This year, as in many others, the months of August and September ushered in a unique celebration of dance, art, and nature, courtesy of Natyarangam, the dance wing of Narada Gana Sabha. The organization’s annual thematic dance festival, widely known for drawing together illustrious personalities such as musicians, dancers, and scholars, unfurled its cultural tapestry under the title ‘Rithu Bharatham’, with a specialized focus on the six Indian seasons.
The festival, an artistic tradition, provides a rare platform for promising young dancers to both perform and conceptualize full-length presentations. Each year’s festival revolves around a different theme, offering a fresh palette of inspiration. This year, the spotlight was on the natural cycle of the six seasons, an intriguing concept that enabled participating artists to delve deeply into the sensory and emotional essence of each.
While the organizers encouraged dancers to draw from a wide array of sources—from the ancient verses of Kalidasa and the Sangam literature to the vibrant Ragamala paintings and various seasonal festivals—the challenge lay in capturing the comprehensive spirit of each season within the given structural framework. Consequently, a certain repetitiveness in the performance template was noted across the festival’s days.
The festival commenced with the vibrant ‘Vasantha Rithu’ (Spring) interpretation by the renowned dancer, Rama Vaidyanathan. She segmented the season into distinct facets: Saumya (Equanimity), Punaravarthana (Rejuvenation), Kama roopini (Love), Bahu Varnani (Multi-hued), and Apeksha (Hope). Each sub-section was thoughtfully crafted to contrast night and day, encapsulating the time cycles intrinsic to spring through visual imagery and a carefully curated soundscape, which included the rhythmic sounds of scattering seeds and the melodious tanam.
In closing, Rama’s presentation featured a detailed rendition of ‘Saraswathi namosthuthe’, composed by G.N. Balaubramaniam in raga Saraswathi, enhanced by the use of vivid visual elements such as the goddess Saraswathi standing on a lotus.
Apoorva Jayaraman followed with her portrayal of ‘Grishma Rithu’ (Summer), which brought Manmatha, the god of love, into the spotlight yet again, this time adorned in a waistcoat. She invoked verses from Kalidasa’s ‘Ritu Samharam’ to depict Kamadeva, symbolizing the languor and exhaustion of summer through images of a drooping sugarcane bow, wilting flowers, and a weary parrot.
. A poignant highlight of her performance was an abhinaya sequence showing a mother quenching her child’s thirst with scarce water resources, painting a vivid picture of the season’s harshness.
Apoorva’s use of musical rhythms to denote the sun’s blazing heat and the sporadic presence of peacocks offered an interesting layer to the performance. However, a repetitive musical pattern marred the overall effect, overshadowing the atmosphere that summer typically evokes.
In a shift towards a dance-theater mode, Vaibhav Arekar’s portrayal of ‘Varsha — Harvest of Lost Dreams’ explored the rainy season. Vaibhav’s performance was anchored in the life of a farmer, depicting the toils of plowing, sowing, and the passionate wait for the nourishing rains. His piece was emotionally charged, highlighting the agony of unfulfilled hope as the rains failed to materialize, transitioning into anger and distress during the torrential monsoons.
One of the most arresting moments was marked by the display of a figure under a spotlight, hands moving gracefully to evoke a sense of intimacy. Vaibhav cleverly juxtaposed the intimate bond between a man and his beloved with that of Earth’s relationship with the clouds. Complementing the narrative with the compositions of Dikshitar, Sangam poetry, and Kalidasa’s works, he adeptly used dance elements like Jathi korvais and adavus to convey the elemental energies of the season.
Despite the rich possibilities offered by Ragamala paintings as visual aids to evoke seasonal moods, their utilization by the performers received mixed reactions. While Rama used a projected frame to artistically suggest a character within a painting, the effort felt generic. Apoorva’s choice to split images into three fabric panels distorted the traditional art form, and Vaibhav’s straightforward projections came across more as fillers than integral components of the dance sequences. This aspect indicated a missed opportunity for deeper artistic synergy between dance and visual art.
Natyarangam’s ‘Rithu Bharatham’ stood as a testament to the profound intersection between artistic expression and the cyclical rhythms of nature, despite some repetitive thematic executions and artistic choices. This vibrant celebration of dance, drawing from the rich heritage of Indian culture, continues to offer young artists a valuable stage to showcase and refine their talents.
