Kalavardhani’s has released a DVD titled ‘Ganesha-Skandha Margam’ featuring Bharatanatyam by Aruna Subbiah, a senior disciple of the renowned artiste and guru Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy.

The two-DVD album was released by veteran dance guru Prof. C.V. Chandrasekhar and received by senior Bharatanatyam artiste Chitra Visweswaran on August 31, 2007 at Gallery Sri Parvati in Chennai. An exhibition of paintings of lord Ganesha was held on this occasion and snippets from the DVD were screened.

The dance performance in the DVD celebrates two favourite deities - Ganesha and Muruga, through the ‘Margam’ format of a Bharatanatyam recital.

Directed by Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy, who has completed six decades in the field of Bharatanatyam and heads the institution Shree Bharatalaya in Chennai, the video is dedicated to the memory of guru Vidwan Madurai N. Krishnan.

The live orchestra for the dance performance features Nandini Anand (Vocal), Priya Murle (Nattuvangam), K.S.R. Anirudha (Mridangam) and V. Muruganandan (Violin).

Says Aruna Subbiah, “The idea of doing this DVD happened in November 2006. I had performed a shabdam, ‘Moolapporule…’ a composition of Vidwan Madurai N. Krishnan at an exhibition of ceramic sculptures of lord Ganesha at Gallery Sri Parvati in Chennai. This programme was co-ordinated by Natyarangam of Narada Gana Sabha, where four dancers presented one item each themed on lord Ganesha. Vijayakumar of Kalavardhani’s who was at this programme, approached my guru Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy and expressed his interest in producing a DVD of my Bharatanatyam performance. And my guru felt it was a nice opportunity for me to showcase my art and make a good contribution to the field of fine arts.

“We decided to take up a ‘Margam’ which adhered to the traditional format of a Bharatanatyam recital and since this was my first solo DVD, lord Ganesha became a natural choice! We had just choreographed a varnam on lord Ganesha (with lyrics and jathis by Shri K.S.R. Anirudha and music by Smt. Nandini Anand) which was premiered in early 2007 at one of our students’ Ranga Pravesam. We thought it would be nice to present this varnam in the DVD format so that we could take it straight to rasikas all over the world.

We thought it would be interesting if we added a couple of pieces on lord Muruga and hence the well known old shabdham – ‘Kandhane’ and ‘Sollavallayo’, a Bharatiyar composition.

The opening number ‘Sharanu Vinayaka’ by Alathoor Vijayakumar was newly choreographed for this DVD.

The video recording was done under the supervision of my guru Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy, in March 2007 at R.K. Swami Auditorium in Mylapore, Chennai."

In the DVD, each dance composition is preceded by a short introductory narrative in English. The compositions presented include:

Pushpanjali - Sharanu Vinayaka ( Karnataka Devagandhari /Adi / Lyrics by Alathoor Vijayakumar). An invocatory item in praise of lord Ganesha.

Jatiswaram (Purvikalyani / Adi / Composed by Vidwan Madurai. N. Krishnan).
A dance number with rhythmic dance sequences set to swaras or musical patterns.

Shabdham - Kandhane unnai (Ragamalika / Misrachapu).
Themed on lord Muruga, this composition is set to a combination of ragas and beats of seven.

Varnam - Om enum porule (Hamsadhwani / Adi / Lyrics and Jathis by K.S.R. Anirudha / Music composed by Nandini Anand).
The main piece of a Bharatanatyam recital, where the rhythmic sequences of ‘adavus’ and ‘abhinaya’, or the gesture language is found in an equal measure. This varnam themed on lord Ganesha presents some of the legends relating to the cheerful lord Ganapathi.

Padam - Sollavallayo kiliye (Ragamalika / Rupakam / Lyrics by Subramania Bharathi).
A song of devotion, a padham is also called as a love lyric. In this composition, the heroine sends her pet parrot as a messenger to lord Muruga.

Thillana ( Kannada / Kanda Ekam / Composed by Vidwan Madurai N. Krishnan).
The concluding piece is in praise of lord Ganesha, which is joyous, short and crisp.

Aruna Subbiah has been a disciple of the renowned Bharatanatyam artiste and guru Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy since 1984. At Shree Bharatalaya, Chennai, Aruna has trained in Bharatanatyam, Carnatic music, Nattuvangam, theory of dance and choreography and had her Rangapravesam in 1991.

She was a recipient of the Scholarship for dance from the Centre for Cultural Resources & Training (CCRT), Ministry of Human Resources, Govt. of India.

A talented dancer she has performed at various dance festivals including ‘Nritya Pratibha’, a festival for young dancers, hosted by Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi. She has performed alongwith her guru at the various educational institutions in Punjab, U.P, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh as part of the concert tour organized by SPICMACAY.

She has been featured in DVDs titled ‘Madura Margam’, ‘Madura Thillanas’ and ‘Navasandhi Kavuthuvam’, produced by Super Audio.

Aruna has conducted master classes at Silambam (an alliance of Shree Bharatalaya) in Geneva, Switzerland and has worked with visiting students from Colgate University, New York, at Shree Bharatalaya.

A master’s degree holder in Mass Communication, Aruna worked as an arts journalist as well. At present she pursues a career in Bharatanatyam as a performer, choreographer and teacher and assists her Guru Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy at Shree Bharatalaya.

She is a recipient of the ‘Yuva Kala Bharathi’, ‘Bharata Kala Bhushana’ and ‘Bharatha Mani’ awards.

Contact:
E-mail: arunasubbiah@gmail.com
Webpage: http://www.kutcheribuzz.com/ebrochures/aruna