 A dance on dances
 Dance is beautiful, dance is soothing, dance is beneficent, and it is salutary too - ‘Ramyam Hitam Natyam’. This was the eloquent theme superbly projected by Bharatanjali director Anita Guha and her 32 wards at a curtain-raiser-full-dress rehearsal staged by them, at the Ramanujakootam Hall.
This show was originally scheduled for December 13th evening at the
Krishna Gana
Sabha, T Nagar. However, due to technical glitches, it could not be staged.
The children, their parents and others ‘concerned’ were all in ‘tears’ - except Anita. She shifted the venue to Ramanujakootam and held an impromptu performance. The tears were still there, only these were happy tears now. This was the drama within the dance-drama and oh! 31 girls, one boy (Yatin) and Anita & co. showed how ‘Ramyam’ and ‘Hitam’ Natyam could be that evening! When the going gets tough, the tough do get going, indeed!
The Apsaras (heavenly nymphs) - Aishwarya, Bhairavi, Janani, Madhumathy, Pavithra, Prathiba, Preetha, Shweta Suresh, Shweta Padmanabhan and Shilpa (all 10 of them were heavenly) narrated, in dance form, the six-stage dance on dances, drama by drama: (i) Mohini Bhasmasura, (ii) Ayyappa saga, (iii) Vinayaka sequences, (iv) Kalinga Nartanam, (v) Brihannala-Uttara episode in Mahabharatam and, lastly, (vi)
Pradosham.
The concepts were highly imaginative (and acceptable), and the choreography was excellent. Both were by dance ballet specialist Anita Guha. Despite the handicaps (no lights, no props, no nothing), and improvised and make-shift switches, the dance-drama did succeed eminently in keeping the large and hurriedly-gathered audience impressed very much.
The scenes that portrayed the ‘Brihannala’ (Arjuna as the cursed-eunuch-Aravani - who turned it into a blessing in disguise! The name is assumed by him during the incognito 12-month existence as dance-teacher to the Matsya princess Uttara, who, later, becomes his daughter-in-law) episode was, absolutely, the best prize winner of all the six sequences. All credit goes to Mudhumati Thyagarajan and Aishwarya Narayanaswamy for their splendid portrayals.
The three-year-old-child Sheffali Bahadur, who, as a snake, writhed, zig-zagged and squirmed its way out of justifiable spite into the trunk of Vinayaka (yes!) was bewilderingly charming. Well, here is a potential star-performer in the years ahead! Last year, the two kids who portrayed ‘dolls’ in ‘Sadha Venkatesam Smaraami Smaraami’ stole the show. It is Sheffali’s turn now.
The Mohini-Bhasmasura, Ayyappa episodes featured lessons in dance - how it can bewitch terrorist-demons into self-destruction and how dance can also be creatively instructive! Medha Hari as Mohini and Charanya Ragothaman as Bhasmasura were the charming teachers!
 Keyboard maestro P R Venkatasubramaniam's lyrics encompassing 55 ragas were tunefully earful. You have to hear them! Anita adopted subtly the margam format in all the episodes step by step. The musical narrations by the nymphs filled in the gaps, enabling the audience understand the episodes easily.
The two-hour dance-drama was premiered December 19th at the
German
Hall, T.Nagar, under the auspices of The Indian Fine Arts Society, and will be performed at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore, on January 8, 2005, and
Bharat
Kalachar on January 15. Krishna Gana Sabha will also restage it, duty bound, very soon. Why don’t you see ‘Ramyam Hitam Natyam’ at one of these venues on the dates specified and share my views?
The rest of the beautiful cast, apart from those already mentioned, also deserve individual mention without exception, but that would only be pointless enumeration. The dance-drama owes its spectacular-presentation to each and every one of the Bharatanjali family, including those behind the stage, and the supportive orchestra. Others who stood and waited also served.
R Srinivasan
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