ST LOUIS: It was a colorful evening filled with great dance, music gurus, art patrons and hundreds of dance and music students gathered to felicitate one of the great teachers of Indian classical dance s here – Guru Viji Prakash, artistic director of Shakti Dance Company, of Los Angeles, California
The “Soorya Life Time Achievement award” was instituted by Soorya Performing Arts had a purse of $1000, with a plaque. This award was presented to. Viji Prakash is one of the pioneer gurus who brought dance to western hemisphere in the mid 70’s along with people like Rathna Kumar, Hema Rajagopalan, Padmini and others.
She was given a plaque by Guru Rathna Kumar, artistic director of Anjali Center for Performing Arts. Guru Rathna remembered the days in USA – when anything Indian was so scarce. She mentioned all the dance gurus such as Viji started teach and perform dance to keep the traditions alive.
She remembered all great artists starting from – La Meri to Viji, who pioneered the Indian dances in USA. She praised Guru Viji Prakash’s huge contribution to Indian classical dance in the western hemisphere. The dance community present included Guru Prachi Dixit (Director of Nupur Academy, Los Angeles, CA); Guru Sujatha Vinjamuri (Director Kuchipudi arts Academy, St. Louis); Guru Malavika Venkatasubbaiah (Director, Natyam Dance Academy, Calgary, Canada). Guru Viji Prakash remembered her Gurus and musicians who worked with her. She thanked her family.
The 7th St. Louis Indian Dance and Music Festival – curated by Guru Prasanna Kasthuri – spanning for three days from June 12, 13 to 14 in CHS auditorium in Missouri has become a tradition of celebration of Indian performing arts.
On the first day, Surabhi Bharadwaj presented an enchanting performance with elasticity. Her Abhinaya was excellent and her movements were crisp. Being a young performer she showed prowess in her presentation. There were some acrobatic gimmicks to please the audience, which by the way got her lots of applauses.
Guru Prasanna Kasthuri presented his skillful work of “Rasa Gathi” – which portrayed the theory of “Rasa Concept” through the illustrations from 10th century work of Dhananjaya’s Dasharoopaka.
After going through a life altering surgery, his ability to bounce back and perform a full scale performance was astonishing. Abhinaya was impeccable and he managed the nritta with ease. One could see his passion to perform and present exclusive pieces of literature, to make the dance festival more authentic and valuable. He excelled in the Nava rasa (Nine sentiments) through the roles of Shiva-parvati, Raavana, Rama, cannibals, Manmatha & Rathi.
The last performance of the first day was a violin concert by Dr. Poorna Prajna. He took quite a while to set himself into groove, but once he started, he took the audience to a great ride of music.
His sustaining, smooth overtures were simply calming and peaceful.
Second day started with an invocation from Soorya Dance Company and students of Guru Smitha Rajan. Later Guru Rathna Kumar presented Shivoham – a collection of dances in Kuchipudi and Bharathanatyam. Expert choreography was very visible in the way dancers moved across the stage. The presentation invoked a pure, unbounded joy of transcendental feeling.
Venugopal Josyula was a talented, splendid male dancer, who presented a sheer beauty of light tandava sneak piece with his inaugural Pasoonaam Pathim. His rendering of Shankara Srigiri was eye catching.
Guru Rathna Kumar’s experience of choreography was very visible in her presentation; it was an amazing event to watch which got consistent applauses.
Life time honoree – Viji Prakash’s students presented Gajavadana beduve, well know Kannada devaranama with an inclusion of Nritta for an interspersed swara vistara with impressive patterns.
Ranjani mrudu pankaja lochani in ragamalika a challenging piece to any dancer was presented with grace and ease, Shakti dance company presented some of their best dancers to showcase the beauty of Goddess Tripura Sundari in an remarkable way. Pillangoviya Cheuluva Krishna – a famous song on Lord Krishna’s playful youth, was very playful and energetic
Guru Sushma Mohan of Los Angeles, CA presented age old “Tiruppavai”, a collection of verses written by Tamil poetess Andal, a saint poetess who lived in South India during the 8th century.
