This year’s edition of the NCPA Pravaha Dance Festival will witness new choreographies by acclaimed exponents of a variety of dance forms. We spoke to Sadanam Balakrishnan, Rama Vaidyanathan and Sreelakshmy Govardhanan about what they are planning to present at the festival.

Pravaha, or flow, connotes that which does not stagnate. In Indian classical dance, the word acquires a special significance in the context of innovation within the framework of tradition perfected over centuries. This framework is the unchanging grammar of the dance form, but the choreographies that can be strung together using this syntax are countless. And each time an artiste, well versed with the grammar of the form, says something new, the language of movement becomes richer. Pravaha at the NCPA is a celebration of this newness. This month, rasikas in Mumbai will experience a dazzling variety of forms, concepts and formats when seven acclaimed dance exponents present entirely new works at the Pravaha Dance Festival, to be held over three days from 12th to 14th December.

A fine balance

Rama Vaidyanathan, a leading exponent of Bharatanatyam, will present SAAMYA—the Sanskrit word meaning ‘equilibrium’—which will explore the various connotations of vasant or spring. For most of us, spring denotes renewal, a moment of equanimity and beauty. It is not too cold, since winter has just gone by, and it is not too hot nor humid nor dry. Everything seems to be in the right proportion. Vaidyanathan says, “There is a balance in nature during the spring season. The sun is also exactly above the equator because of the vernal equinox. So, the timir ratri and the shubhra din become equal. No more the long, dark nights and short days.” Vaidyanathan, who has trained extensively under Yamini Krishnamurthy and Saroja Vaidyanathan, her mother-in-law, is deeply rooted in the tradition of Bharatanatyam but has developed her own style over the years.

Rama Vaidyanathan

In SAAMYA, she will interpret several ancient and contemporary works that have elaborated on aspects of spring. “This will be a solo presentation that was born when the Natya Gana Sabha in Chennai organised a festival on seasons, and I was given spring. A work always goes through a lot of changes—in fact, a metamorphosis—after the initial premiere. So at the NCPA, I am presenting a different production with a very different intent. It includes poetry by Kalidasa and Tagore and ancient Tamil verses from the Sangam era. I have taken inspiration from ragamala paintings on spring and a bandish in Hindustani music that coincides with them,” she says. In addition to being a season in which flowers bloom, spring is also a time of festivities. “There is the joy of the festivals that are celebrated during the season, particularly Vasant Panchami and Holi,” she says. A Sangam-era verse that names the flowers that bloom in spring, for instance, is included. “It talks about a plethora of 108 flowers that emerge from the earth. I am going to show the play of colours in dance through Holi, through flowers and through the fact that spring is indeed a joyous occasion.”

Vaidyanathan also finds inspiration in the symbolism of spring, something that has been thoroughly explored by the great poets. ‘There is a beautiful verse by Tagore which implies that the Earth is the nayika who waits for her lover, the season of spring. Kalidasa also talks about the spring as Rituraj, or the king of seasons,” she says. If Tagore’s Earth is seeking love, so are its creatures. “There is mating in nature—the birds and the bees seek love in this season.” This is why Vaidyanathan will be wearing a special costume in the colours of spring featuring Kalamkari work created by a friend. “Dr. S. Vasudevan is doing the music and vocals, and I have a fantastic set of young musicians,” she adds.Rasikas can expect some innovative juxtapositions. “SAAMYA will have one stanza of Tamil Sangam poetry and one of Tagore’s Bengali poem. The music is going to be Carnatic for one stanza and Rabindra Sangeet for the next.”

A slice of humour

For his performance at Pravaha, Kathakali exponent Sadanam Balakrishnan will step away from the traditional repertoire of the form. “For Dakshina Nayaka, I have written the lyrics, chosen the raga, tala and helped compose the music. The choreography and direction are all mine and created from scratch,” he says.

Sadanam Balakrishnan

Dakshina Nayaka will be performed by four dancers, with Balakrishnan portraying the protagonist and the other three playing female characters. Accompanied by live music, there are plans to include an audiovisual presentation to facilitate better understanding. The story, like dozens of others that Balakrishnan has adapted over the decades, is non-Puranic. The ‘Dakshina Nayaka’ has been described in the Natyashastra as a nayaka with more than one wife. “The hero, a king, is very romantic and he enjoys entertaining more than one wife. Love or romance is the predominant mood. Jealousy and quarrel, which punctuate the narrative, help to create humour,” says Balakrishnan.

