The competition started
a bit late, with probably 30 spectators most of whom later appeared on
the stage: the functionaries, the judges, the musicians, the parents, fellow
dancers, and a few stray individuals in Narada Gana Sabha's main hall.
A representative of Concern India made a brief introduction, dwelling on
the NGO's work and urging (the 30 spectators?) to contribute to its charitable
activities and sponsor Bharatanatyam performances. The dancers, 95% of
whom arrived on motorbikes, many of which had 3 riders, have had a hard
time trying to sponsor themselves, as Concern India's Bharatanatyam competition
required them to be able to afford to bring a live orchestra for the solo
recitals. Remarkably, the group performances were miraculously exempted
from this highly charitable requirement.
Before the competition started, a
representative of Concern India announced to the dancers that after each
solo performance "the judges would speak, give their comments and ask
the dancer questions." The judges in the final were the same
(!) as in the preliminary round: Madhumati Prakash, Rajashree Vasudevan
and Dakshayani Ramachandran. Why they could not produce any comments
on the solo recitals is up to you to guess.
The preliminary 3-day elimination
round held in November promoted, according to Chitra Visweswaran, "quite
a few dancers" (she probably meant the number of the dancers in the groups)
to the final competition held on 23 January. At the preliminary itself,
out of the astonishing 10 applicants in the sub-junior (below 10) division,
only 2 were deemed worthy of dancing in the final: Simran (of guru Sheela
Unnikrishnan) and Aishwarya Raman (of guru Divyasena). It was Simran who
danced the first on 23 January, and it was Simran who got the 1st prize.
As you could have already figured out, the second prize went to Aishwarya,
who was so significantly less impressive that led to the humorous speculations
that the first prize winner could have been decided upon in the preliminary
round itself.
The two solos of the youngest contestants
were followed by a most baffling mix of solos and group performances in
no special order. Was it indeed on a "first-ready first dance" basis?
Shuffled like a stock of cards, the order of these performances was presumably
to confuse the judges so that they would not be able to remember (for any
meaningful comparison) the performances of the contestants in the same
age division. Of course, the order did not matter if the prize winners
were determined in the preliminary round itself.
The third was Poornima (of Anusham
group) who was quite proficient in her rendering of "Padma Ananda Dayinee,"
especially in the passage describing how the snake's poison was coming
down in ashes. Sudharma Vaidyanathan (of guru A Lakshman) was dancing leisurely
and error-free, mostly due to the fact that the choreography itself was
not at all intricate or demanding. The more plain, the better? Nevertheless,
she was somehow allocated the second prize in the junior (11-14) division,
which had another 3 contestants beside her. A very big competition indeed.
Curiously, the solos in the junior
and the senior (15+) divisions were supposed to last for 10 minutes each,
but some dancers were - for an unknown reason - allowed to dance
for over 15 minutes, while other dancers' performances were cut
immediately after 10 minutes had elapsed, by completely switching off the
stage lighting. Sudharma's was followed by Divyasena's group performance
of some kind of fusion or modern dance. The group's 11 dancers found it
a bit hard to move (leave alone dance) when lined across the stage in one
row. The smallest, Aishwarya Raman, was given the central role, although
Nikita would have certainly been a better choice. Next there was Subbalakshmi
of Anusham. She surely did deserve her second prize in the senior division
for her impeccable rendering of Shakti Kautuvam and a thillana, leaving
some contestants wondering why they had not been told that they too
could include 2 fragments rather than one continuous passage from one item.
The 7th slot was Revathi Ramachandran's ballet full of folk dance, Dayinee.
Out of the 5 dancers, the only one worth mentioning was Darshana. It was
followed by Sai Swapna's (of Anusham group) recital. It was already 7.30pm,
and the auditorium was filled by at least 200 people by that time.
Next there was S Sahana's (who recently
joined Roja Kannan's school) impeccable performance of the varnam "Nee
Inda Maye." Sahana had a mobile face and smooth expressions that changed
each other seamlessly and naturally. Her style of nritta was very crisp.
Every simple nritta step involved a visible and sharp movement up and down,
which was well coordinated with the movements of her chin, her eyes and
eyelids. Sahana was given the first prize (just as in the 2008 Natyarangam's
competition) in the junior division. Perhaps she deserved it. Or perhaps
it should have been given to the 10th contestant, Harinie Jeevitha (of
guru Sheela Unnikrishnan), who attempted a much harder job to do as she
was performing very demanding nrittas, peppered with the most complex moves
and karanas that one hardly ever gets to see in Chennai. Well, Harinie's
performance was not as error-free as her videos on YouTube would suggest:
the sheer complexity of this highly demanding choreography requires more
practice.
Sridharini in the senior division
(of guru Revathi Ramachandran) was the 11th participant, and she proved
that even the worst contestant can still get the first prize. Her performance
was followed by Anusham group's fusion dance dedicated to Shiva and Shakthi,
where one dancer, Sulochana, deserves a special praise. The masala fused
together modern dance, Bharatanatyam, Odissi and god knows what else. The
13th was a very decent recital by Shivani (of guru Revathi Ramachandran)
who was placed the 3rd in the senior division. The 14th was Padmaja (of
guru Divyasena) in the junior division who presented keertanam "Om Kara
Karini" in a graceful manner, although the skirt costume limited the scope
of her nritta. It was the same K Padmaja who was awarded the 2nd prize
at the Indian Fine Arts Society's competition 2 weeks ago. The competition's
last solo was a very interestingly choreographed Sadaksharam kautuvam performed
by the 16-year-old Sruthi Kalyana Sundaram (of guru Manimekalai Sharma),
ably assisted by excellent beats of the mridangam. The choreography was
very sophisticated and involved frequent use of fast, full-range attamis
that blended harmoniously with everything else. Sruthi was masterful in
her presentation, and stood above all other contestants in the senior division.
Unfortunately, guru Manimekalai Sharma is hardly known even in Chennai.
Sri Devi Nrithyalaya's was the last
group performance that had a larger share of elaborate Bharatanatyam proper
than the previous groups' items. Most of the dancers, among whom was Harinie
Jeevitha again, were admirable, the costumes and accessories were very
impressive. Not surprisingly, Sri Devi Nrithyalaya got the 1st prize for
its ballet. It was also not surprising to hear one of Concern India's representatives
explain that, "ethically speaking," it would be wrong to
give more than 2 (out of the 4) first prizes to the same school.
The award function started at 9.30.
There was a speech by Chitra Visweswaran who was praising the efforts of
Concern India and was urging everyone to support its activities. It was
quite different from a "speech" by a differently abled gentleman from Concern
India when the audience could not understand a word.
"Helping people help themselves"
ran the slogan through a huge backdrop just under 'Concern India.' How
helpful was this competition for the dancers? And how seriously was Concern
India taking the dancers' concerns? If fewer and fewer Bharatanatyam schools
care to come and showcase their best students at Concern India's competition,
does it reflect how much importance the dancers attach to this event? Well,
if the Blue Cross, Coca-Cola, the Communist Party of India, or the ICICI
bank were to hold their own Bharatanatyam competitions, how many dancers
would apply?
Responses
Jan 26, 2009
I wanted to point out that Sahana
shared the first place with Sudharma at the Natyarangam competition. Oddly
enough, in the Concern India competition the first was again Sahana and
the second was Sudharma.
- Saatvika
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