 Deepa’s mesmerising Bharatanatyam
 Our Indian culture is sustained and grown by our art forms. The divinity in our epics and mythology reflects in our art. We are always viewing our art forms with God such as dancing Nataraja, flute playing Krishna, Saraswati on the Veena, Narada’s and Gandharva’s songs and the drums of Nandi. Bharatanatyam is a mix of several art forms.
Dancers internalise the songs through their knowledge of music and learn to display their meaning through their face and body movements. They understand the jathis and express the rhythms of the mridangam and nattuvaangam beautifully through their feet. Dance as an art form is a combination of mudras, theermanams, a variety of adavus and the coordination of hands, legs, face, eyes and the entire body.
An artiste has to completely forget oneself and become one with the art. Only then they reach an exalted state and express themselves to take the audience to a state of happiness. For this, the artiste must have the benefits of good deeds from their previous births, God’s grace and guru’s blessings. Deepa Seetharaman came in as a beautiful maiden with all these blessings combined on December 31, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. in the Hamsadhwani auditorium and gave a dance performance.
That night it seemed like the moon had come to earth in the form of a girl and danced to immerse all of us in the sea of happiness. The first song she took was ‘Neela Kantam’ in the ‘thishra nadai’. This was followed by Ashta Raga Malikai and ‘Maanikkam Katti’ in Raga Malika showing the mischievous little Krishna. The concert ended appropriately with a Thillana in Brindavana
Saranga.
Every movement, adavu and theermanam proved the dancer’s self-confidence, involvement and her dedication to the art form. Her eyes spoke volumes. This girl has talent, good figure, grace and beauty and during her performance she reminded us of several great dancers of the past. There is no doubt that through the divine grace of Lord Nataraja she will surely have a very big future and a permanent stage.
She showed expressions and emotions better than the girls who were born, brought up and learned the art in Tamil Nadu. However, only with repeated practice the art form will become one with her body and soul and she can express it with greater inner experience and enjoyment. The best way to achieve that is for her to continue her practice and every time she dances, she should become one with the emotion. To become a great dancer in a short time, one should not wait for an opportunity to perform but consider every day practice as a stage performance. Our blessings for a total success.
Kalaimamani Dr Rukmini Ramani
Daughter of Papanasam Sivan
Retired Professor of Tamil Nadu Music College
Chennai
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