www.artindia.net does not take any responsibility whatsoever with regard to articles/ reviews/ previews /information published here. Any suggestions/ comments /complaints etc. may be sent directly to the writers/ contributors.

GS RAJAN is a composer/flautist, critic and arts administrator. Copying this story in part/full without the written permission of www.artindia.net is against law.

Photo Credit: GS RAJAN

Samavesh

While the entire Mylapore area was going through madness, enthusiastic mohinees organized a quiet seminar at Chandralekha's 'spaces' in Besant Nagar. It was a pleasant surprise to see dedicated artists and scholars from across the world flying to Chennai to offer support to this endeavor. Kudos to all those participants from across the world and to people like Supriya and others for making this wonderful initiative which has paved way to some serious thought process in many and for creating keen interest to continue with such meetings often. Well, a couple of mad people tried to sneak-in with odd remarks were stopped by the knowledge base on time.

Some eyebrows may go up because of Mythili's sudden elevation to perform in the main slot along with Malavika Sarukkai and Alarmel Valli at the Music Academy dance festival in Chennai in the first week of January 2012. But the truth is that she has worked hard towards it with conviction and without fear.

If creating an identity is the secret to success then Mythili is another example. Working on both contemporary and age-old lyrics and poetry, getting it composed, doing own choreography has given Mythili a placement within a short span of five years where others took almost 15 years. Mythili is also lucky to have an established infrastructure behind her along with solid family support.

Chennai has not seen the best of this amazing dancer called Rukmini Vijayakumar. Most prestigious platforms across the globe have seen Rukmini's vibrant performance and it is time that Mad-Ras sabhas and Madras Music Academy features Rukmini in their dance festivals in 2013.

In choreographic group presentation, Parvathi Ravi Ghantashala's production presented at Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan stood out followed by Urmila Satyanarayana's production. Needless to say Nrityagram presentations are always a treat. I also attended presentations of veterans Sonal Mansingh, Vyjayanthimala Bali and Lakshmi Viswanathan.

Gopika Varma must trim her choreographic compositions. She is one of the best Mohiniattam dancers and gurus today. Her abhinaya is exquisite.

An outstanding academician turned to a beautiful Bharata Natyam dancer. That is Janaki. No wonder a few writers/scholars mentioned to me that after Malavika and Priyadarsini it is Janaki. Without any solid support base and with own hard work and dedication Janaki has rose herself to greater heights. Making use of her training from Padma Subramaniam and shaping a style that suits her vision and approach to dance are the two main aspects I have noticed in her dancing. It is difficult for her to manage a family and living in USA while maintaining a dance career in India. Still she manages to balance and propagate her art as much as possible with total dedication.

Sulakshana Jayaram to be appreciated for her superb balancing act when her entire orchestra betrayed her. She is another dancer to be noticed along with Jyotsna Jagannathan, Ragini Chandrasekhar, Parvatha Chidambaram and Aishwarya Balasubramanian for their good presentations. Bhargavi Gopalan may have to work really hard. Murugashankari and Nrthya Pillai are two upcoming dancers.

Navia is another example of self-made product. Sheer hard work on nritta, abhinaya and own choreography brought the best out from Navia in her performance at the Music Academy in January 2012. The entire audience enjoyed this morning session recital thoroughly. Orchestral support another factor to be mentioned.

Gayatri Balagurunathan's abhinaya reminded me of her mother Krishnaveni Lakshmanan. Umaa Namboodiri rienforced the fact that knowledge in music can take a dancer to greater heights.

I was watching Lavanya after two years. What an unbelievable progress to perfection. Lavanya was flying like a bird on stage and at the same time portraying emotions with leisure and involvement and executing cross pattern adavus with accuracy. Here is another star in the offing. However Lavanya may have to work on her musical ensemble.

Co-performers in a dance recital are vital. Dancers have finally started to realize how important it is to work with quality musicians. A good number superb musicians have made an impact by embellishing some of the dance concerts. They include Hari Prasad and Ramya Sundaresan Kapadia-Vocal; Kannan, Ramesh Babu, M.S. Sukhi, Vedakrishnan-Mridangam; Shashadhar, Sruthi Sagar and a good number artists in flute, violin and veena. In nattuvangam, it was a pleasure to listen Jayashri Ramanath, Priya Murle, Kishore and Mythili. (yes Mythili Praksh did nattuvangam and presented her mother Viji Prakash's student Kasi).

As expected Malavika Sarukkai and Rama Vaidyanathan was in top form in their innovative choreograhic work presented in 'Mad and Divine' conference. 'RAMP' (Rama Vaidyanathan, Alarmel Valli, Malavika Sarukkai and Priyadarsini Govind) may have to give way to 'JANALAMINI' (Janaki Rangarajan, Navia Menon, Lavanya Ananth and Rukmini Vijayakumar) sooner or later. But it depends on 'janalamini' whether they continue to explore new vistas.

This all-rounder individual called 'Anita Ratnam' has proved that it is possible to have professional presentations of classical arts in Chennai with available infrastructure. Kudos to 'Anita incorporated' for her wonderful visualization and presentation of 'Mad and Divine' seminar cum festival in association with Karthik Fine Arts.

Anita's own presentation of 'andal-andal' was the best-packaged product in the entire season. Choreography, music, stage set, light design, costumes and every single aspect of a presentation was given utmost care and one felt like watching a performance in a professional auditorium in Europe.