As Delhi's torrid summer heat continued sapping energies, at the Kamani, under the banner of Swar Manjari, Pratidhwani staged a Ballet “Rituchakra” based on Odissi and Mayurbhanj Chhau, aimed at sounding a warning bell on global warming. An ambitious venture comprising a sizable troupe, the original ballet choreographed by Guru Khanduricharan Behera, reworked by Pratidhwani teachers Dilip Kumar Mohapatra, Panchanan Bhuiyan and Sammer Kumar, was painstakingly rehearsed to ensure a measure of group symmetry.
Action was at two levels, the female dancers presenting Odissi while the male dancers performed largely in the Chhau medium, with teacher Ajay of Natya Ballet Centre providing the choreography. The latter becoming a foil for the other, or providing a backdrop or a frame or intertwining with the Odissi dancers, one saw a continuous wave of changing formations, interesting and managing to avoid a repetitive feel. Moving with fluidity, the dancers, as in a scene of welcoming the monsoons, smoothly transformed into a cluster image of a moving peacock. Levels on the stage were used very effectively, simultaneity of action by groups doing different movements knitting into an overall integrated pattern.
Powerful group images like the Sun God riding his chariot or deity Durga in procession for the final immersion, with drum and cymbal playing devotees participating, or merrymaking in Vasant and Holi, dotted the ballet. Providing an ideal base was the musical score by Saroj Mohanty, laudable in concept and execution, with appropriate ragas for each season like Malhar, Vasant, Durga, Hemant with sequences of rhythmic syllables, or solfa passages adding a special verve to a scene.
Eye-catching
Neither the introduction through eye-catching visuals with an ongoing commentary, nor the dance celebrating the seasonal cycle, pinpoints the actual reasons for global warming, excepting for a moksha type nritta ending following a brief warning note through the narrator that we will lose this seasonal bounty and that it is not too late to turn the clock back and rescue our planet from global warming. Costumes are simple and tasteful and the obvious need to accommodate costume changes by groups has overstretched scenes. Even too much of a good thing needs editing — particularly the last part which loses the optimum point of ending by soaring into action again and again.
Created during Tagore's centenary year in 1961 to propagate the poet's work and philosophy, Kolkata's Rabindra Bharati University, presenting “Rabi Pranam”, for the two-day Rabindra Jayanti by Impresario India at Shri Ram Centre (as part of the ongoing celebration of the 150th anniversary of the poet), gave an impressively varied presentation on the first day, the blend of dance styles classical and contemporary in tune with Tagore's fluid approach to dance statements of his work. Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Chhau, Manipuri movements juxtaposed and blended in eye-catching formations in “Shravana Gatha”, holding the packed auditorium in thrall. Tagore's music of the seven spheres (“Biswa beena rahe biswa jana mohiche”) combined with the universe dancing in glory (“Nache naache Ramya taale naache”) create definite overtones of the Dance of Shiva as Nataraja, though his mystic Godhood enshrined in Nature, in an elusive shringar relationship with the devotee, is closer to Upanishadic thought and to Sufism.
While dancers entered and exited in quick succession, the Kathak dancers in calibre stole the thunder, the others, barring the two excellent Odissi male dancers, a shade less proficient though communicative. Full of grace, the dancers exuded joy — though the feel of abundant happiness paled towards the end — one wishing for a less sugary contrast. But kudos for the first day's presentation, and the blending of styles, conceived and choreographed by Amita Dutta of the Faculty Council of Fine Arts.
The second evening's programme “Puja, Prem Prakriti” lacked the fast moving images and became disappointingly repetitive, after the first few items, with the same celebration of the monsoons with lyrics like “Mama chitta” with all the “taka thui thui” rhythms and “Bajre Bajre tumar Banshi” and “Trishnara shanty and sundara kanthi” and several others presented the evening before. One expected new fare. The taped music was well recorded and well sung.
