[gallery size="medium" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="Eight Natanam Kalakshetra students enthrall Indian classical dance lovers " ids="64251,64252,64253,64254"] JEDDAH — Eight senior students of Natanam Kalakshetra took to the stage like ducks to water as they performed with skill while delivering their wide repertoire of abhinaya (expression) and skillful pirouettes in their Bharata Natyam performance. Bharata Natyam is a form of Indian classical dance that has its roots in Tamil Nadu. According to Wikipedia, Bharata Natyam, like other classical dance forms in India, traces its origin to the Natya Shastra, a foundational treatise on the performing arts. Today, it is one of the most popular and widely performed dance styles and is practiced by male and female dancers all over the world. The eight students, Aishwarya Balasubramanian, Chinju Aboo, Nikitha Babu, Raksha Ramkumar, Sharika Balachandran, Shreya Vinod, and twin sisters Varsha Rajan and Veena Rajan were performing their arangetram and their mesmerizing Bharata Natyam performance was a visual treat to the specially invited classical Indian dance lovers of Jeddah. Arangetram (Tamil word meaning graduation ceremony in dance) is basically the culmination of many years of learning dance. And the ceremony of eight senior students of Natanam Kalakshetra was held at the JeddahIndian Consulate auditorium. Natanam Kalakshetra is an organization promoting Indian art forms. As the word symbolizes, arangetram implies that after training and grinding to learn a discipline the students have attained the required skill to take the stage solo and also are ready to teach others this art form. There is an implied metaphor too, that the art form has intrinsically helped develop the person who is capable to go forth and perform on the global stage. It also implies the student's level of performance is enhanced with the acquired skills building a discipline to achieve a long-term goal. The chief guest of the evening was Mohamed Shahid Alam, deputy consul general of India and consul Haj. As in any discipline, there are basic essentials in Bharata Natyam. The dancer has to be agile, steady, graceful, have stamina and able to balance in pirouettes. The girls showed all these ingredients in abundance as they weaved a night of magic with a variety of expressive movements that told each storyline, backed by classical music, in expressions. The program started with the welcome dance called Atmashatakam followed by Allarippu and Jatheswaram. Chinju thereafter performed the solo dance "Kalabhaira Vashtrakam" – followed by Shreya's Rajarajeswari. All the solo dance performances were stunning and had the audience glued to their chairs, waiting for more performances. Then came the much-awaited, for almost 45 minutes duration, "Varnam dance" by the group. It was a mind-blowing performance by the young girls. The stamina developed by the young talents to perform such a long duration dance was amazing and well applauded by the audience. The following performances were solo dances Shreeman Narayana — by Veena Rajan, Meenakshi Kalayanam — by Raksha Ramkumar, and Saraswati Padam by Nikitha Babu. The solo dances were amazing, followed by another wonderful group dance on eight forms of a woman deity personifying its different roles of creation, preservation and destruction. The remaining solo dances were also brilliant. Vishakara Kanna by Sharika Balachandran, Hindustani Bhajan by Aishwarya Balasubramanian and finally Ganga Stotram by Varsha Rajan caught the people's eye. The eight girls then performed another group dance based on the story of Indian epic Ramayana. This dance held the audience in thrall as the epic unraveled before them in a musical drama. The program ended with the last group dance called Thillana/Mangalam. The fusion was incredible as the Thillana ties together intricate footwork with vibrant beats and exceptional postures to render a rhythmic ending towards reverence that is Mangalam, the dancers perform to convey their respect and thanks to their teachers and elders for seeing them through all stages to graduate as a skilled dancer. It was a well appreciated four-hour pure classical dance performance by the eight young girls trained by Mrs. Pushpa Suresh, a post graduate in Bharata Natyam from the renowned Ravindra Bharati University, Kolkata. Pushpa Suresh is committed to promote Indian classical dance forms among the Indian students in Jeddah. She has choreographed numerous dances — classical, semi-classical as well as Hindustani in Jeddah for the Indian Consulate and other cultural organizations. Most of the songs for the arangetram were composed and sung by Jairam Parameswaran, a much acclaimed and celebrated vocalist and composer having undergone more than 15 years of training. He is Pushpa Suresh's brother and lives in Hong Kong.
