CERTAIN dance productions are mainly fit for presentation either as a group production or a ballet, particularly where mythological themes are chosen. When dancer Urmila Satyanarayana presented her solo thematic programme at Narada Gana Sabha titled Rama Rasanubhavam based mainly on the poems of Arunachala Kavirayar, our expectations were there, as she is a well equiped artist with vocabulary of expressions.
She took the audience, through episodes from Ramayana, emphasising the impact of Lord Rama’s presence on the lives of the characters in the story. The dancer herself portraying as Sita, Agalya, Guha, Jatayu, Hanuman and Ravana.
The intended effect to reveal the various emotions and expressions, joy, sorrow, humour and the aspects like sophistication revealing the inner core of Ramayana, was brought out with passion and presented with embellishments of swaras to the accompaniment of fine tuned orchestral support.
The various episodes presented particularly building of the bridge by the Vanaras, and the portrayal of Hanuman were theatrical in art form and the simple jatis were repetitive in nature both at beginning and at the end of the Parasurama episode.
The coronation scene was presented with all the brilliance with the musical support of Swamimalai Suresh (Vocal and Nattuvangam), Sikhamani (Violin), Sankaranarayanan (Flute) and Balaji (Veena).
It is to be said that as a soloist, the dancer presented the characters in Ramayana well. But her presentation with repetitive gestures and simple jathis did not meet with our expectations.
nvishvat@hotmail.com