The Natyanjali Dance Fests are special. So, as the festivals unfold in Tamil Nadu, VINCENT D' SOUZA, who will be hopping from one fest to another, will file his reports here. The journey, the festival, the sidelights and the people.
From Feb.25 to March 2. Log in every day.

I have to entertain 12 Dutch tourists before setting off for
Chidambaram.
They are in Chennai and we have promised them a cycle-rickshaw tour of Mylapore.

We pack an entire operations team and its needs into a Maruti Zen for the Natyanjali dance fests which have become a circuit in Tamil Nadu over the years.

From a single report and paid-for pictures, our coverage has grown bigger. This is because the Natyanjali circuit has grown bigger, as it should. Chidambaram, Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Mylapore and now, in over two dozen temples across Tamil Nadu state in south India.

Chidambaram may be playing host to the biggest dance fest, but the town is just not keen to play a good host. The roads are dirty and dusty. The walls are plastered with cinema posters, the beautiful temple chariot is enveloped in metal sheets, and goats have the temple campus all to themselves on this pradosham afternoon.

And yet, when the first set of dancers go on stage in the outer
prakaram where the festival is now held, the fest has a unique charm of its own.

This afternoon, the Natyanjali Trust team has its final meeting in the hall where all of us will dine for the next five days. Hospitality is a high point at all the dance fests. The best of traditional food is served.

Chidambaram will come alive on Sunday. So we drive down to Nagapattinam. Some 80kms away and on the coast. Remember it was this town that was the worst hit by the tsunami of 2004. I haven't been to Nagapattinam for sometime now. And the enveloping dusk probably hides all the physical scars that the tsunami inflicted.

The temple dedicated to Kayarohana Swami and Neelayadakshi amman is a magnificent one, best explored at daytime. It is the shrine dedicated to the Anjaneya that is colourful, with rows and rows of offerings of rice and salt and anything else, that devotees have offered here. I tarry a while - minutes before we had received a call from BSNL, the state-run telecom company that it would help us web cast excerpts of the Chidambaram Natyanjali, celebrating its silver jubilee this year.

                           Nalini Prakash from Conoor

Nalini Prakash from Coonoor is on stage this evening. When she
finishes, there is an audience that should be close to one thousand people. But have I seen so many children for a dance recital? No. They must have come with their mothers to the temple but they seem to enjoy dance in quiet.

Paneerselvam who runs a few businesses in the town seems to be the one-man host here. Of course, he has the guidance of one of India's most well known dancers, Padma Subrahmanyam, in this her native town. He is a cheerful man though he has to wear many caps.

One moment Nalini is on stage and minutes later, she is off it, into a waiting SUV and away she goes. Her next destination is the Dharbaranyeswarar temple, which encloses the famous Saneeswarar shrine in Thirunallar, some 20kms away.

Thirunallar is a new addition to the Natyanjali circuit, so we decide to check it out. It is about 9pm and at this late hour the temple is still busy.

In a rather badly maintained hall, Nalini Prakash is into her first
item on stage. People flit in and out. I decide to explore the
temple. Renovations all around, perhaps for a major celebration. Too many new sculptures.


  
                               Students of Anita Guha

Sishyas of guru Anitha Guha of Chennai troop in; sweating after their performance at Nagapattinam. Anita has a way of working well with children. The audience will enjoy their performance here. We leave. It is a long drive back to Chidambaram.

We have done over 400 kms today.


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