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| A 'pizza break' in classical dance! By Aruna. S / Madras |   | |||
How would it be to see M.G.R and Saroja Devi sing and dance along on a Chennai stage? Can you imagine how it would be if these super stars just came out of the silver screen and danced before you, live, and you sat and watched them at a packed auditorium. Yes, it was an experience like this one, last week in Madras, when dancers of various classical styles performed to old film melodies.
Themed 'Andraya Paadal, Indraya Aadal', a two-day dance fest was hosted by The International Dance Alliance (IDA) on 16 and 17 July at Narada Gana Sabha's main hall, Madras. It featured group presentations of 20 minutes each, where the dancers performed to audio recordings of yester-year songs from the celluloid medium. From 'Thillana Mohanambal' to 'Mughal-e-Azam'...
The next presentation, 'Malarum Ninaivugal' was by students of Udupi Laxminarayanan. Here, a love story unfolded through songs from films like Konjum Salangai, Anbe Vaa, Thillana Mohanambal, Kumudham, Paasa Malar, Maya Bazar and Meenda Sorgam. A dancing-trio from Bangalore, (mother-daughter and daughter-in-law) Padma Murali, Poornima Ashok and Janani Murali presented 'Awaiting Divine Love', describing the experience of waiting in love. This featured songs from films like Parthiban Kanavu, Shakuntala and Meera. 'Sri Valli' choreographed by Muralidharan and Chitra was themed on the wedding of lord Muruga and Valli. A colourful spectacle, the dancers here performed to songs from Sri Valli and Kandhan Karunai. And it was not just Thamizh films, a Kathak group headed by Jignyasa Giri danced to songs from Hindi classics Janak Janak Paayal Bhaje and Mughal-e-Azam. The final presentation on the first day, 'Sange Muzhangu' was themed on social awareness and featured message-oriented songs of N.S. Krishnan besides the M.G.R hit 'Adho andha paravi pola...'. This featured students of Narasimhacharis. T.M.S hits linger on...
Mohiniattam dancer Gopika Varma and her 'Dasyam' group performed Mohiniattam to Malayalam songs themed on lord Krishna. Students of Usha Srinivasan presented the film choreography of yester-year dance guru K.N. Dandayuthapani Pillai. This featured songs from 'Penn', 'Avvaiyar' and 'Sivagangai Seemai' all hits of the 1950s. Film songs in praise of the classical dance form were presented by students of Krishnakumari Narendran, followed by a thematic recital on Krishna by students of Jayanthi Subramaniam. The evening concluded with a patriotic theme by students of Dhananjayans. T.M.S. hits from 'Kappalotiya Thamizhan' lingered on... Though the standard of performance at the two-day fest was mixed, the music brought back some great memories. One could actually spot many 70-plus rasikas at the auditorium on both the days. On the inaugural day, arts promoter Nalli Kuppuswami Chetty and danseuse Padma Subrahmanyam were felicitated. What the co-ordinators say...
The International Dance alliance is a non-profit world organization, formed for the promotion of friendship and cooperation of all dancers in the world- of varied style and belonging to different schools. (IDA) has been conducting the 2-day festival every year since 1986 and this is the 18th year of presentation. The festival has been hosted not only in Chennai but also in Bangalore, Trivandrum, Delhi, Jaipur and other places. In 1991, October an IDA dance group was sponsored by the Sangeet Natak Academy and the dance drama- 'Krishnam Vande Jagatgurum' choreographed by Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy, featured dancers from various dance schools. In 1992, this dance drama toured the entire USA and won laurels for I.D.A. Dancers Radhika Shurajith and Revathi Ramachandran are the advisory council members of IDA. Contact:Ph: 24997597 / 24911544 |
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