Of the Season and the Sabhas....

Here i come people with my next post!! Its not about any performance, but about sabhas and my experiences in general, or rather from a youngster's point of view..

Many people keep asking as to why youngsters only perform at concerts but never come to look at or listen to others perform. For instance, a blogger by name Raji, an ardent fan of classical music and dance, in her blog, has written thus - "Very few youngsters, unless they are the performers’ students attend the kutcheris. Neither do other musicians. Youngsters prefer to be on stage rather than in the audience."

Here in my blog, i would like to bring about a few points with respect to the dwindling number of youngsters amongst the audience. The first factor is MONEY! Many youngsters who are students do not earn. The season tickets are really costly and so are the daily tickets. Sabhas that offer free shows rarely bring in quality artistes. Sabhas can offer some kind of concessions for youngsters who wish to attend concerts. Think this will really draw the attention of the youngsters. The next is time. Youngsters have very odd working times! specially the ones in the IT and ITES sectors. This makes it really impossible for them to atend kutcheris or dance recitals.

Above all, there is a kind of indifference i feel among "a few" of the senior rasikas (shall be referred to as maamis and mamas hereinafter).They give me a what-does-he-have-to-do-here kinda disgusting look. Even a small mistake that you do is viewed as a serious crime by them. The other day at Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, the hall was full for Anitha Guha's Padha Kavitha Pithamaha show. The lights were turned off and by mistake i stepped over a mama's feet. I immediately apologized but he responded in a very cold manner. He said "Ivanga ellam inge edhukku varaanga nu theriyala" (I don't know why these people come here). I was shocked for a second but just moved on as i didn't want to miss the happenings on stage. A similar incident happened when i had to share my table with another mama at the Woodlands canteen at Narada Gana Sabha. He constantly kept giving me disgusting looks and never let me use more than half of the table even by mistake! I had three plates of food while he had only one. He kept pushing my plates towards me. Last year a friend of mine and I went to the premiere show of Sudharani Ragupathy's Mammudha. We kept talking to each other about what was happening on stage. For a few comedy scenes we even laughed out loud. My friend's style of laughing is peculiar and it brings roofs down. But thats how he has been doing it for long! We were constantly being asked to stop talking and laughing by a couple who were seated a row ahead of us! But they themselves kept talking to each other often.. strange! Maamis' group discussions can be really disturbing at times. A group of maamis were once talking about how to make dhokhlas. In another concert, another group was debating Srinivas's decision to retain Raagini in previous episode of Super singer! Thats why i prefer to attend the 2 o clock dance progs at NGS in which most of them fall asleep. :-)

Coming Back...Then next thing i feel is the programs. I have no idea about music concerts. But as far as dance recitals are concerned, i think artistes can present themes that youngsters can relate to or easily understand. If not that, they can explain in detail the sanchari bhaavams with the hasthas just as how Alarmel Valli orPriyadarsini Govind do. It helps a lot really. Marketing is another aspect. The music and dance festival should be marketed in a way that would to draw the attention of youngsters. Corporate companies can give free passes to their employees. This would make some difference. And when young artistes perform, they should make sure to bring a few of their friends for the performance. All these i think would help to increase the population of connosiseurs of classical music and dance amongst youngsters!!

No offence meant to anyone! Just my views.. Apologies in case i've hurt you...

Pre-season recitals!

The formal Chennai music and dance season (or simply "season") begins only on the 15th of December. Big sabhas like the music academy start their activities for the season only today. But with the growing number of artistes the sabhas are finding it tough to provide chances for all of them. Hence most of the sabhas kick off with their concerts as early as the last week of November..

The first dance recital that i attended during this year's season or rather pre-season was that of Jyotsna Jagannathan's on 2nd December. A doctor by profession, Jyotsna has been under many well-known gurus lik Dr.Hema Govindarajan and Jayanthi Subramaniam. Right now, she is undergoing training from well-known dancer A.Lakshman and abhinaya training from Bragha Bessel. With the usual traffic at Gemini, I could reach Bhavans only for the Varnam. She had chose to perform Shri Lalgudi Jayaraman's Navarasa Varnam - Angayarkanni anandam kondaale for the evening. She proved her expertise by the way she handled he varnam. It was very well-rehearsed. Bodylines and footwork were perfect. I personally felt that there could have been more variety in the choreography. A select few adavus were repeated in the varnam and thillana making it a bit monotonous. The usual sarpa nadai and other such components were missing. She kinda used the same actions and hastas again and again for lines like "arul peruvom" and "saran adaivom". She chose all tamil pieces and hence I had no problem in understanding them. The way she showed "aan shringaaram" in the Varnam (siva-parvathi meeting episode) was very effective. The "pittukku mann sumandhu" sanchari in the varnam was also well handled. Her costumes were good, but hair dressing very clumsy! A very refreshing perfromance it was! Click here to read the review of Jyotsna's performance by Rupa Srikanth.

