It appears that Vyshnavie Sainath is re-writing Bharatanatyam presentation pattern. Knowingly or unknowingly she called her school’s fifth anniversary celebration as ‘ Nrutya Vikasam’, which can also be referred to as ‘expanding the scope of Bharatanatyam’. Last weekend she, along with her students showcased an act that combined Kerala’s ‘Kalaripayattu’ and sword fights of Sikhs ‘Gatka’ with Bharatanatyam. Audience absorb them as two different art forms. Mix of Yoga postures wound sure sync with the dance form. Now that she is teaching Kalari to children, especially girls, it can even serve them as a self-defence shield.
Vyshanvie divided the event into two parts — presentation of preliminary numbers by children ending with a tillana and the Kalaipayattu-led martial arts.. The first half was opened with young dancers presenting jatis followed by ‘Pushpanjali’ by Vyshnavie and two other girls. A group of ten girls presented ‘Ganesha Kautvam’ next followed by ‘Jatiswaram’, which ended with tillana. Then appeared the prime artiste Vyshnavie along with four girls of her age group who presented ‘ Siva Thandavam’ , opening the gates of the spectacular display of catapults, yoga postures all mixed with balancing acts. It was fusion from then on. The jatis were complex and the children marched with Vyshnavie’s moves. It was a delight to watch each spell of group dance concluding with striking postures and chant of Siva name.
Then came the much awaited fusion event of Kalari by Vaishnavie and Gatka, Sikh Martial Arts by Amrender Singh and Pridhvi Chaitanya. This was for the first time a cross-collaboration of regional martial art forms belonging to two varied locations of India came together at one place. .
