Smt. Rama Vaidyanathan in East Brunswick, NJ, 27OCT12

[rshankar]

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we've been preocupied!

Main Artist: Smt. Rama Vaidyanathan
Vocal: Smt. Asha Ramesh
naTTuvanAr: Karaikkudi Sri Sivakumar
mRdangam: Sri Arun Kumar
Violin: Sri Vikram Raghukumar
Venue: East Brunswick Middle School, Hammarskjold Auditorium, NJ
Sponsor: Ambika Raman Performing Arts Academy
Date: October 27, 2012

The List
1) sannidhAnam – alArippu in aTa tALam, verses from the dEvi mahAtmIyam (gauLai, SuruTTi, hamsAnandi, rEvati – Adi ?)
2) mOhamAna yen mIdil – bhairavi – rUpakam – TQ (Ponniah Pillai)
3) jAvaLi – dAni bOdhana – SuruTTi – Adi - TQ
4) yenna tavam Seidanai – kApi – Adi – PS
5) tillAnA – dvijAvantI – BMK
6) abhang – vAsanti – Adi – Janabai

The Performance
1) Highlighting the similarities between the traditional South-Indian temple architecture and the construct of an alArippu (both place heavy emphasis on precision and balance), Smt. Rama began the evening by introducing the first piece as being constructed as a temple – a movement from the material to the metaphysical, from complex to simple, from mAyA to mOksha as one goes from the outside to the inside. The alArippu was a composition of Guru Karaikkudi Krishnamurthy.

It was beautifully choreographed and presented –it had an unusual beginning – with the dancer entering on a jati. As promised, Smt. Rama’s movements traced the temple from its outer doorway through the prAkArams, past the dhvaja stambham to the inner sanctum sanctorum (sannidhi) – from the ornately sculptured and ornamented outer (complex steps) to the innermost sanctum sanctorum sans ornamentation (very simple steps). I loved how small details like the dhvaja stambham were invoked, and how the traditional backward movement of an alArippu (to the SolkaTTu driguDu takka…) was incorporated into the theme of the piece as the devotee moving back in awe after opening the door of the sanctum sanctorum.

The devotee takes in the dEvi – and the piece went on to the verses from dEvi mahAtmIyam presented as a rAgamAlikA (possibly Adi tALam – as a tALa SUnyam, all I could tell was that it was no longer aTa!) with very lovely ciTTasvarams in between the verses (I presume, although it was not announced, that this part was composed by Sri GS Rajan, a fellow forum member). In this part, Smt. Rama effortlessly invoked the various aspects of the dEvi - from a sensuous beauty to a ferocious avenger.

2) padavarNam – when the vocalist of the evening, Smt. Asha sang just a few notes to introduce the next piece, I guessed that we were to be treated to mOhamAna yen mIdil. Now, I have seen several versions of this varNam which have colored my translation of this varNam in the past here, and I was curious to see Smt. Rama’s interpretation – for she has a reputation of being a dancer who sees things ‘very differently’. Not even my wildest imagination could have prepared me for the interpretation that Smt. Rama put forth that evening. If I had been very impressed by the intellect behind the construction of ‘sannidhAnam’, the varNam simply blew me away.

In a very highly spiritual take on this extremely sensuous varNam (she would have made Smt. RDA, her grand guru very proud), Smt. Rama presented the concept of the ajapa naTanam of Lord tyAgESa as the thing that draws the nAyika to him, and leads to her desire to be possessed by him. In this interpretation, the seemingly oxymoronish ‘bhOga tyAgESarE’ (sybaritic renunciate), and ‘sarasa guNaSIlanE’ (an amorous man of sterling character) did not seem out of place.

(I have to use the very lucid explanation that Dr. Swaminathan, the chief guest, gave during his speech, along with Smt. Rama’s interpretation on the stage to describe the ajapa naTanam). The legend of tiruvArUr is that in the sanctum sanctorum, Lord vishNu is reclining, with Lord Siva, the size of vishNU’s thumb, in his heart. Lord vishNu is performing japa, by chanting the pancAksharam. When he pauses (to breathe in, perhaps), the silence is termed ‘ajapa’. It is during these silent pauses that Siva dances with both vertical and horizontal movements – the dancing during the ‘ajapa’ pauses, becomes the ‘ajapa naTanam’. One also had to marvel at how the use of the ‘Sikhara hasta’ (fist with the out-stretched thumb) – the traditional way to indicate Siva, lends itself to the most picturesque and self-evident demonstration of the location of Siva during the aapa naTanam –the fist symbolizing the heart, and the thumb the fact that Siva was the size of vishNu’s thumb! Having said all this, I am not sure how this fits in with the SAya rakshai (in mukhattai kATTi) in the tiruvArUr temple – I bring the latter up because Smt. RDA’s choreography for mukhattai kATTi is probably what comes closest to Smt. Rama’s interpretation of this varNam.

The jatis in the varNam were composed by Guru Karaikkudi Krishnamurthy,

3) In the next piece, Smt. Rama took us from tiruvArUr to tanjAvUr – from tyAgESar to bRhadISvarar. As I understood it, in this jAvaLi, also composed by the TQ, the protagonist switches from the messenger (in the pallavi) to the nAyika herself (in the caraNam). A tad confusing, to say the least! It starts with the messenger pleading with the Lord to listen to ‘her’ (dAni) lament (bodhana) – and in the caraNam, he fed-up nAyikA asks him to go away/stay away (pO pO) as his behavior was not appropriate/appreciated (idi meragAdu rA). It would have been very dramatic to finish the jAvaLi at this point, with the nAyikA scorning her lord, rather than going back to the (dainya bhAva of the repeated) pallavi.

