Dancing is like
dreaming with your feet. For every
Bharatanatyam artist, Arangetram is a celebration of the art, trained over
several years.
It is the public graduation of art and the
artist. Acceptance of the audience
towards more professional aspirations.
Dance is one of the most beautiful forms of expression, inspiration,
focus and perfection. It needs a strong
devotion and commitment to the art.
Focus on the intricacies of the art to the minute details. It is a collaboration of the training from
Guru, music that encompasses itself with the dance, the percussion that
supports the rhythm on the stage, the sounds and lighting, the very stage of
performance and catching the attention of the audience.
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| Shradha Anand |
Any Arangetram for that matter would be a
successful one only when this collaboration is coupled with ardent love for
art, support from family and friends, a perfect understanding between the guru
and sishya, and selection of the right theme for dance that suits the dancer
who is to perform. When all of this come
together with the blessings of Lord Nataraja coupled with songs of Thyagaraja,
Annamacharya and many other musical gods, and full support of parents,
mentoring every moment and supporting the artist to accomplish, the end result
can only be a marvelous performance that is lauded by everyone.
Yes, we are here
talking about one such amazing arangetram showcasing the talents of SHRADHA ANAND, disciple of Parvati Ravi Ghantasala and
also daughter of devoted and amazing parents Mrs Geetha and Mr. Anand, student of Kala Pradarshini. An summer evening, on a Saturday, 24 May
2014, Shradha astonished the audience with her enthralling performance of Bharathanatyam,
at Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan, Mylapore, Chennai.
Smt Kalyani Rajaram
started with a wonderful narration of the dance programme coupled with Nattuvangam
by Smt. Parvati Ravi Ghantasala assisted by her accomplished disciple Divya
Suresh. Vocal by Sri Koushik
Champakesan was an added bliss to the evening making it a memorable combination
of dance and music. Kesavan’s mridangam and Kalaiarasan violin and and
flute artist were pushing the audience to an transitional form of music. We should give credit to makeup artist Sri
Murugan who did an amazing appearance of Shrada and costumes were designed and
made by one other than Shradha’s mother Geetha painfully and patiently over the
last 3 years. Capturing every moment of
this ecstasy by photographer Dhilip and videography by Ayyapan and design by
Vinayaka made the performance complete.
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| Guru Parvati Ravi Ghantasala |
The words of chief guest Sri.
K.N.Ramaswami, Director of Bharathiya Vidhya Bhavan and Smt. Prema Satish of
Natyanjali, only made it a blissful acceptance of Shradha’s perfection of the
art and her focus both in arts and academics.
Her whole family was there and friends jumped in joy watching her
performing the toughest of dance moves with ease, thanks to her yoga guru who
made her so flexible
Now let me write a bit
about the evening that mesmerized for full 3 hours with her beautiful and
electrifying performance. Starting with
Natrajar Anajali , Adi Talam, with Nattai ragam with a traditional compostion,
Shradha started with her beautiful performance.
She looked bit nervous on the first song, however, as she started to
perform Murugar Kauthuvam in Shanmughapriya ragam with adi talam, composed by
Gangaimuthu nattuvnar, she was taking the stage and audience under her
control. The posture of muruga really
made us for a minute raise in devotion to the Lord himself. Then came the beautiful tanjore quartered composition
in vasantha ragam with rupakam talam presenting Jathiswaram. The best of the best was Amma
Anandadayini varanam with
gambheeranattai ragam in adi talam composed by none other than the leend Dr
Balamuralikrisna. For a minute, as Koushik
kept singing, I felt that Dr Balamurali himself is singing …and reminding us of
the 3 beautiful hours of Balamurali we experienced in LA.
The vibrant
kalaingnarthanam made the audience not to blink even for a second, in a view
not to miss the moments of joy that is displayed on the stage. . Sahana
ragam bhajan on Sri Rama by Saint Thyagaraja brought the audience to a feeling
of trance with her dance. Shradha was
felicitated by one and all along with her guru Parvati and parents. Sri Muralidharan’s composition of
punnagavareli ragam padam made Shradha dance in her beautiful peacock costume
made by her mother specially for the occasion.
The last but not the least
Thillana performace in Nattabhairavi ragam and adi talam composed by Veenai
Krishnamachari was a perfect end to the blissful evening. Shradha’s slowly but satisfyingly ended the
arangetram by paying her due respects to Lord Natarajar, her Guru Paravati Ravi Ghansala, her stage and audience and to her parents.
A standard tenth
student of PSBBM Gerugambakkam with a score of 10CGPA, Shradha proved a
talented youngster in both academics and arts. Her parents ran from pillar to post to
ensure that every single person in the audience is received and entertained
with respect and thanks. The Programme
ended with a beautiful and mouth-watering food spread to the people whose
hearts were already filled with joy watching young Shradha and not to forget
the beautiful bags her mother made as mementoes to all with invitation and also
the goodie bags with traditional coconuts and blouses. It was so grand like a wedding with
passion. This wedding is between an
artist and art in its purest form.
To us personally, it
was an evening of bliss, happiness and joy as Shradha happens to be my daughter’s
best friend as well. We wished her with
whole heart that she should achieve all her dreams and make her parents and
family proud. She is definitely a
wonderful person with a great attitude and respect to elders and for sure will
shine in life for the best of herself.
Love you Shradha and all the very best dear!
