‘Ahuti’, a collaboration between Nrityagram and Chitrasena Dance Company, was an aesthetic providing in each approach
‘Ahuti’, a collaboration between Nrityagram and Chitrasena Dance Company, was an aesthetic providing in each approach
Over the years, Nrityagram, within the in a position palms of Surupa Sen and lighting designer Lynne Fernandes, has developed its personal aesthetics of presentation. Their newest manufacturing ‘Ahuti’ was no exception. This collaboration with the Chitrasena Dance Company was characterised by beautiful visuals, impressed choreography and an evocative soundscape.
‘Ahuti’, the Sanskrit time period for ‘offering’, was simply that. An providing to the viewers, the types of Odissi and Kandyan dance, and to the pliable, athletic our bodies that create this artwork. The choreographic brilliance of Surupa Sen and Heshma Wignaraja lay within the moments of transition, the place dancing our bodies melted and morphed via mild and form earlier than our very eyes. Just when the thoughts understood a line that the dancers created on stage, it developed right into a curve, then a circle, and with the blink of a watch it turned a dissolving sq.. Lynne Fernandes’ eye for color aided the magic, generally washing the dancers in a dramatic blue, and at others, lighting them like temple sculptures from sides, accentuating their silhouettes.
Visual deal with
After ‘Samhara’ (2012), the sooner collaboration between the 2 dance corporations, ‘Ahuti’ is the second joint manufacturing. The statuesque dancers of the Chitrasena aren’t any strangers to the Indian viewers, and it was a deal with to see two male dancers on this manufacturing (Kushan Milind and Akila Palipana) along with feminine dancers, Sandani Sulochani and the exemplary Thaji Dias. Drummer Waruna Sri Hemachandra enhanced the Kandyan dance parts together with his exact taking part in. The Nrityagram ensemble embodied the Odissi type in its most aesthetic avatar, traversing the stage with the attribute, sinuous grace of the shape.
The efficiency, structured into 4 foremost items, started with a Sankirtana that highlighted totally different features of Vaishnavite mythology. Opening with two dancers in reverse instructions occupying a fierce, rooted chauka positions, the piece set the tone for the kaleidoscopic actions to come back. This was adopted by the Purna Aarati, the place the dancers assumed a jigsaw-like formation in Lynne Fernandes’ hazy soft-lit oeuvre, undulating ever so barely, to emphasize the actions that function laterally within the Odissi physique and vertically within the Kandyan one. The conclusion of this piece demonstrated a distinction between the majestic chariot of Puri Jagannath being pulled ahead by all of the dancers within the quietude of the instrumental music. The third piece, Ravana Tandava stotram, started with a solo part by the agile Thaji Dias, representing the character of Ravana in an ode to Kandyan dance and Sri Lankan traditions. Shaivite iconography was additional explored via the piece as Pavithra Reddy joined her on stage. The closing piece, ‘Aalaap’, was an excerpt from ‘Samhara’.
Chitrasena Dance Company at ‘Ahuti’
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
When requested whether or not she conceived this manufacturing as a fusing of concepts or as a dialog, Surupa Sen clearly selected the latter. Yet a more in-depth take a look at the manufacturing revealed that the understanding of type has been dissected in choreography to its most simple models, and this exploration is what ties collectively this collaboration. At the floor, there are similarities — for instance, the sq., squatting energy of the chauka is nearly immediately mirrored within the Kandyan seated posture referred to as ‘mandiya’ coming from the phrase ‘mandala’ (an ornate non secular design that employs geometry).
Yet the great thing about this dialog is within the contrasts — the sleek tribhanga meets the heaving chests and undulating spines of Kandyan. The superimposition of lateral and vertical actions created a matrix on stage that invited us to understand the dance concurrently as one coordinated effort, and as two distinct kinds of motion. The contextual features of those types additional revealed themselves via the manufacturing — Odissi derives inspiration from sensual temple sculptures and divine apsaras, whereas Kandyan, a conventional type, is all the time practiced in rituals by males. Thus the dialog abstracted itself into that — between line and curve, lady and man, lateral and vertical, Indian and Sri Lankan.
The Bengaluru-based author is a dancer and analysis scholar.
Source: www.thehindu.com