Swarnamalya's new DVD on dance

Bharathanatyam dancer, actress Swarnamalya has released a DVD ‘Margam- The Path’ on Dec. 2. This is a live recording of her programme performed in August 2006 at the Narada Gana Sabha. She said, "the origin of the Margam can be traced back to the time of the Tanjore Quartette, but I think somewhere we have all learnt to dispel with the Margam in the name of doing new themes. So I thought that the Margam pattern, what is real classical dance, would become extinct. It woke me up and the whole process of doing this was very fulfilling."

She has chosen a few traditional items and a varnam by Tanjore quartette which had not been performed by anyone for the last eighteen years. "I also wanted it to be a live recording because it has that extra life to it and live recordings are usually done only for music concerts and hence I wanted to know how it would be for a dance performance".

The DVD was released at the Landmark in Chennai City Centre and consists of items starting from the Alarippu, Jathiswaram, Shabdam, a rare Varnam of the Tanjore Quartette in the raga chakravakam, padam, javali and a thillana. The DVD is produced by Kala Vardhini and the royalties go to the Ranga Mandira Trust which was started under the guidance of musicologist T.S.Parthasarathy who had also done the research for the programme. He passed away recently. The DVD comes with a commentary on each item and traces the history of each item.

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Kannadasan and Balamurali in dance

Utsav Music will stage two productions this December season conceptualised, choreographed and directed by dancer Radhika Shurajit. One is a tribute through dance to the Tamil poet Kannadasan titled Konjum Salangai. This will be staged onDec. 8 at 6.45 pm at Narada Gana Sabha Main Hall for Kartik Fine Arts. This will be a presentation of classical film songs of Kannadasan in the structure and format of a traditional Bharatanatyam performance. This production will feature 20 dancers.

The other is a dance feature, titled Murali Nritya Madhuri, based on the compositions of senior musician M. Balamuralikrishna. A few of his popular musical compositions choreographed into a Bharatanatyam recital will be presented on stage. This production features 14 dancers. The dance feature will be staged for Sri Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha on Dec. 31 at 6.30 pm at Kanchi Mahaswamigal Auditorium, Vani Mahal, T.Nagar. Chennai