All the top end recitals / lec-dems of Day One at the
32nd annual Natya Kala Conference hosted by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha on Dec.26
morning were value for money events - I have not seen such a strong lineup at
recent past conferences here.
If there is one thing that can be done away with is this
long-winded, boring, exasperatingly dull inauguration.
Raise the curtain, say a prayer, light a lamp, say hello
to your chief guests, mark 3 minutes at the mike and this ceremony can be wow.
It is 9.55 am and the opening is still meandering on
stage.
Thankfully, the recitals/talks were good.
Up first was the celebrated Sadanam Balakrishnan, in his
Kathakali costume and Leela Samson in her Bharatanatyam one. A one-minute
introduction on the scene and its background was enough- taken from the Urvashi
- Pururavas relationhip.
The excerpt, taken from a piece created by Sadanam's guru
Kondiveetil Narayanan Nair flowed seamlessly, letting the audience know what
happens 'When Parallels Meet', for Samahit is the theme of this dance
conference. The duo have worked and performed together often in recent times.
Truly, a striking performance by India's best known
artistes complemented by a group of musicians including two who recited slokhas
live on stage.
Up second was veteran dancer Lakshmi Vishwanathan who
gave the recital her signature inimitable touch, making brief introductions
which had anecdotal references and goading her concert musicians to get going
for some quick but measured excerpts.
Lakshmi said that while people had been listening to
Carnatic music for ages, many had looked questioningly at the dance form
restricted to temples, but later they could see what they had been listening to
when dancers went on stage when Bharatanatyam became acceptable.
She wound off with a tribute to the Arudra festival to
follow, doing an extract from ' theruvil varaanO', the padam for the occasion,
which she said she had performed for her arangetram.
Up next was vocalist T M Krishna, a surprise on the list
and yet a speaker eagerly awaited in a fairly packed hall.
Krishna, as is his wont set the framework for his lecture
and went about it like a professor with 2 hours before him. His intro looked at
what classical music and Bharatanatyam is all about in pure art terms and he
looked at what parallels could be found and what lines ran on either side of
these lines.
Quoting historical and other sources, Krishna made the
point that it was Bharatanatyam that had contributed much to every aspect of
Carnatic music and not the other way round, giving examples of songs which were
implicit to classical dance which later got into the music realm.
His other observation was the tendency for today's
dancers to seek advice from experts on languages and literature who suggested
great extracts and lines to be used in productions but which lost the greatness
of the music that had to be part of it.
Also, Krishna was critical of music accompanists for
dance like mridangam artistes who offloaded their music baggage on dancers without
any respect for the music composed for a piece.
Conference convenor, dancer Priyadarshini Govind, who was
feted many times this morning on being named for the prestigious national
Sangeet Natak Award stepped in in defence of thinking dancers, to counter
Krishna's arguments at the fag end of his lecture.
A panel discussion followed.
Sadly, a documentary made by Adoor Gopalakrishnan on Koodiyattam,
screened at the mini hall ran to a empty hall. The film idea is a good one; we need to have more and more docu films on our artistes but . .
This conference is open to all. Starts at 9.15
am. On till Dec.31.
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