A Dance of Spiritual Bliss: A Review of a Bharatanatyam Margam Performance by Suman Adisesh

Bharatanatyam, one of the oldest classical dance forms of India, has the ability to beautifully convey the full spectrum of human emotion. In her Maargam presentation, Suman Adisesh, the director of Spanda school of dance, took the audience along with her on a blissful journey using the language of Bharatanatyam. Suman’s performance captured the rich complexity of the human experience, creating a profound connection between performer and audience.

Suman’s Maargam was presented in Boston’s Black Box theatre, which was an ideal venue to allow her to intimately connect with her audience on the same plane, allowing both artist and audience to go on a shared spiritual journey. Suman is fearless in exploring concepts that move her and is generous in sharing her experience with her audience.

Suman’s performance presented a journey into the depths of spirituality, an exploration of bliss through various earthly relationships. She took the audience on an intimate spiritual voyage, seamlessly blending intricate footwork with profound expressions, each piece revealing different facets of the eternal search for divine connection and the bliss that follows. The performance, structured in a traditional Bharatanatyam margam, opened with reverence and culminated in an exuberant display of rhythmic precision. Each piece served as a step in this unfolding spiritual experience, with the ultimate goal of Anada Abhyas, which is a blissful state with all emotions and senses focused on a singular goal of unity with the divine.

The evening began with a dynamic and fast paced Pushpanjali, a traditional offering of flowers to the deity, which was coupled with a vibrant Ganesh song. The invocation extolled Siddhi Vinayaka, adorned with the serpent and moon, the source of the Vedas and revered by all. Suman’s rhythmic footwork was an embodiment of prayer, a physical manifestation of the dancer’s devotion, inviting the divine into the space of performance.

Following the Pushpanjali, the performance transitioned into the Varnam—a piece that is often the emotional and intellectual core of a Bharatanatyam recital. This Varnam was based on a composition by the great Swati Tirunal, in Ragam Kapi, set to Rupaka Thalam and portrayed a sakhi’s compassionate mission to unite a lovelorn heroine with Lord Padmanabha. Suman was able to depict not only the heroine’s longing for the Lord, but also the sakhi’s love for her friend and her unwillingness to see her friend suffer. The Varanam was effectively interspersed with vibrant jatis. As the layers of meaning were peeled back, the yearning of the soul to unite with the divine was revealed. Through the Varanam, Suman’s face, eyes, and subtle movements told a story of deep emotional involvement. Suman’s ability to evoke these emotions with such precision highlighted not only her technical mastery of Bharatanatyam and its power to communicate the deepest spiritual longings, but also her deep immersion into the character and her own blissful journey.

A moment of serenity followed with the Pasuram by Periyalvar, a Tamil poet-saint whose works have a deep devotional quality. The Pasuram was a sweet expression of surrender and love for Lord Vishnu, presented through a mother’s eyes. The Pasuram revealed layers of meaning in a mother’s playful words to her son, Krishna. She wants him to get cleaned up after having gotten dirty from the fields and teases him asking what the girls would say if they saw him thus. Here, Suman’s movements were soft and lyrical, with subtle, graceful gestures that conveyed a sense of tranquility and awe at the realization that she is the mother to the divine.

One of the most striking pieces of the evening was the Nataraja Padam in Poorvikalyani, a raga that blends both elegance and depth, set to Rupaka Thalam. This piece, dedicated to Lord Nataraja—the cosmic dancer—was a dynamic and rhythmically complex offering. The dancer, embodying the Nataraja figure, performed with vigor and grace, every movement echoing the cosmic dance of creation and destruction. The sharpness of the rhythm and the precision of her footwork created a mesmerizing effect, evoked the cosmic dance's philosophical essence: the eternal rhythm of the universe. The audience was transported to Chidambaram, experiencing the bliss upon witnessing the cosmic dance of Nataraja.

The next piece in the performance was the well-known Ashtapadi, a song from the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva, set to the lyrics of "Sakhi He" in Shuddha Sarang ragam set to Adi Talam. In this particular performance, Suman’s expressions brought out the bliss of the union of Purusha and Prakriti through the union of Radha and Krishna. Radha recounts a moment of shared bliss with Krishna when he kissed her on a bed of blossoms. Radha feels intense love when the very hands of Krishna that killed demons embraces her with tenderness and passion. The piece was a poignant reminder of the spiritual bliss that comes from surrendering to divine love and the deep emotional resonance that exists within this divine physical union.

The performance concluded with a lively Thillana, a joyful, rhythmic dance that celebrates the beauty of movement and the bliss of spiritual fulfillment. The Thillana, typically a lively and upbeat finale, in this case, symbolized the dancer’s experience of bliss in its purest form. The quick, intricate footwork and exuberant hand gestures were a perfect contrast to the meditative nature of the earlier pieces, bringing the performance to a joyous, celebratory climax. The rhythm was infectious, and the dancer’s energy spread to the audience, creating an atmosphere of communal joy and spiritual ecstasy. The final moments of the performance felt like a culmination of all the bliss that had been explored, as if through her movements, Suman had entered into the very essence of divine joy.

In sum, this Bharatanatyam performance was an eloquent and masterful exploration of spiritual bliss. Suman’s connection with each piece was not only technical but deeply emotional and devotional. The performance was a perfect reflection of how Bharatanatyam can transcend the realm of mere art to become a medium for experiencing divine bliss.

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