Manipur dancer appeals to audience to pray for peace in the strife-torn State

The beauty of Manipuri dance

Moving away from the world Bharatnatyam to watch a Manipuri dance performance felt like a breath of fresh air. Sinam Singh Basu ,a Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar awardee and his wife Monica presented short compositions at Kathak Darpan’s Smriti Festival at Kalakshetra in Chennai recently.

The audience was moved by what Sinam Singh said at the start of the performance. “It has been more than 25 months of ethnic clash. Houses have been burnt rendering several homeless. People have lost their livelihood. So I urge you all to pray for peace to return to the beautiful state of Manipur.”

Sinam Singh began the evening with ‘Kamadeva Natya’, showing how the god of love heralds the season of spring. The inherent grace and fluidity of the dance form made this piece a delight to watch. The depiction of Kama’s sugarcane bow and the arrow with five different flowers, and the colours of spring were strung together seamlessly.

Radha Rani is angry with Krishna for failing to keep his promise to meet her. Monica’s delineation of the piece — moving from disappointment and anger to disenchantment, was noteworthy for its sensitive and subtle display of emotions. The couple next performed the popular Ashtapadi ‘Kuru yadu nandana‘, which was full of romantic imageries.

Moving beyond the Vaishnavite tradition, which forms the core of Manipuri, Sinam Singh chose a Shiva composition ‘Nagendra Haraya’ and Panchakshara Stuti, and incorporated in it Thang Tham (Manipuri martial art), beats of Pung Cholam (Manipuri drum) and mudras of Lai Haroba (ritualistic dance and music theatre). The posture of Nataraja was different from the way it is depicted in Bharatanatyam. However, the representation of Shiva needed to be more dynamic, to differentiate it from the portrayal of Krishna.

Tejaswini’s winning Kathak moves

Earlier in the festival, Tejaswini Sathe and her group presented select compositions from their Kathak repertoire. The chakkars, parans and tihais were explored in an interesting manner in the first piece. Next came the bandish ‘Saajan saathi sahile’, beautiful portrayal of a nayika pining for her lover. The maturity of the artiste came to the fore in her subtle expressions and gestures.