Classical dance feast for U.S. Indians in Houston

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 30 November 2010, 12:03 IST
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Texas: Colors of Life - Navarasa, a South Indian classical dance event choreographed by Rathnakumar, Founder-Director of Anjali Center for Performing Arts served a marvelous feast of aesthetic and gripping performance to the audience assembled at the Jewish Community center in Houston. The theme and the technique of the dance gala along with colorful, abundant and commendable performance revived the moods of an already enthralled Indian American audience along with a pleasing score of music. The performance had a format of making a classical dance into a gripping narration of tale with nine different episodes, juxtaposed both in modern and classical versions. The performance featured many forms of dance with artistes like Anisha Rajesh with Mohiniyattam, Gunjen Mittal, Amogha Romo, Ananya Sengupta and Piyal Sengupta with Odissi and Archana Sharma, Sandhya Harpavat, Veena Devarajan, Divya Koyyalagunta, Juhie Vyas, Krithika Ganapathy etc with a scintillating Bharatanatyam performance. The story line of the nava rasa theme was introduced by Latha Ramchand, leading the audience from the mood of love, wonder and disgust through compassion, laughter, fear, courage and anger, with the finale of peace. The element of laughter was hilariously brought out in the episode where Baby Krishna steels butter, even as he strongly proclaims innocence. Interestingly, Johnnie Jackson, said to be a last minute substitute, was the only male dancer and took the stage by storm with his anger-filled, Shiva Rudra Tandavam.