Report and pics by Lakshmi Sivakumar and P Sivakumar (GA)

Bangalore, Jan 13: Silver Jubilee Celebrations of Nritya Kalamandiram speaks about a journey of the art so far so good, an initiative of a special day 25 years ago, Nritya Kalamandiram have ventured through all the ravages of times and tide, and today we have the “ Bangara Festival” as a most coveted event in the annals of Classical Dance.

One evening amongst a series of presentation for the Silver Jubilee Celebrations was on Saturday January 6.  JSS auditorium, Jayanagar was the venue for the event.
The evening commenced with “Ganesha Stuti” by dancing duo Radhika Chaitanya and Vandana Bharadwaj, disciples of the well-known dance teacher Bhanumathi.

Ganesha Stuti was followed by a “Kriti” – “Jai Janaki Ramana” set to “Raag Malika” and “Khanda Chapu Tala”. The duet artists presented well-choreographed episodes on “Vishnu Avatar”.

Radhika Chaitanya performed a solo, titled “Aduyum Sholluval”. A javali followed this Padam, as Vandana Bharadwaj presented a solo “Edeney Sakhi” set to Behaag Raag.  A high-point of Vandana’s performance was the transition from a “Vasaka Sajja” to a “ Virohit Kantika”  This dance choreographed by legendary Venkatalakshamma, the maestro of Mysore style of Bharatanatyam was well-attempted in execution by Vandana. Tillana was the concluding item of the duet artist.

“Varnam" by couple dancers Anu Shridhar was indeed a great show. They are just brilliant in their every performance regardless of the place, time and the audience.  They give their best shot. Through love and commitment towards dance, they have made it their Life. Anu – Shridhar can be easily marked as the ones who live on the stage, and liven it up with their sheer presence.  Made-for-other can be said about dance and Wonder couple Anu – Shridhar. Highly commendable is the fact that though they are just twosome, they bring to life so many characters and situations. This is the sheer brilliance of the artists.

Anu – Shridhar performed Varnam, a composition of Lalgudi Jayaraman in Raag Shanmukha Priya. Beginning with the tale of “Ahilya” Anu and Shridhar performed as an unfolding story that captured the audience attention. They danced the episode of Draupadi from Mahabharata. This episode was a bench-mark of sorts in all ways.  Great Performances are about a cohesive effort and Anu – Shridhar's performance this evening was woven around by support in the form of:

Vocal – Bharati Venugopal
Nattuvangam – Master Kartik Datar
Violin – Dr.Nataraj Murthy
Flute – Sarwootham
Mridangam – Harsha Samoya

The Concluding Performance for the evening was by dancing duo Josephine Savitha and Nagabrinda Srinivas, disciples of the ace dance teacher Bhanumathi. The duo began with Shabdam which was a combination of “Shollu Kattu” and “Sahitya”. The dancers were able to generate a mirror like flow of dance, such minutely worked on their synchronized moments. One would just think, was it an after effect of Anu – Shridhar's performance, the energies seemed to be there very much.

The Audience in the full capacity applauded each and every performance whole heartedly.