SHARANYA’S STEPS: IN HER MOTHER’S FOOTSTEPS

Geeta and Sharanya Chandran performed in the Rag Virag Festival at Triveni Kala Sangam in Delhi on 29^th of October. Sharanya is the daughter and disciple of Geeta Chandran. She has also trained under Guru K N Dakshinamurthy. She has performed both in India and abroad.

Geeta and Sharanya both shared the stage and looked equally beautiful. Geeta wore a red sari with a green fan and Sharanya wore a green sari with a red fan. The daughter towered over her mother by a few inches.

The first piece was a duet ‘mallari’, which involves abstract movements. The movements were complicated and required balance and sharpness of actions. Any pure dance form requires accuracy in technique and completeness of action, and Geeta’s experience was showing. The next piece, an invocation to Lord Shiva, was performed by Geeta alone. The attributes of Lord Shiva, ‘kripa samudram’, ‘sumukham’, trinetram’, ‘jatadharam’, ‘sadashivam’, and  ‘raudrarupam’  were beautifully depicted by Geeta. Every word has to be converted into a dance action and then into an expression, which appropriately imparts its meaning. The audience were left spellbound. Sharanya too performed a solo rendition, again a song dedicated to Lord Shiva – ‘Shankara Jata Dhara Gangadhara’. She carried herself with a lot of poise and grace. To appease ‘Nataraj’ – the Lord of Dance, the mudra of Nataraj is the most amazing and requires a lot of balance. This piece was originally composed by Geeta’s guru for her.

Next Geeta performed a solo, a ‘Govind vandana. The excerpts were taken from ‘Bhagwat Puran’ and are an invocation to Lord Vishnu, the preserver of life. The piece delved into the life of Lord Krishna from Vrindavan to Mathura, to Dwarika and Mahabharat. ‘Vishwaroop’ , ‘Kamalnetra’, ‘Kamalapati’, ‘Parthasarathi’, ‘Venuvadak’, ‘Gopal’, ‘Gopijanmanhar’, ‘Sansar sagar taran’ – all these attributes of Lord Krishna were enacted by Geeta. Smt Basanti Krishna Rao lent her voice to the song and the dance by Geeta was mesmerizing. Lastly, mother and daughter together performed the ‘tillana’. ‘Tillana’ is a pure dance piece about joy and celebration. It involves a lot of energy and rhythm in pattern and music. Geeta loves to perform the ‘tillana’ as the finale because it brings the dance and music to a crescendo. It enhances the beauty and geometry of bharatnatyam. Geeta and Sharanya did absolute justice to the spirit of ‘tillana’. Every move was well defined and complete. The audience was left applauding thunderously.