After this the nritta item was the pallavi in bageshri, in which Guru Kelucharan’s dance composition starts off with a brisk “Tajhamta tari jham ta jham ta jham” starting unlike most of his pallavis which, commencing with sensuous, slow movements proceed with the tempo gradually accelerating. Based on the famous verses “Champeya Gauranga…” expressing the complementing contrasts between Shiva and Parvati enshrined in one identity as Ardhanariswara, the dancer adequately brought out the tandav/lasya counterpoints like Parvati’s “dhammila” hairdo against Shiva with his matted locks (jatadhara). Fitting the occasion, the dancer selected the Ardhanariswara composition choreographed by Guru Kelucharan Mohapata in the year 1977 for his principal disciple, Sanjukta Panigrahi, with Raghunath Panigrahi chipping in with the music composition and vocal accompaniment. Now she is under the training of Paushali Mukherjee and Sujata Mohapatra. Starting with taped music was Odissi dancer Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, groomed under various teachers from Giridhar Nayak to Kelucharan Mohapatra. While having solo performances representing different dance traditions is a good idea, what made for a slightly uneven blend of fare was the mix of live and recorded music.
At Natya Tarangini, the dance institution of Raja/Radha and Kaushalya Reddy, Shivaratri (since the last three years) has taken the form of a night-long aradhana, which goes on till the wee hours of the morning, the venue being the Raja Radha Rangmanch, the open air performance space with galleried seating in the recently constructed premises in Pushpa Vihar. The festival of Maha Shivaratri becomes an especially auspicious occasion for many dancers to pay homage to the Lord of Dance. It just is, since the universe is in a perpetual state of motion.
Nataraja’s dance is not triggered by a special reason. The iconic representation as a metaphor for the entire cycle of cosmic activity comprising creation, sustenance and destruction, has inspired a great deal of dance imagery in India. One of the greatest motifs of all time is that of Shiva as Nataraja (the king of dance) whose theatre is the entire cosmos.
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