Chennai-based Dancer and guru Chitra Visweswaran is back on stage after a long hiatus. A hiatus she chose to take following the passing away of her husband, Pandit Visweswaran, musician, composer and a core member of her dance company.

In the recent past, Chitra has attended a few arts events though you can sense that she is not the same person she used to be. There is a silence that envelopes her.

But quietly, Chitra has been working on a new dance production and two shows will be staged this season. The premiere of 'Nirantharaha – the Eternal Cycle' by Chitra and her dance company Chidambaram is to be held on 12th September in the Rabindra Utsav at Kolkata.
A week later, the same production will be staged in Chennai on 19th September 2008 at 6.30 pm at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore

The trigger for this new production came from 'Happenings' which is a cultural organisation in Kolkata which stages an annual festival, Rabindra Utsav .This festival covers theatre, dance and drama and stresses upon looking at Tagore’s works from different perspectives, giving new and varied dimensions to them

This year, 'Happenings' chose Chitra Visweswaran who they felt, was best suited as she had grown up in Calcutta and has so much of Tagore and his music, and the city of Calcutta in her. Maybe that tapped a dormant passion in Chitra and ignited a spark within her. Her own vision of aesthetics in totality was inspired by Tagore and this gave her the apt platform to perform what she was best at.

Says Chitra, “After the demise of my husband, R Visweswaran, more than a year ago, I pondered considerably on how to make a come back and was hesitant to take that first step. This proposal from 'Happenings' seemed to be an ideal point of re-entry.”

Reminiscing of the days with her husband Visweswaran, Chitra speaks of howmany years ago he had taken up two songs of 'Gitanjali', had them translated them into Tamil, dwelled, pondered, composed, and given shape to it in the form of music and she in dance ….and then put it away in the archives of memory. Chitra now decided to couch an entire production in this musical composition of Viswesh. It appeared to be finally, with a feeling of déjà vu, that fate ensured that it be revived and recreated, as a fitting tribute to Viswesh.

The result is the production 'Nirantharaha, - the Eternal Cycle'.

The Chennai premiere, on 19th September at 6.30 pm will be atBharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore.

For information, email - umaasn@gmail.com