laya kavidai

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 01 Jan 2009, 21:01

When I discovered that I had 15 minutes to my next appointment after attending the performance of Smt. Ramya Ramnarayanan's at the BVB on the 26th of December, I decided to stay back and watch the first piece in the performance of Smt. Rajeshvari Sainath. To my delightful surprise the performance began with a laya kavidai piece - I had read about this (to me) new concept in dance performances, especially with schools associated with a strong rhythm base. So, I now had a chance to see for myself what it was.

Set to hEmavati, the piece, I discovered, consisted of recitation of poetry interspersed with very crisp jatis, all through which the violinist essayed hEmavati. The dancer brought the poetry to life through abhinaya and danced to the jatis. So, in essence, it was a recitation (not singing) of poetry interspersed with jatis, leading me to believe that this is an innovative way to present powerful poetry that cannot be set to music in a meaningful way. I can see it evolving into laya kavitA, encompassing poetry in languages other than tamizh - offering many new opportunities.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 01 Jan 2009, 21:10

Is there any abhinaya interpretation for the words of the verse?

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 01 Jan 2009, 21:27

Yes - there is...

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 02 Jan 2009, 03:05

Ravi:

Sounds like an excellent idea and it should fit right into a BN performance. It is like dancing to a viruththam, I suppose. It is definitely puts the focus on the lyrics and abhinaya.

I guess it is called laya kavidai because of the jathis. When reciting the poem, is it free form like viritham or there is a meter to it?

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 02 Jan 2009, 04:51

I have seen abhinaya accompany narrations in English here locally, but no possibility of a laya since it won't go with it. However with lightings and appropriate sounds (from mridangist, violinist and flautist) sometimes they are so impressive which the Westerners appreciate very much. Sometimes there is miming by others to show the story lines. Nice innovations! What should we call them?

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 02 Jan 2009, 05:12

A viruttam is sung - this is recited...

saawariya · Post by **saawariya** » 03 Jan 2009, 05:18

i have learnt an item choreographed by my teacher which is a 13 min piece which is titled Laya...it has the 5 talas....tisra, misram, chathuram,khadam and sankeernam....however each tala has its own rasa associated with it...and thats how the jadis are performed....but there is no narration or kavidai incorporated...