Her presentation of Andal imagined herself as a cow-girl at the time of Sri Krishna, collecting all girls at dawn during the Margali month (December-January) and inviting them to worship Krishna was very pleasing. Sushma’s elaboration of stories captured the minds of audience with a picturesque feeling of Gokula itself.
Additionally Samanvita Kasthuri impressed audience as Mahavishnu. Shree Govani and Priya patel added color through their crisp nritta and mild Abhinaya.
Guru Prachi Dixit from Los Angeles presented “The Sword and the Flute – the story of Kali and Krishna” with a charm and intensity. Her dancers impressed the audience with the clear movement and inspiring Abhinaya. Guru Prachi Dixit herself performed and presented a valiant presentation of Durga with the support of an youngster – Khalil Alshar, who danced very effectively to present the masculine roles of the production.
Khalil was at ease with all different characters of the production and made himself an important piece of entire puzzle. In this festival – Prachi Dixit’s show stood above everyone, just because of her high professional approach to the presentation of this production.
On the third day, Melukotai Vaiarmudi Utsav by Arathi School from Texas. It was very well conceived and presented very well. Maya Angelou’s “Caged bird” was a master piece – presented with Bharathanatyam technique showcased the flexibility of Indian classical dance style.
Dancers Rajam and Malathi Koli impressed everyone with their abhinaya of cotton picking slaves of Southern states who were enslaved. Adding a black dance group was very appropriate to ending to show case the Emancipation proclamation by Abe Lincoln.
Guru Jinoo Vargheese’s attempt to recreate bible stories was very brave and broke the boundaries of traditional Hindu mythologies and showcased the strength of the art form itself. With quick group formations, beautiful costumes, exquisite Abhinaya she produced a marvelous piece on stories of Jesus Christ.
Guru Prasanna Kasthuri’s Dashavataram brought out a colorful presentation of 10 incarnations of God Vishnu. A crisp choreography with appropriate formations tendered awesome effect on drama elements.
Dances were quick and story moved fast. Enacting of Narasimha was very fiery, and put everyone in the audience to their edge of the seat. So was the effective presentation of Kali and Kalki avatara.
Dashaavataara was an impressive presentation. Dancers presented different sentiments effectively and performed with accurate Angashuddha
The best kept secret of the dance-music festival was – “BLUE CHAKRA BAND” – a combination of Indian and American musicians. Lead Singer Seema presented powerful piece – Gam gam gam ganapathi with a “Maharastrian” tinge; followed by an interesting mutual exchange of South Indian Classical raga (melody) – “Kharaharapriya” – which was played on western music scale in Dorian.
Guitarist Frank Heyer played wonderful interludes of Dorian scale when Seema sung Indian raga. Seema presented – a Bollywood song and finished with an English poem – written by herself – based on the legendary Sanskrit – verse – “asatoma sadgamaya”. Blue Chakra band was a novel idea in St. Louis and has a great future. The other members – Prasanna on Key Board and Owen on Drums provided a strong support to the concert.
Malavika Venkatasubbaiah presented a peek into Mysore style of Bharathanatyam with her production ‘Bhaavika’. Dancer exposed the emotions a woman who surrender herself to supreme God through total devotion and admiration to her God.
The idiom, Malavika used to portray were, the stories of Parvathi – seeking God Shiva Lord Shankara; Gopis seeking Lord Krishna; and Radha rejecting unruly Krishna with heavy pain. Malavika’s refined Abhinaya was excellent; every focused audience understood the content of a Sanskrit piece successfully.
Dance festival ended with folk dances by Neelima Bhavsar and friends, who presented Raas Garbha. Mahashakti, – a panoramic representation of all dances of India by Soorya Performing Arts was presented with joy and merriment.
This dance festival was attended by hundreds of art lovers every day. It was supported by Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; Regional Arts Commission – a St. Louis based art supporting agency and US Wide Mortgages. Soorya Performing Arts conducted successfully for the 7th time to create a new record of consecutive dance festivals in USA for the first time.
Ashwin Patel
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