The next was Mrs.Urmila sathyanarayanan's thematic performance - Krishna Sankalpa at Narada Gana Sabha (NGS) on the 9th of December. Mrs.Urmila is known for her angashuddhi and she didn't belie her rasikas' hopes. Throughout the performance she maintained perfect araimandi and stiff arms. She began with a pushpanjali followed by the verse "Kasthuri thilakam" from Srikrishna Karnamrutham which was in turn followed by Oothukkadu Venkata subbaier's Swagatham Krishna Sharanaagatham Krishna. Then next was varnam in charukesi, "Innum en manam" by shri Lalgudi jayaraman. Items like jathiswaram, shabdam are to be seen only in arangetrams or DVDs meant for teaching them. They no longer seem to be a part of the purvanga of the margam, mainly because of the time constraint. The program begins only at 7 and the main items lik pushpanjali, varnam and thillana alone by itself take near to one and a half hours! Anyway coming back to the performance.... Mrs.Urmila gave a detailed narration before the varnam about the sancharis making it easier for fledglings like me to understand them easily. She depicted two instances from Jayadeva's Geeta Govindam. Watching her perform was a real delight. But again i found that she kept on repeating the gudhittha metti and a particular variation of the uthplavana adavu pretty frequently throughout the performance. Though she executed them with the sincerity of a beginner, it became monotonous after a point. She next did a padam "Jo Achyutananda" by Annamacharya. Following this was a javali and a thillana on Krishna. Not many moved out during the performance and this by itself was an indication of how well the program went.

Smt. Sheela Unnikrishnan's Sridevi Nrithyalaya has come up with their group production "Shadaaksharam" Lord Muruga. Choreographed by Smt.Sheela herself, the concept and music are by Madurai.R.Muralidharan, noted guru, dancer and composer. I saw the program at Mylapore fine arts on the 10th of December. The production began with my favourite Murugan Kavithuvam in shanmukha priya ragam composed by Madurai.R.Muralidharan. The production was very enjoyable and all the did an excellent job! Was a bit boring as all the episodes that featured in the producion were well known ones. Simran, the young muruga did a commendable job. So did other dancers lik Archana Raja, Harinie Jeevitha and the girl who came as parvathy.

On 13th december was Dr.Padma Subrahmanyam's Sree Ramaya Tubhyam Namaha at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha - a thematic presentation on the story of Lord Rama. It was the first time i visited Sri Krishna Gana Sabha and i found the hall and the ambience very good. She had chosen pieces from Ramayanam of various languages like Sanskrit, Tamil, telugu and malayalam. The music and choreography was by her. There were two vocalists and looked like there was no coordination between them. Dr.Padma is an expert in presenting the Hasya Rasa. But the episodes were all familiar ones. And the program started only at 7. So i left the hall by 9 o clock.

Smt.Anitha Guha is very famous among the Rasikas for her Group productions. She has many group productions to her credit, my favourites being "Ramyam Hitham Natyam" and "Swagatham Krishna Sharanagatham Krishna". But surpassing her previous ones comes her latest "Pada Kavitha Pitamaha". As i entered the hall, i found Aishwarya Narayanaswamy, seniormost disciple of Smt. Anitha Guha in a saree welcoming people. Wasway too disappointed to know that she wasn't dancing! But the others compensated for the disappointment by performing extremely well. Highly professional in her approach towards her productions, Smt.Anitha has choreographed every scene very well and the dancers did absolute justice to the choreography. Yatin Agarwal who comes as annamacharya easily stole the show. He has very clear and crisp footwork. He handled the character well and gave the emotional depth that it needed. But he did have tinges of feminism in his abhinaya. Other dancers like Charanya Narayanaswamy and the girl who came as Mahalakshmi did their parts absolutely well. The scene in which Mahavishnu and Mahalakshmi make love was brilliant. Charanya showed her "poi kovam" in a very pleasing way. Sathvika Shankar who came as Hanuman did extremely good dancing.The entire ballet was absolutely delighting. It was a sunday evening and the show was not ticketed. Hence Bhavan was brimmming. Even the Dhananjayans found it tough to find a seat. I would easily call "Pada Kavitha Pitamaha" as the hit of the season!

So these are all the recitals that i have attended as of now. And the season has begun today! Looking forward to see Priya Murle, Priyadarsini Govind, Dhananjayan's Krishna Jananam, Madurai.R.Muralidharan's Saptha Thaandavam and Revathi Ramachandran's Dayinee. Apart from these my personal favourites like Nathella Aishwarya (Disciple of Prof.Sudharani Ragupathy) and other new comers are planning to make a mark in professional dancing this season. Hope every artiste has a memorable time performing for the rasikas during this season. God Bless all of them! Wishing all the readers a Happy music-dance season 2008-09. See you all in my next post. :-)

My first Blog

For long, i have always wanted to blog. But somehow never found time for it.. At last.. its happened. My blog, as the title says, will be a place for me to open up my feelings on various issues.. think its a very nice way of killing time given that i am absolutely jobless right now (in my holidays). Making the best use of the December season.. I am a great fan of Bharathanatyam. So attending as many natyam recitals as possible. Don't think i ll be in country next year this time as i am planning to go abroad for higher studies. :-) So dance enthusiasts, keep checking out this page for my reviews on dance shows that i attend. See you all soon in my next post!