Day 1 
Dance 2 - KUCHIPUDI

The second dance was Kuchipudi and it was performed by Raja and Radha  Reddy and their team.

They performed 3 items.Of these the first was Vandana, second dance was based on Geetha govindam and the last was a dance drama based on the Bhagwat Gita. Tarangam was a part of this dance drama.

I am not an expert to comment on the correctness of these dances but as a viewer, I found it very disappointing. The dance was slow with hardly any display of footwork considering the vast variety of steps that Kuchipudi boasts of. The postures of the accompanying dancers and also their formations were very immature. It almost looked as if they had no practice or rigour.

Radha Reddy came onto stage only in the last performance largely an Abhinaya (expression) based item. It was a relief to see her expressions that depicted the confusion that Arjuna faced on the battlefield and the subsequent submission to Krishna’s instruction. Her postures were beautiful. There were glimpses of the co-ordindation between Radha and Raja Reddy.

The last dance was the specialised item of Kuchipudi i.e dance on brass plate. It is a fast paced dance set in the third speed (taala) and requires training to be able to stand with both feet on the edges of a brass place. At least in this dance there was some co -ordination between the dancers.

Overall a very disappointing performance considering that the festival brochures as well as all hoardings carried a beautiful photograph of these iconic dancers who popularised the dance form Kuchipudi in the last 4 decades.

“The five day long annual Konark Festival of classical dances,

performed by the celebrated dancers of the country

in an open- air- auditorium

with the famous sun temple at the backdrop

enthralls the connoisseurs of dance

every year from 1^st to 5^th December”

says the Odisha Tourism brochure

To me, it’s a dream.. I never thought I would be in such a beautiful environment witnessing dance

 by great dancers, live. Everything is beautiful… the weather, the place, the people. There were ten teams; two performing every day. One dance was Odissi and one was another traditional form. The dances are performed in an open air auditorium and fortunately, we were able to get seats with a good view of the entire auditorium. For the first time in my life, I set up the stand mounted my camera with the hope of capturing at least some moments of the beautiful dances that I was about to see.

This is what my dance travelogue dream is about… to go to places, watch and appreciate dance forms and styles – whether sculpted, painted or live.. and be a part of this art either as a dancer or as a person documenting it all.

Of all the ten dances my favourite ones were the Odissi performance by Madhavi Mudgal and her team on the first day, Bharatnatyam by Mallika Sarabhai and her team and the collaboration of Odissi by Surupa Sen and her team and Srilankan dancers from Chitrasena dance company on the 4^th day.

Day-1

The first performance was an Odissi dance and it was performed by Madhavi Mudgal and her team. There were 7 dancers apart from her. They performed 4 items.

First was salutation to river Ganga. The graceful movements of the dancers actually made me feel as if I am watching the river ganga flowing sometimes fast and sometimes leisurely.

The second and third items were based on Geetha Govindam and they showed Krishna, Radha and Gopikas in different moods and expressions. The last item was based on more the rhythm and less on expression.

Their costumes were very well colour co-ordinated ranging from red to bronze to gold in silk. Each dancer wore traditional Odissi silver belt on her waist,  one necklace around her neck, one bangle called Kankana on each hand and a traditional white crown, which is called a Mukut. The hair was worn in a bun with white and red flowers decorated around it.

Most of their dances were performed in the third speed/taala.



Their postures and coordination was so perfect that the audience would not know who the main dancer was.

They  had multiple formations and were very fluid.

Their expressions were very beautiful and all of them danced with ease and smile on their faces. The maturity of dancers was very high as they were dancing with their soul in it.

They had a high amount of energy and joy in their dance. I felt very energetic and full of happiness after watching this performance.

Hey,

       This is my first blog. My blog is about dance. I am crazy about dance. I want to travel as much as I can and capture dance forms both historical and contemprary.

I started my journey of this dance travelogue in the temples of Tanjore and Trichy which are temple towns in Tamilnadu, India. I took hundreds of pictures. I have taken many dance postures on pillars of temples.

This is my first experience of taking  pictures of dance postures of these temples mentioned above. There were statues of various gods and godesses  engraved on the walls of the temples. In all these pictures we can see a lot intricate work.

Dance postures

Wow she is an ecstatic dance. She is dancing freely. This shows freedom of mind.

As we crossed Gopurams right in front in one of the large halls on of the unnoticed pillar I found this beautiful dancer.

Here you see one of the many pillars with different dance postures just outside the lord Shiva temple in Tanjore temple. There's so much to capture in this temple that it would take me at least 15 days of photography to feel that I have done some justice.

This particular dance pose was found in front of  a temple. This particular sculpture is large in size.

Here this particular dance pose on a pillar was found arts and sculptures section, of Srirangam temple in Trichy. The arts and sculptures section consists of a large hall of pillars and corridars on all four sides.  



Like I said earlier, the temples are so full of scultures - the inner walls of the temple, the outer walls, the panels on doorways and ceilings, the arches or the grand gates called gopurams. This particular  sculpture is from the outer wall of the Subramaniam temple in the Tanjore temple complex.

Wish me luck all of you.. I have at least 400 more pics that I need to write about. .. and soon I will be travelling again to yet another location with fabulous temples.