Anshuleena (daughter of Sudha and Nagaraju Vipparla), a high school junior, had her arangETram on September 11, 2010 at the Panther Creek High School auditorium in Cary, North Carolina. Her dance guru is Mrs. Padma Rao ( herself a disciple of Dr. Tulasi Ramachandra of MysUru).
Orchestra:
Padma Rao --------- naTTuvAngam
Varuni Ravinder ----Vocal
Arjun Raghavan (a high school sophomore) ---Mrudangam
Sindura Ganapathi --- Flute
Vikram Raghukumar -- Violin
The program started with PApanAsam Sivan’s kriti “Sri GaNEsA saraNam†(tilang/Adi), followed by a jatiswaram (in rAgamalika: kalyANi, bEgaDa, aTANA, and suruTTi; misracApu tALam). The two items provided a good warm-up.
The next item was the varNam, “sakhiyE inda jAlam EnaDi endan sAmiyai varac collaDi…†composed by K.N.DaNDAyuthapANi PiLLai (SankarAbharaNam/Adi). This piece was choreographed very well by Padma Rao and executed with technical precision by Anshuleena. This varNam was made famous by MLV’s singing for SrividyA’s dance accompanied by naTTuvAgam by the great KNDP himself.
After a brief intermission, a keerthanam “Sankara shrigiri..†by Swati tirunAL (HamsAnandi/Adi) describing Lord Shiva’s dance, followed. The next item was a delightful jAvaLi by Sangeetham Venkata RamaNayyA, “sAkO ninna snEha sarasa..†(kApi/misracApu) describring the Khandita nAyaki’s (jilted heroine) anguish and her consequent rejection of her lover. (To this writer, a jAvaLi item for arangETram by a young girl sounds somewhat a misfit but the guru must have thought to provide variety since jAvaLi was/is a significant part of Bharata nATyam mArgam).
A musical interlude (flute) playing a Meera bhajan in darbhAri kAnaDA was done well.
A dEvarnAma, “Enu sukruthava..†by Shri vAdirAju (yamankalyANi/rupaka) in praise of Lord Krishna describing the good fortune of YasOdA was done next where the dancer showed the real vAtsalyam of a mother in her nritya. This was followed by a brisk tillAna composed by Madurai Krishnan (shivaranjani/khanda eka) where the caraNam line went as “kOTAnu kOTi makkaLaik kAkkum mUkAmbikE…â€. The program concluded with mangaLam, “Brahmam okaTE..†(bowLi/Adi) of AnnamAcArya blending the spiritual verse with a folksy dance.