Potraying culture through dance

Sri KRKM Memorial Academy of Fine Arts, Guntur had concducted a two-day dance festival titled ‘Amaravathi Yuva Nrutyoshav -2017’ on Monday and Tuesday with the assistance of the Department of Language and Culture, Government of Andhra Pradesh at Sri Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao Government Music and Dance College. The Inidan classical dance formats Kuchipudi, Bhartanatyam, Kathakali, Mohiniyattam, Odissi, Kathak and Manipuri were showcased on the platform during the two days.

The first day of the programme commenced with a dance feature ‘Amaravathi Vibhavam’. This dance feature was choreographed by Koka Vijayalakshmi. The feature showcased the evolution of Amaravathi from 3000 years ago, till date. It was also portrayed the dynasty of Satavahana and Gowtamiputra Satakarni. The grouping of artistes was good and attractive. The feature contains some slide shows to facilitate the audience. This could have been more effective if some more scene could be visualized in dance format.

Mohiniyattam is one of the two developed classical dances of Kerala, remains popular in not only in that state but all over the country. Kalamadalam Swarnadeepa of West Bengal presented Jayadeva’s astapadi ‘Lalita lavaṅga lataa pariśeelana komala malaya samīre”. With ‘bhavaprakatana’ and ‘body language' Deepa captured the attention of the spectators.

Another famous dance form Oddissi was performed by Depaship Patnaik of Rourkela. He exhibited his talent by presenting the traditional dance of Odisha.The spectators were thrilled looking at the excellent performance of Kathak and Kathakali dance battle by the artistes Kalamandalam Gowtham and Sudheep, Chakraborthy of Kolkatta.

The second day of the ‘Amaravathi Yuva Nrutyoshav -2017’ commenced with the eminent dancer Divyasena of Chennai. Her disciples presented “Murali Nritya Mala” and dedicated this programmee to legend musician Dr Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna. It is also appreciated that the compositions chosen for dance ‘Pushpanjali’, ‘Varnam’, Keerthana’ and ‘Thillana’ are also written by Balamurali. Excellent vocal support was rendered by Swetha Prasad. Haribabu gave his support on the mridangam while Ganesh was on the violin.

Krishnapriya, Pravallika, Saivalli and Kalyani, disciples of Koka Vijayalakshmi, excellently performed Swara pallivi in Bhupala ragam with Saraswathi stuti. Another distinctive dance form was the Manipuri dance form. This art form was developed by the North East State Manipuri. Mostly the stories based on Lord Krishna will be performed in this form. The popular Manipuri dance artiste Babrul Alam Chowdury had given an outstanding presentation and acclaimed the laurels of the audience. He performed “Vasant rasleela” and “Nani Choor”.

Sourav Rai exhibited excellent Kathak performance and performed ‘Viswanathastakam’ and ‘Chow tal’ wherein the artiste begins his presentation of dance with Shiva stotram and winds up with Laya vinyasam. Meera bhajan and Tarana also presented along slide the artiste. It was a welcoming sign to see that after the bifurcation of the State, organisations from different places are coming to the capital city and organising a number of art forms to the connoisseurs of the city.