Sunday, July 12, 2015

Jul 2015 - Ashrita Satchidanand - Bharathanrithyam Arangetram

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.      

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