BENGALURU: Parama Padam is an interesting dance production to look forward to on Sunday. This performance is part of an India tour by the Singapore-based Apsara Arts ensemble. It was presented in Mumbai and Chennai recently. This presentation is by Mohanapriyan, the principal dancer and resident choreographer who has been with the company since 2012.
Parama Padam – Life’s Game of Snakes and Ladders, uses the rich movement vocabulary of Bharatanatyam, and explores the narrative of the game’s moral values with references from Indian epics, communicated through Abhinaya. Aravinth Kumarasamy, the artistic director of Apsaras Arts Dance Company, says, “This is my attempt to create awareness on Indian heritage.
As our world moves towards globalisation, we need to create opportunities to look back at our roots. Parama Padam is a good example where the game, while entertaining players, aims to teach life’s values. While many of us around the globe have played Snakes and Ladders, not many in our generation know it has its origins in India.” The age-old artform, Bharatanatyam, provides the platform to explore novel and abstract works, he adds.
Mohanapriyan Thavarajah is one of the world’s youngest male dancers who has specialised in sculpted chiselled geometry lines of his dance, and his choreography is a mixture of rhythmic athleticism and sensitively nuanced expressive elements of story. This student of Philosophy is currently pursuing his Ph.D in the field ofdance.
Explaining Parama Padam, Arvinth says it was created by the followers of the Vaishnavite faith, with the dual purpose of entertainment and teaching moral values of human life. On the game board, there are a hundred squares which are illustrated with snakes and ladders. The ladders in the game represent good virtues and the snakes indicate vices. Ladders take you up as the good deeds take us to heaven, while the snakes bring you down as to a cycle of re-births. The final goal is to reach Vaikuntha or heaven.
The piece is choreographed and performed by Thavarajah and has music composition by Dr Rajkumar Bharathi, well-known music director and grandson of Tamil poet, Subramanya Bharathi; the lighting design is by GyanDev Singh. G Srikanth provides vocal support and the orchestra includes V Vedakrishnan (mridangam), Ganapathy Venkatasubramaniam (violin), Embar Kannan (veena), and Bhavani Prasad (flute). There are two shows at the Bangalore International Centre, Domlur on May 29, at 4 pm and 7 pm. (The writer is a senior dance critic based in Bengaluru)