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News Round UpJuly 21, 2007
A feast of classical dances / Chennai
By Our Staff Reporter
 
The annual Dance Week celebrations hosted by the Madras chapter of International Dance Alliance were held on July 18 and 19 at Narada Gana Sabha auditorium in Chennai.

This year IDA hosted 12 classical dance troupes during the two dance festival. Bharatanatyam gurus Udupi Laxminarayan and Prof. C. V. Chandrasekhar were honoured on this occasion.
IDA fest
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On July 18, the dance performance by the students of Abhinaya Natyalaya of guru Krishnakumari Narendran set to the theme 'Pradosha Mahimai' was first to be on stage. the ceremony of Pradosham at Shiva temples were presented for the song by Veeramani Kanna.

Dancer Ananda Shankar Jayant of Hyderabad could not make it to the show, but dancer Indumathy Ganesh and her troupe presented Shiva Thandavam in the slot. They presented Shiva Thandava Stotram and Shiva Panchakshara Stotram in dance.

Pancha Deva Stuti, invoking the grace of five deities - Ganesha, Shiva, Devi, Vishnu and Surya was presented by Prof. C. V. Chandrsekhar's Nrithyashree troupe. The audience applauded the presentation, which had slokas set to different jatis and ragas and guru Chandrasekhar on the nattuvangam.

US based dancer Mythili Prakash and Ensemble presented the two energies, power and kinetic through swift and vibrant movements.

Another salutation to the Sun God - Suryaya Namaha was presented in dance by Meenakshi Chittaranjan and the students of her dance school Kaladiksha. They danced to the kriti - Suryamurte namostute, one among the vaara kritis, composed by Muthuswamy Dikshitar. This was followed by the brisk 'English Note'.

'Thrayee' was a thematic jugalbandhi in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, choreographed by J. Kishore Mosalikanti and Divyasena.
Originally conceptualised as a tribute to the Carnatic music trinity who portrayed Mother Goddess in different ways, Divyasena and her troupe chose the main kriti of this production - Kanchadalayadakshi, composed by Muthuswamy Dikshitar.

On July 19, the events started early with Anitha Guha's troupe presenting Chitrangadha, a Bengali dance drama composed by the illustrious poet Rabindranath Tagore.
The story revolves around the daughter of the King of Manipur, who was brought up like a man, as he had no son. When she falls in love with Arjuna, the brave warrior-woman reveals herself as the beautiful princess and becomes his companion.

With the guidance by Manjulika Sen, Anitha Guha presented this dance drama with full colour and vigour.

Radhika Shurajit's troupe presented two numbers from their popular production, Konjum Salangai. The evergreen melodies from the Tamil movies, the lyrics of which are penned by poet Kannadasan come alive in dance form in this production.
Mannavan Vandanai' from the film Tiruvarutchelvar and a kuravanji piece from Kandan Karunai were the numbers of the evening.

Revathi Ramachandran and her students presented Laya Manjari, a rosette of rhythm in dance. With a bhajan, varnam and folk patterns weaved into the presentation, they offered salutation to Lord Ganesha and goddess Saraswathi.

A bhajan composed by Maharaja Swathi Tirunal depicting Rasa Leela of Lord Krishna was presented in Mohiniattam style by Gopika Varma and the students of her dance school, Dasyam.

A contemporary dance followed the graceful Mohiniattam. The modern style dance presented individually by Lindsay Armstrong and Patricia Robinson was followed by Triad, an abstract dance work choreographed by Nola Nolen Holland was presented by three dancers.

Dancer Srekala Bharath and the students of her dance school, Thejas presented Annamacharya compositions, choosing four types of devotion - kirtanam, smaranam, archanam and atma nivedanam, among the Navavidha Bhakthi.

Leela Sekhar, the chairperson of the International Dance Alliance was apparently happy about the performances and the full-house on both the days.
The IDA received a donation from the family of dancer Usha Srinivasan who died last year.

The different types of classical performanes with a brief introduction were a treat to the rasikas.

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