This is a lot about two professionals easily the best in their pursuits who can weave sheer magic with their work about whom I have been following only through the published articles , interviews and write ups about them and interacting with them off and on through social media platforms and just once did meet one of them at a social level at home. But the encounter of the great professionals at their work stunned me and Smitha beyond belief and each stood out as stupendous icons of their own by their sheer dexterity of art and professional prowess. It was an evening to remember.
Yes there were other dancers as well each amazingly superior in their own way at the "Looking Back to move forward" dance festival at IIC Delhi. But these two were personally special to us and even otherwise the best that can ever be. Purva Dhanashree could manage to put her her entire over two decades of practice as Vilasini Natyam dancer and researcher in a capsule in just one little over ten minutes song of flowers "puvvalu patta". She simply and with great agility and fluidity became a medium to communicate the ecstasy felt by her soul to us who watched her from below the stage. It was a celebration in time where time stopped, it was artistry that could have no parallel.
Dr Vasudevan Sridhar who enacted the creation of this world by the God almighty as narrated by Ravi Subramaniam the contemporary Tamil Poet, could bring out with greatest possible detail as to how God perhaps had gone about his job. With amazing footwork, flexibility and pure poetry of body moments Vasu painted a moving picture of how the world got created one step at a time , one creature, one plant, one tree, one hillock ......each with its own beauty by God almighty and all created in a wink when God opened his eyes saw the vast sky and earth bereft of life.
Each creation Vasu brought forth by his magical dance moments had its own sense of purpose and place in the world that God created. God went into a idyllic self-fulfilling rejoiceful trance after He created humans who excelled beyond his own expectations. Personally I have never seen anything as close to storytelling in detail as to what Vasu accomplished that evening.
The beautiful Divya Goswami in her Kathak solo brought forth admirably the ecstasy of a girl seeing the beauty of dawn and her sweet desire to wake up her friend also to join her in her magical morning reminded one of Sri Andal's Thiruppavai a celestial song composition urging the girls to wake up and join her in the early morning worship of God almighty in the month of margazhi. Tanya Saxena through Bharathnatyam could with great feelings bring out the pathos and sheer ecstacy all at the same time of the two river Goddesses Padma and Ganga as they flowed through the land which went through vicissitudes of time to become East Bengal first, then East Pakistan and now Bangladesh while sharing the same history and culture of the neighbouring West Bengal (shortly Bangla).
Tanya had such tremendous energy and great imagination to bring forth the greatly mixed emotions of people who lived in these two tracts of Ganga sharing the same culture over the centuries. Katyayini Gupta through Kroora Hridya Megha song called out to the recalcitrant clouds to pour forth for life to flourish on earth. Her Bharathnatyam rendering of the cruel cloud's antics left one breathless with sheer happiness. God bless the youngster. The background singers and musicians were amazing in their rendering and also their stamina to last through the three hour repertoire! The credit for putting together the show on July 26, should go to the two great stalwarts of dance Sharon Lowen who also had her own photo exhibition of her 45 years of dedication to dance in India and Kamalini Dutt the famous dance historian and archivist who was the founder director of Doordsrshan's archives.
Photos of Purva Dhanashree & Dr Sridhar Vasudevan are from their respective webpages
