Kuchipudi dancer Preethi Tatambhotla, disciple of Sobha Naidu and Bharatanatyam dancer Amruta Mungikar, disciple of Geetha Ganesan, held the audience spellbound with their performances on the third and concluding day of Kalasagaram’s Annual Youth Festival of Dance at Keyes High School for Girls, Secunderabad, last week.
The first performance of the evening saw third year engineering student, Amruta Mungikar, invoke the blessings of Lord Vinayaka, dancing to Marathi hymn Pratham Tula Vinayaka , set in raga Malika. The young dancer had her Guru Geeta Ganesan lend able support on the nattuvangam and the guru’s vibrant and intricate dance choreography coupled with the lively orchestra captivated the packed auditorium.
Dancing to a composition of K N Dandayatha Pillai invoking Lord Subramaniam Swamy, depicting six faces of the Lord, his birth, marriage, and others, set in Purva Kalyana ragam and Adi talam, Amruta exhibited precise and crisp dance movements. Seeing her gurus V S Ramamoorthy and Manjula Ramaswamy in the audience, Guru Geeta shared that it was the first Varnam she learnt from her gurus and she had made few changes in the choreography of this dance piece as originally conceived by guru Ramamoorthy on his guru’s composition.
The javali in Khamas set to Adi talam was a composition of Pattabhi Ramaiah’s Apadaruku … . She did a fine execution of adavus and the interplay of jatis and swaram. Giving tillana a miss, Amruta presented Abhang, a common feature in Marathi. Devoted to Lord Vithal (Krishna), a composition of Bhanu Dasa set in Adi talam, Vrindavan venu baje… the Bharatanatyam dancer presented the leelas of Krishna at Vrindavan. Her abhinaya of Bhakti rasa was evident in the piece. Be it singing in Marathi, Tamil or Telugu, Geeta Ganesan did a superb job. She was supported by Sridharachari on the mridangam, K. Sai Kumar on the violin and Srikanth on the tabla.
Preethi Tatambhotla
Preethi Tatambhotla after the traditional Kuchipudi opening of Vani paruku , began with a composition of Muthuswamy Dikshitar set in Adi talam devoted to Goddess Kamakshi. Preethi’s rhythmic variations and orientation with nritta was typical of her guru , who choreographed all the numbers for the evening. A number of extensive jatis inter-woven into drama made an impact at every stage.
The Annamacharya kirtana that figured next was Vachenu Alamelu Manga set in ragam Hindolam and Adi talam. The Navarasas that figured next brought out various episodes related to each of the nine moods that demanded the dancer’s skills of interpretation. The content slowly evolved with Preethi changing into characters with subtle movements, agility and precise nritta . Garuda Bala Prasad scored the music for this composition.
Exhibiting the fickle mind of the nayika in the javali to a composition of Pattabhi Ramaiah set in ragam Kamas and Adi talam, Preethi brought out the pangs of youth.
Preethi presented with vigour and perfection tillana in mohana Kalyani set in Adi talam to a composition by Lalgudi J Jayaraman. She picked up the popular Ramadas Kirtana Ramachandrayya Janaka Rajaja Manoharaya… for the Mangalam . Swetha Prasad provided mellifluous vocal support with sahitya clarity, while Raghunandan on nattuvangam, Sridharachari on mridangam and K Sai Kumar on violin, made a good combination.
