‘Padavarnam’, introduced by Urmila Satyanarayanan’s college students, had many recent parts
‘Padavarnam’ was a seminal work for Urmila Satyanarayanan for 2 causes — it established her dedication in coaching college students, and secondly, established her individuality as a dancer-teacher. The shows, although time-tested, had new parts, new actions and new emphasis to show her creativity, and represented a departure from the times of gurus Okay.N. Dandayuthapani Pillai and Okay.J. Sarasa.
The motion vocabulary included sharper, extra angular actions on the diagonal, extensions of the nattadavu household, and a few Ravi Varma-inspired poses and steps. There was a change within the therapy of varnams as properly, with much less prolonged abhinaya passages and extra nritta.
The Sunday morning recital introduced three of her achieved senior college students — Sowjanya Suresh, Akila Bala and G. Shruthilekha. They have been assured and beat-perfect. Every dancer has his or her strengths, and as an attentive instructor, Urmila has carried out properly to recognise and encourage these.
‘Padavarnam’ turned out to be a margam with two padavarnams, ‘Sakhiye inda velaiyil’ (Anandabhairavi, Adi, Shivanandam-Thanjavur Quartet) and ‘Nathanai azhaithu va’ (Kamboji, Adi, Tiruveezhimizhai Kalyanasundaram Pillai). There was no overlap in therapy and apparently, the sakhi mattered in neither varnam.
The senior most dancer, Sowjanya, shone within the Anandabhairavi varnam, skilfully tackling the elongated jatis, (Karaikudi Shivakumar) nevertheless it was the bhava that was mesmerising. Able to carry on to expressions for a size of time, Sowjanya introduced some well-nuanced sancharis.
In the opening phrase of the pallavi, the emphasis was on the recollection of previous interludes relatively than the padartha abhinaya of cajoling the sakhi, and within the second half, ‘Endan samiyai azhaithodi va’, she introduced Rukmini’s letter to Krishna and the way he saved her, depicted the nayika’s give up. The sthala puranam of Mannargudi Sri Rajagopala’s mismatched earrings was depicted properly. There have been, nonetheless, some cases that required extra readability. One imagines that the crinkles can be ironed out over time.
Akila has well-rounded talent units. She dealt with the opening tisra Alarippu (Okay.N. Dandayuthapani Pillai), with additions of attami in mandi adavus on all 4 sides and the shodasa upachara and homage to the ashta dik palakas inside the tisra framework, and saved exact time.
In between the padavarnams there was a light-hearted javali, ‘Sarasamulade’ (Kapi, Adi, Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar), through which the nayika tries to persuade Krishna that the time just isn’t proper for a dalliance, with the household round on a transparent moonlit night time. It just isn’t easy as a result of the nayika has to indicate that she is flattered by the advances, however not able to reciprocate for worry of being found. Akila rose to the calls for of the function with affordable readability. The broad smile she offers Krishna whereas probably shutting the door on his face was the successful second of the piece. She introduced the closing Tilang thillana (Adi, Lalgudi Jayaraman) with some sensible endings whereas touchdown on one leg.
Agile and correct
There was a shock bundle in Shruthilekha, a wise younger dancer, within the Kamboji padavarnam.
Beyond the opening formalities, one sees lightning footwork, superfast execution, agility and ease in dealing with any velocity in nritta. She carried the ‘Urmila araimandi’ always. Each jati was virtually an occasion with totally different reference factors — one was an extended one, the opposite stuffed with twirls and jumps, one other in tisram, and the final superfast one was amazingly correct. There was additionally a seamless transfer from jati to arudi with out a break.
Precision is her forte, which she carries to all elements of dance. Presenting Subramanya’s procession, with him on the chariot, and the Kama-nayika encounter have been totally different concepts that have been portrayed appropriately.
The musicians have been praiseworthy: Hariprasad (vocal), Saikripa Prasanna (nattuvangam), Nagai Sriram (mridangam), Sashidhar (flute), and Kalaiarasan (violin). The nattuvangam and music have been a few of the robust factors of the programme.
The Chennai-based creator writes on classical dance.
