On September 27th we witnessed a wonderful dance presentation by Smt Sunanda Narayanan and her mother Smt Sujatha Vijayaraghavan.  The theme was “Classic and the Contemporary”.  Smt  Sujatha who is a very famous poet, musician and  a dancer scholar from Chennai explained in a simple way about how the Contemporary can be blended with classical to give a modern look.

To begin with Smt Sunanda performed a very traditional Alaripu but treated it differently by including more movements on nature and also incorporating the famous Vande Mataram song.  This gave a fresh look to Alaripu.  Smt Sujatha talked to us about how a traditional Kanchivaram saree can be given a modern outlook with a painted pallu that suits today’s generation.

The second item was a mythological piece showing a squabble between Ganesha and Murugha. This was a very humorous piece which could be very well related to our sibling fights. Ganesh complains that Muruga pinched his big ears taunting him as to why he needed such big ones. When Shiva questions Murugha on this he mentions that Ganesha taunted him about his 12 eyes.  This goes on and on till Shiva realizes that there is no way he could sort this out.  All the young artists could relate to this dance very well.

The third piece was based on a modern Poetry – Pudukavithai by Sri. Vairamuthu  about  trees. A tree that provides so much for the humankind is being ruthlessly destroyed by the man. Every tree is a Bodhi  tree says the poet.  Each tree conveys a message which humans fail to understand.  Sunanda ji was able to  bring out the emotions involved in this poetry.  Her expressions were beautiful.

The next item was based on a Haiku theme which was a tamil translation. The protagonist is enjoying a serene atmosphere near a pond when a frog suddenly jumps into the pond that disturbs the serenity and transports him to his past. He recollects those times when he enjoyed his childhood with his friends, spent beautiful moments with his wife but as time went by he got engrossed with the challenges of life. As the pond settles down so does the protagonist and is at peace with himself. We could follow every action performed by Sunanda ji and the music complemented her performance.
 This was followed by a short piece based on the Babri Masjid incident in India when the Hindus destroyed a mosque causing internal riots. This poem was written by Sujatha ji herself and she sang this too. Here Lord Rama is questioned if he really wants a temple for himself. He who sacrificed everything at an instance when Queen Kaikeyi asked him to, does he really care about a temple at the cost of all the fights? This was a very emotional piece and Sunanda Ji danced beautifully. She is quick, elegant and very clear in her actions.

Sujatha ji has published articles in Tamil and English and sings very well. Her voice lightened up the entire room.  She is a fine speaker and after ever dance she would explain in detail about how they blended the music and the poetry to suit the dance. She also mentioned that it was very important that the dancer should have good knowledge of music, literature and dance before experimenting new ideas and giving a different direction.

Sunanda Ji concluded the recital with a Thillana in which she had blended Tiruppavai- Tamil shlokas . Her steps were articulate and very graceful.  Her posture is very neat and she  has a very bright smile. She has been performing for over three decades now. She is a student of Smt Radha from Chennai. She has over 250 performances to her credit.

Thanks to Sujatha Ji and Sunanda Ji for their splendid performance. As students of Spandha  school  of dance we have lots to learn from them.  All of us enjoyed this performance.
 
Here is the Link to the dance performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMfNXATvkBM

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