“I performed on stage after 45 years!” said Radha Shridhar, as she stepped down from the make-shift stage at Chitrakala Parishath. Clad in a magenta sari, wearing a golden waistband as the only piece of dance jewellery, the 77-year-old dancer and teacher had just presented a piece from Jayadeva’s Ashtapadi . Shaking with excitement as she walked down the steps into the audience, she was greeted by other veteran classical dancers from Karnataka such as Sridevi Unni, Gayatri Keshavan, Padma Murali, Dr. Choodamani Nandagopal, Nayana Moray and Kshama Rao - all of whom performed on the occasion of World Dance Day at CKP. Organised by Vyjayanthi Kashi and the Shambhavi School of Dance, the idea to put senior artists on stage instead of the younger ones was conceived “as a gift to myself” said Kashi. “They’ve spent so many years nurturing young talent and giving their students opportunities to perform. So, by putting them on stage, I wanted to make the senior gurus of our State feel like queens, even if it is for one evening,” she added.
As each dancer performed on stage, they were encouraged by loud hooting from the audience. Nayika bhava was the dominant theme of the evening mostly depicted through compositions from the Ashtapadi. If Sridevi Unni depicted the viraha tapa through her Mohiniyattam performance, Kshama Rao presented yet another dimension of the Radha Krishna love story in the form of her Odissi recital.
Breaking away from the eternal love story of Radha and Krishna, Padma Murali, through her Bharatanatyam recital wondered what it would be like if Shiva had loving parents. Then came Gayatri Keshavan’s performance which stunned the audience for it was a nritta-heavy piece. To a rare shloka singing praise of Badrinath, Gayatri, unmindful of her age, danced as if it was her first ever performance. At the same time, her fine footwork and abhinaya ensured they carried the maturity and finesse of a veteran dancer. Nayana Moray’s performance was a befitting finale for it presented an elegant and refined tarana.
After the dancing was done, Kashi invited all dancers for a question and answer round. “Which performance would you pick as the most memorable one of your career?” was the question asked to Radha Shridhar. “For this, first you need to know a little bit about my entry into dance. My grandparents raised me because my mother was working in a far away place. My grandparents didn’t like the idea of me learning dance. Moreover, even if I were to join dance class, I had no money to pay fees. Once, when my mother returned for a break, I was adamant that my mother can leave the house only after she gives me the fees. I needed six rupees!” she recounted. Shridhar said she would therefore pick her first public performance as her most memorable one. “The musicians needed to be paid for it. My grandmother bargained and they settled for Rs.40. I danced to my heart’s content. My only regret is that my mother couldn’t come for my performance and that is something I feel bad about even to this day,” she said.
“What is the secret behind your youthfulness?”, Gayatri Keshavan was asked. “My father told me once that nritta is like the bone in one’s body and abhinaya is the flesh. So without proper nritta, he would not teach me a single step. So I started believing in that and even with my students, I insist on doing adavus first and perfecting them. I guess that explains the youthfulness in my dancing too…” she said.
Asked to recount one memorable incident from the years of learning under Kelucharan Mohapatra, Kshama Rao said, “It was many years of arduous training in the gurukula. Guruji would beat us up and throw things at us. We thought he hated us. Finally, he said we should do a dance programme and I said if I dance, I would like to dance on Kalakshetra’s stage. It happened! After the show, he confessed to me that he reserves his strict training only for the best of his students.”
Most dancers that evening were candid, openly teasing each other. “It feels like we are all sitting in our living room and having a chat,” said Choodamani Nandagopal. When asked what she would do if she became the minister of culture for a day, she said that she would work towards ensuring that arts and culture would be taken as seriously as other fields in the country.
