The hour-long mohiniyattam recital by danseuse Vijayalakshmi at Mudra dance festival the other day offered a feast for the senses of the audience with her graceful movements and good involvement.
Vijayalakshmi won over the audience by performing the piece ‘Sita Ram Parinay’- describing the first meeting of Lord Rama and Sita and proceeding to their marriage. The act was choreographed by her mother and noted danseuse Bharati Shivaji based on ‘Ramcharitmanas’ of Tulsidas.
The performance commenced with invocations to Lord Ganapathi and moved to items reflecting the technicality and movements in mohiniyattam, ‘mukhachalam’, ‘ashtapadi’ from Gitagovindam and the mesmerising ‘thaurathryak’- a combination of vocal, instruments and dance.
Next, Sreelakshmy Govardhanan captivated the viewers by evoking ‘rasa’ in Kuchipudi. Her performance started with ‘pushpanjali’, followed by ‘mandodhari shabdam’, ‘bhama pravesha daruvu’, ‘tharang’ and Swati Thirunal ‘kriti’. She danced to the accompaniment of vocals by Nandakumar, ‘nattuvangam’ by Vidyasundari, ‘mridangam’ by Sivaprasad and violin by Sangeeth on stage.
The lecture demonstrations that followed the performances had Sruti Bandopadhyay handling the subject ‘Development of Manipuri Dance from Temple to Stage’ and Venu G on ‘The Eye, the Hand and the Mind in the Abhinaya of Koodiyattam’, opening up the dimensions of dance and its scope to the students who gathered.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob, felicitated the dancers and group members. Balu Kiriyath, member secretary of Vyloppilli Samskriti Bhavan; Kalamandalam Vimala Menon; Mudra co-ordinator Bindu Ravi and N S Isaac spoke.