Promoting young talent
Reported by Janani Gopalakrishnan / Chennai

Sri Mudhraalaya, an institution for fine arts in Chennai run by Bharatanatyam dancer Lakshmi Ramaswamy hosted a three-day dance festival for young talent in Chennai recently.

The dance fest, 'Nritya Poornima' was held at Mahodaya Hall, Stree Seva Mandir, Ashoknagar, Chennai. Competitions were held, in association with Shiksha Garden, for sub-junior, junior and senior dance students learning under various teachers. The winners were each awarded a cash prize in addition to an hour on stage (with complete light and audio setup) to exhibit their talent in front of an appreciative audience during the dance festival.

The winners of the talent search were Jyotsna Ramesh, disciple of Radhika Shurajit; S. Raghavi, disciple of Divya Sena; P. Chandana Upadhya, disciple of A. Lakshman; Janani Sethunarayanan, disciple of Anita Guha and Sudharma Vaidhyanathan, disciple of A. Lakshman.

The chief guests were arts promoter L. Sabaretnam and Lena Tamilvanan on day 1, dance guru Chitra Visweswaran, Pandit R. Visweswaran and Srinivasan on day 2 and dance guru Savithri Jagannatha Rao and musician S. Rajeswari on day 3. The speakers urged the audience to encourage classical art forms and also had words of advice to the many students present among the audience.

As a host performance, the students of Sri Mudhraalaya performed on all three days. On the first day the senior students presented a full length dance ballet 'Jagam Nee Agam Nee' unfolding tales about Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi and Adi Parasakthi.

On the second day, the younger students danced for the song 'Sriman Narayana' describing the greatness of Lord Vishnu.On the last day, the tiny tots, who have just started learning dance, presented a Panchatantra tale in Bharatanatyam.