From left to right: a mridangam (double-ended drum), nattuvangam (hand cymbals), vocalist, and sitar.
The woman with nattuvangam sings short rhythmic passages.
1 January Chennai
In the morning I worked on the journal, then headed out
late afternoon for Indian classical dances at the Indian Fine Arts Society, an easy
walk if one can avoid getting run over by the heavy traffic on TTK Road. Chennai
hosts many music and dance events from mid-December to mid-January at multiple venues.
I had come here one year ago and greatly enjoyed the performances, most of which
are free. December programs tend to be mainly music and January ones mostly dance,
but there’s far more of both than one could possibly take in!
Shreelatha
Vinod gave a solo Bharathanatyam dance performance accompanied by three singers,
a violinist, drummer with double-ended mridangam. A male singer narrated the dancers
interspersed with short, fast, rhythmic passages sung by a woman. The first piece
ran for about 45 minutes and told of the god Krishna beginning with his childhood
when he raided the butter bowl. Three short pieces followed: one about how Shiva
and Vishnu express both duality and oneness, like two sides of a coin, the next
about a woman longing for her lover, and the third a pure dance.
In
the second performance, seven identically dressed women students, gave a fine series
of dances. A recording provided the music and singing. Group dancing looked much
more difficult because everyone had to synchronize with each other, but they pulled
it off well. The two presentations ran for about three hours—the dancers have considerable
stamina. I’m also amazed at how the dancers and musicians can perform everything
from memory.
2 January Chennai
Again I worked on the journal in
the morning, then headed over to the Indian Fine Arts Society in the afternoon and
attended four performances. Rashmi Menon danced in Mohiniyattam, a dance style that
originated in Kerala state. Her costume was a dazzling white with gold trim, and
had a dress instead of the pants and pleated apron common in Bharathanatyam. Her
expressive body movements also included vigorous use of her eyebrows! She began
with an invocation to elephant-headed go Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, then
related stories and poems about Krishna and other Hindu gods in her dances. The
second and third performances were by Kumari Sruthi and Padmini Krishnamurthy in
the Bharathanatyam style, and had musicians and singers to accompany them. Lastly
Gopika Varma danced a ‘Thematic Mohiniyattam.’ These too related mostly stories
from Hindu mythology. I ended the day with a creamy malai kofta at a multi-cuisine
restaurant, Samco.
3 January 2019 Chennai
Once again in the morning
I worked on the journal, completing text and photos of my week in Bengaluru, before
heading over to experience performances sponsored by the Indian Fine Arts Society.
This time I brought my camera, and nobody seemed to mind; I set it to use the silent
shutter and avoided any use of flash. I think the 4:30 p.m. Bharathanatyam dance
originally had two women dancers, but one had fallen ill and we had a solo performance
by Sri Nidheesh Kumar with dramatic interpretations of mainly Hindu stories and
poems.
From left to right: a mridangam (double-ended drum), nattuvangam (hand cymbals),
vocalist, and sitar.
The woman with nattuvangam sings short rhythmic passages.
Usually women perform the Bharathanatyam dances, but at 6 p.m. a man, Sheejith Krishna, did a series of dances, and they had a different feeling.
For this dance we have a mridangam (double-ended drum), nattuvangam (hand cymbals),
vocalist, flute, and violin.
The strangest Shakespeare play that I’ve ever seen began at 7:30 p.m.! Two kathakali dancers from Kerala state performed parts of Othello. Nearly everyone dies in this tragedy about Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army, and his wife, Desdemona. But here the actors dressed in the extremely elaborate kathakali make-up and costume. Like in the Mohiniyattam style of dance from Kerala, dancers also make vigorous use of their eyebrows as well as eye movements. And to make their appearance even stranger, they put a certain seed under their lower eyelid to make the whites of their eyes turn red! The dancers very effectively conveyed the anger and heart-break of the play.
Othello, played by
74-year-old Guru Sadanam Balakrishnan.
Look closely at the actors and you can
see their blood-shot eyes, done purposefully!
Desdemona, played by
Margi Vijayakumar, a noted Kathakali artist who has
specialized in female roles
in the classical dance-drama from Kerala. He is 58 years old.
A loving couple
Desdemona is falsely
accused of adultery.
Two drummers on the
left (one visible) furiously beat their instruments as Othello rages.
Two singers
in the back (one visible) provide narration, as the actors do not speak during the
performance.
Othello holds a sword as Desdemona sleeps nearby, then throws the sword on ground.
Later he strangles her.
Othello and Desdemona
‘speak’ one last time.
At the end, after the
death of Desdemona, Othello stabs himself.
He takes a long time to die, then
falls onto the dead body of his love.
On to Tamil Nadu State: Indian Classical Dance and Sightseeing in Chennai
Back to Beginning of South India Backpacking Dec. 2018-Jan. 2019