Ms. Ashrita Satchidanand successfully completed her
Bharatanrithyam Arangetram on Sun, Jun 12, 2015 at the beautiful Sunrise Civic
Center Auditorium to a packed audience and also to a global online audience via
live webcast. It is very heartening to
see the little girl who grew up in front of our eyes blossom into this
beautiful dancer on stage today. Jayanthi
aunty joins me in congratulating Ashrita and her parents for this
accomplishment. It is always wonderful
to witness the courage of an artist to agree to perform a solo Arangetram. It will surely test what you are made of and
Ashrita passed in flying colors. It was
a beautiful function from start to finish with neatly timed events keeping the
audience enthralled and engaged.
Orchestra was new to the South Florida audience but has already stolen many
hearts. Prerana did a great job of being
the madam of ceremony.
Overall, Ashrita was very graceful with a wonderful stage
presence. She was able to cover the
length and breadth of the stage. The
symmetry she showed in the Thillana was striking. Her mastery over abhinaya, acting out various
parts in an episode, was evident even in the first song Gajavadana Beduve. Ashrita demonstrated her abhinaya ability
further in the Varnam by switching from one scene to another which is
vastly different. For example, after
acting out a tragic scene such as Draupadi vastraparanam she acted out Krishna
in Gokul. Great job! Now it is time to go for perfection in forms,
expressions and speed. Ashrita, you have
a very good teacher who is dedicated to the art form. I am sure you will make good use of the
opportunity and grow like you mentioned in your speech.
Program started with the invocatory song called Thodaya
Mangalam seeking the blessings of Lord Gnana Sabheswar. Pushpanjali followed paying obeisance to God,
Guru and the audience.
Gajavadana Beduve in
Hamsadhwani/Adi – Ashrita acted out the story of Ganesha was created by
Parvathi. Parvathi left Ganesha in
charge of guarding the house when she took a bath. Shiva tried to enter the house but was
stopped by Ganesha. Shiva got angry and
chopped off Ganesha’s head. When
Parvathi was horrified by the incident Shiva tried to make amends by bringing
an elephant’s head and affix it to Ganesha and breathe back life into him. Now the reader can imagine Ashrita’s dance to
this episode. The motherly touch of
Parvathi, Shiva’s anger and Ganesha’s determination to obey his mother’s orders
were all nicely depicted.
Jatiswaram in
Vasantha/Roopakam – orchestra fully came together in this song and stayed
together for the entire performance.
Flautist Sri Athul Kumar Rangarajan, who was the grandson of Flute
Maestro Sri Ramani, was outstanding.
Ashrita demonstrated her mastery over the dance fundamentals.
Varnam in
Sankarabharanam/Adi – vocal alapana at the beginning of the item was simply
outstanding. Hats off to the singer Sri
G.R. Praveen! Varnam is the center piece
of a dance performance where the dancer’s ability is tested in areas such as endurance,
versatility, expressions, rhythm etc. This particular Varnam was in praise of Lord
Krishna and lasted more than 25 minutes.
Ashrita enacted four separate episodes in the life of Krishna. The first one was the episode where Kuchela,
a childhood friend of Krishna, comes to meet him – beautifully done. Ashrita practically took the entire audience
to the situation. This was followed by
Gajendra Moksham, Draupadi Vastrapaharanam and finally Govardhana Giridhari
episodes. Mridangam playing by Sri
Mayuram T. Viswanathan was outstanding.
The program continued with an Abhang in Navroj, a folksy tune,
well delivered by the orchestra and Ashrita.
This was followed by Kalyana Rama in Hamsanadam/adi and Hanumantha Deva
in Poorvi Kalyani/Adi.
Thillana in Kaanada/Adi – The jam session between the
flautist and the violinist (Karaikkal Venkat Subramanian), before the dance
part, was exciting. Ashrita showed a lot
of grace in this song. The symmetry she demonstrated
was breathtaking. She also showed very nice
footwork, speed and sculpted poses.
Congratulations to the teacher, Smt. Sangeetha Sridhar and
Ashrita.
