Saturday, January 26, 2008

salangai pujai

Years of learning dance under a guru has to culminate in the public performance which is to be taken up in stages lest the artist gets consious of the stage and the audience and fails to do justice to the rigorous training received.

Salangai pujai is an etheral experience which only the budding artist would be able to relate to even though it is also an event when everyone from the family and close friends would be able to appreciate and experience the dance talent that would emnate from the frail petite soul whom they had always known as their sweet little baby.

This one is about one such sweet one Bala our neice and an iconic representation of the youth brought up independently in a traditional family unit of the ultra conservative Chennai environ.


The day was August 30 and the stage was set in Kareeneswara temple saidapet and the crowd was mostly from the near and dear of bala and her friends who were to don the salangai--the cluster of jingles which should rhythemically resonate with the feet and also sound as a warning in case of any aberration in step, the ultimate standard for dance. The tension was palpable and everything was going blank and the cacopony of voices stopped registering after some time as the three youngsters (Bala of course and her friends Swati and Jayashree) could think only of the mistakes that they could commit this evening! It is amazing that human mind just before undertaking a big task after considerable training always look at the fault lines and not the powerlines until the start of the job and after which no looking back, which is precisely what happened on this stage that evening hour.
The stage was a challenge as it was uneven and even had a gaping hole in the front which had to be factored in as the evening wore on. It was pushpanjali or the shower of flowers to the Nataraja followed by propiation of Ganesha through Ganapati Gauthuvam and the sublime alarippu the most beautiful expression of Bharatanatyam whence the beauty of the dancer would blossom forth, followed by the highly energetic jathiswaram and rounded up by Sabdam. Two quick padams followed winding up the show.
The show got over and phew, Bala has passed the first test before the audience though she says not to her desire. The next big one is there where she would go solo which is called Arangerram (Arangu means stage and Erram means performance) which is slated for July. See you there.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Dance me to future!

Dance me to future!
Purva Dhanashree, Bharata Natyam & Vilasini Natyam Dancer


"I want to do a lot in dance. I want to express my disappointments, anger and my feelings about the way the society is going and I want to express through the medium of dance the message of change to this generation. Dance is in my spirit, it is in my soul, it is something for which I would want to dedicate my life to. Though being a media person, my heart lies in dancing and expressing myself through the dance", a torrent of spirit and energy gushes forth from the youngster as smitha and I meet her after witnessing almost an hour of enthralling performance from her. Both of us were pleasantly surprised to find this spirited youngster whose words promised that nothing is going to be lost even in this utterly materialistic fast track generationl. The endearling human values would be sustained and in fact built upon by spirited youngsters like this. The kid before us was a testimony to our hope that more youngsters like this would carry the spirit of freedom and expression and true values and express it through the medium of art they chose to espouse. In our Purva Dhanashree’s case it is classical dance.

Dance after all is an expression of soul and the dancer while she is involved in her art knows nothing but her steps, nothing but the music nothing but the rhythmic swaying of her feet, for her the audience are incidental but her soul is her true audience. She is once with the soul she is one with the winds, one with the elements one with the cosmic form which is perhaps why the highest experience of dance came from the God of destruction and not of sustenance who decided to recline on his snake bed to reflect on life and the living. It is for the destroyer to dance through the life, dance through its spirit, dance to endless cycle of birth and destruction.

Purva Dhanashree perhaps was simply echoing this high ideal of seeing the world destroying itself and wanted to tell us that she would dance to rekindle the spirit of the world so that whatever is bad would be destroyed and whatever that is good would be rejuvenated and retained. There is no doubt that she has already started her journey. Her dancing style, her conviction, her words, her body language, her spirit….everything conveyed her seriousness and her commitment to the cause she has committed to.

For professionals like this perfection in art is not the end in itself but they see anny creative art as a vehicle to express the deep inner thoughts and through their expression they would seek to influence opinion and to lead people to the path that they have chosen to tread. As she danced on the stage it made us feel as one with her, made us appreciate the perfection of her rendering, the clarity of her steps, the spirit of her expressions and also of her earnestness to pack a whole world and offer it within a few minutes at her command on stage.

We could instinctively sense that we are witnessing the performance of not a youngster but a rising star, a person who would go a long way in her life, one who would see the height of perfection and height of glory of the dance form. But she needs the spirit and strength of purpose the steely will to withstand disappointments, the energy to stay on course while being confronted with the horde of selfish people who rule the world of art, the sense of honesty and truthfulness to accept her failures and not find a shortcut to glory to achieve her cherished goal. What is important however that she is on the way to do it and she knows where she is going. And that matters a lot.

I am nobody to comment about the technique of her dance or the steps that she used to express herself or about the correctness of the vilasini form of dance she rendered to us which she is learning from the master of this art Guru Swapnasundari. Smitha and me can only tell that it was an evening of great dance performance by Purva which we would cherish. We came actually to witness the performance of our favourite child Nandini Nandan and went back with two. Not bad for an evening. About Nandini's performance link to the parallel blog on Kuchipudi.

Purva Dhanashree is trained in Tanjavoor and Kalakshetra styles by Kamalini Dutt senior most disciple of Sikiil Ramaswamy Pillai and Mrs. Radhika Shurajit. She is presently training in Vilasini Natyam from Smt. Swapanasundari.
Her contact is listed as part of a comprehensive listing of dance practitioners of Delhi by anandfoundation