is only fair to give preference to this young outstation danseuse in this column today.
All the same, Chtira must also be taken to task in her own long-term interest for not including the most important Varnam in her recital repertoire that evening (October 4 - second half). She did give some reasons for this lapse, valid from a personal standpoint, but, nevertheless, a lapse. If only she had planned her format in a more calculated and disciplined manner, she could have included the Varnam and earned better appreciation from the gathering.
Gifted Chitra included all other conventional numbers of Bharatanatyam - Pushpanjali followed by Ganesha Stuti, Alarippu (a Nritta presentation involving symmetrical movements of eye, neck and limbs) in Kandachaapu tala, the ragamalika kirtana 'Srichakra Raja Simhasaneswari' (Adi-Agastyar), the Sabdham in ragamalika-misrachaapu dedicated to Subramanya, composed by K N Dhandayudapani Pillai, the Sivastuti 'Sankara Srigiri Natha Prabhuke' (Hamsanandi-Adi-Swati Tirunal), Jagadodharana - Purandaradasa's Devaranama in Kapi/Adi and the finale tillana of Balamurali Krishna in
Brindavani.
Endowed with the pleasing features and attributes of an experienced dancer, Chitra Vikram performed all these numbers true to tradition and with innovative brilliance. Her recital was noted for her crisp theermanams and neat execution of arudis consistently in perfect rhythm with the nuances of traditional Bharatanatyam. The programme was set to recorded music. Choreography was by guru Jaya, nattuvangam by Prasanna, vocal support by Balasubramanya Sarma, mridangam by Janardhan, veena - Srimathi Chitra Lingam, violin - J K Sridhar, flute - Narasimhamurthy, kanjeera and morsing -
Srihari.
R Srinivasan
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