The production, a kind of gentle comedy of errors, is in hasya rasa. “In one scene, the king, who is in an amorous mood, enters the beautiful royal garden and embraces a maidservant, whom he mistakes for the queen. The maid wants to take advantage of this and tries to hug him in return. The queen, watching this, quarrels with the king. The second wife, whose turn it was to spend time with the king, now arrives and witnesses the confusion,” says Balakrishnan. The drama unfolds further but, in the end, everyone is happy.

Sadanam Balakrishnan 3

Balakrishnan has developed 35 choreographies to add to the traditional Kathakali repertoire. He has written 15 new aattakathas, or librettos, for which he has also composed the music on themes ranging from the Indian epics and Puranas to ancient Greek tragedies, French classics and even Shakespeare’s plays. This year, he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of several accolades he has earned during this decades-long seva to the form. This original production by a true stalwart promises to be riveting.

An authentic portrayal Sreelakshmy Govardhanan, on the other hand, is presenting excerpts from traditional Kuchipudi yakshaganams in the form of character vignettes. “Kuchipudi Yakshaganam is a form of Kuchipudi that is more theatrical; it has dialogues, the music pattern is different, and it is all about characters,” she says. The choreography is not her own, but includes traditional pieces brought together in an hour-long presentation titled A Journey Through Kuchipudi Yakshaganam. The impulse for this came from a need to portray the form in an authentic manner. This will be the first time she will present traditional pieces she was taught by her guru, Pasumarthy Rattiah Sarma. “I will perform Bhama from Bhamakalapam, Usha from Ushaparinayam and Hiranyakashyapu from Prahaladanatakam. These are all several-hour-long natakas from which I have taken characters to present onstage for Pravaha.”

Shreelakshmy Govardhanan1

Govardhanan is one of the leading Kuchipudi artistes today and has represented the form at some of the most prestigious events in India and abroad. She has trained under illustrious gurus like Vyjayanthi Kashi and Manju Barggavee, and is still under the tutelage of Sarma at Kuchipudi village. “Kuchipudi Yakshaganam is so deep, vast and versatile—it covers everything. Bhama is an experienced, mature woman married to Krishna. Usha, daughter of Banasura, is a mugdha nayika. She is young and in love with a man she sees in her dreams. Hiranyakashyapu, king of the asuras, is a powerful ruler. These are three very different characters in different states of life and of different mindsets. That is the variation I want to bring out,” she explains, describing it as a sort of anthology of characters showcasing the approach Kuchipudi has taken to portray each character.

Govardhanan reckons that characters portrayed in the traditional style might be even more relatable than newer works in Kuchipudi. “Bhama is a proud woman who is clear about what she wants and how she treats her husband. And this was portrayed 100 years ago, and so beautifully.” Usha is portrayed with timeless delicacy. “The way they have woven her character is so evocative—the feelings of a young girl, how she dances with her friends, falling in love for the first time. There is lot of “cleansing” that happens today—you can’t do this or that. But there is none of that in the depiction of Satyabhama or Usha. Even when we talk about their love or desires, it is strong and out there.” This honest and unabashed portrayal of traditional Kuchipudi characters has always fascinated her. “How did people do it at that time?” she wonders.

Similarly, for the royal character of Hiranyakashyapu, the body language and adavu patterns change considerably, Govardhanan notes. “This essence of Kuchipudi is not something we see any more. And I am also to be blamed for that because I don’t perform these pieces often. In doing our own productions, we kind of forget what was there before. I want to show something from the Kuchipudi repertoire because it’s from there that I grow and take inspiration.”

In addition to the above productions, Pravaha will also feature Bharata Nrithyam by Aishwarya Harish and Bharatanatyam by Revathi Srinivasraghavan as well as Nina Rajarani. In Jaya Jaya Deva Hare, Bimbavati Devi will present choreographic pieces inspired by verses from the Bhagavat Purana, shlokas on Krishna and Vishnu through archetypal Manipuri ritualistic performing traditions. In Dancing Emptiness, Gauri Diwakar will explore a premise in which Buddha and Kabir come together to share a narrative of love without attachment. With such a powerful line-up and a vast variety of forms and interpretations, the promise of the new at the Pravaha Dance Festival is palpable.

National Centre for the Performing Arts