4) vAtsalya bhAvam took pride of place in the evergreen Papanasam Sri Sivan’s rhetorical question to yaSOdA – ‘yenna tavam Seidanai?’ The phrase ‘SirATTi, pAlUTTi, tAlATTa’ received fantastic treatment, with different rAgams used for each action (example – sahAnA for pAlUTTi and nIlAmbari for tAlATTa) during the sancAri. (again, this may have been the musical setting of Sri GS Rajan).

I was eagerly waiting to see the treatment of the phrase ‘sanakAdiyar tava yOgam Seidu varundi sAdhitadai punida mAdE eLidil pera’, in the subsequent caraNam - in particular the treatment of the contrast between varundi and eLidil. Alas, the second caraNam was not presented!

5) In keeping with the caraNa sAhityam of Sri BMK’s lilting dvijAvanti tillAnA , the entire piece was presented as ‘gOpi-kRshNa’ dance. Again, a novel interpretation. However, I did miss the ‘poi aDavu, aTTami’ start to the tillAnA.

6) Smt. Rama concluded the recital with an abhang, in which the composer-poetess, Janabai tries to wake pANDurangA up. As Smt. Rama explained, just as the poetess had awakened pANDurangA, she hoped that it would awaken sensibilities of spirituality and other nice qualities in the audience.

(Part of me was very glad that Harimau was somewhere else, probably attending yet another SI wedding reception!)

With such an intellectually stimulating and highly satisfying performance as Smt. Rama’s, it is very easy to not notice the technique. Smt. Rama’s technique was superb and it was a distinct pleasure to watch the golden ‘periya visiri’ of her costume stretched to its utmost in the ‘guditta meTTaDavus’ and ‘taTTi meTTaDavus’. Talking of taTTi meTTus, I did notice that Smt. Rama’s were not in the traditional Kalakshetra/Sri Dhananjayan style (with one foot in front of the other) – her feet were in the same linear plane.
The accompanying artists were simply superb. Smt Asha Ramesh was perfect. Beautiful vocal modulations that mirrored the dancer on the stage. Sri Sivakumar’s naTTuvAngam was precise, and not too overwhelming. We were told that Sri Arun Kumar the mRdangam player was a dancer too. He played very well, with right embellishments. Sri Vikram Raghukumar was really very pleasant to listen to – his sketch of kApi was lovely. As an aside, it was very nice to see two US-residents as part of the orchestra (Smt. Asha is from CA and Sri Vikram is from the Carolinas, IIRC). We were not told who handled the lighting (I suspect it was the school), but, whoever it was, had written down the cues perfectly and the changes were beautiful and subtle.
At the end of the performance, when the Chief Guest, Dr. Swaminathan was invited to make some comments, my heart sank. I have to say that he was fantastic – he made very pertinent observations about each piece (and of course, explained what ajapa was to us philistines) – I was also impressed by the fact that his comments were so ‘en pointe’, showing that he had paid close attention to the whole program, unlike most other ‘Chief Guests'.

In summary, if I had to describe the performance in totality, I would like to use Smt. Rama’s words – ‘precision’, and ‘balance’, and add ‘simplicity’ to it.
‘Precision’ in the planning, in the execution, in the movements, in the music, in the light changes etc.
‘Balance’ in the proportion of the program, choice of pieces, physical balance for the poses etc.
‘Simplicity’ in the choreography (without frills), in the abhinaya (very spare, without mushy details), in the AhArya, in bringing the philosophy of ‘less is more’ to life etc.

All in all an evening to cherish and keep thinking about over and over.

[mahavishnu]

Wonderful review. Thanks, Ravi.
And very nice selection of pieces representing a wide variety of composers. I can sense the "balance", despite not being at the event.

[srutiphila]

Lovely to read this! We are looking forward to Rama's premier performance in Philadelphia this weekend.

[Amraman]

Excellent review! Please note that the jathis for the varnam were composed by Sri Karaikudi Sivakumar.

[Umesh]

Great review, Ravi! Sorry to have missed it.

with different rAgams used for each action (example – sahAnA for pAlUTTi and nIlAmbari for tAlATTa) during the sancAri. (again, this may have been the musical setting of Sri GS Rajan).

Actually, I have a recording of this piece with that same (or at least similar) raga progression. A definite neelambari for the talattu, as is apropos. Don't think it's a GS Rajan invention, but he may be able to clarify!

[rshankar]

Ambika - thank you for the correction.
Umesh, thanks for the information...I was not aware that this had been tried before.

[rajeshnat]

with different rAgams used for each action (example – sahAnA for pAlUTTi and nIlAmbari for tAlATTa) during the sancAri. (again, this may have been the musical setting of Sri GS Rajan).

Ragamaliga for each phrase , never knew that. Tx Ravi a lovely dance review.

[rshankar]

Lovely to read this! We are looking forward to Rama's premier performance in Philadelphia this weekend.

Any reviews, or at the very least, a list of the pieces performed?