Bhoomija presents a dance choreography, Ahuti in Bengaluru this weekend. The dance will characteristic the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble and The Chitrasena Dance Firm from Sri Lanka.
Ahuti, a collaboration between Odissi and Kandyan dance, is about to rhythms from each nations. It has music composed by Raghunath Panigrahi and can characteristic Surupa Sen, Pavithra Reddy, Anoushka Rahman, Rohini Banerjee and Daquil Miriyala from Nrityagram, whereas the Sri Lankan dancers might be Thaji Dias, Kushan Dharmarathna, and Amandi Gomez.
The dance is choreographed by Nrityagram’s inventive director, Surupa Sen and Chitrasena’s Heshma Wignaraja is the affiliate choreographer. Surupa may also lead the manjira for the present and can current a solo dance from Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda, referred to as Dhira Samire.
Āhuti is the second collaboration between the 2 dance faculties, the primary being Samhara (2012). Whereas Nrityagram is an over 30-year-old classical dance faculty that gives residency to college students, began by the Late Protima Gauri, Chitrasena Dance Firm is one in all Sri Lanka’s oldest dance corporations. It was based in 1943 by Chitrasena, and the corporate has been essential find a contemporary, worldwide stage for Sri Lanka’s conventional dance types. Heshma Wignaraja is the present inventive director of the corporate.
Surupa Sen
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Over a name from Nrityagram in Hesaraghatta, Surupa, explains how the collaboration between the 2 faculties got here to be. “We have now recognized one another for greater than 15 years and began collaborating after 5 years of staying in one another’s nations, exchanging cultures, dancing and learning one another’s types.”
That was when, Surupa stated they felt that there was a chance of the 2 types complimenting one another they usually began working collectively. “We needed to start out on one thing that may both develop into stage worthy or not. We have been keen to make that funding, pondering that not less than the method might be enriching. This led us to stay collectively for nearly eight to 9 months. That’s how Samhara was conceived.”
The choreography, Surupa says isn’t a fusion, however a piece that reveals an excellent respect for each the dance types, that are ritual-based and originated in temples. “We determined to discover a musical connection. After we received an awesome response to Samhara, we determined to spend money on a second collaboration and Ahuti was the outcome. Ahuti, is a step ahead from Samhara, an evolution of the identical collaboration.”
Dance choreography, Surupa says, is the place each types can reply spontaneously. “We discover a place to begin, which is comfy for the artistes and the shape. With Ahuti, the imaginative and prescient is mine and I knew precisely what I needed when it got here to the motion, the physique line and the angles. This was the idea on which the whole lot else was constructed.”
Having labored with Heshma prior to now, Surupa says, there may be an ease of collaboration. “She is aware of how I believe and work. We each share an identical work ethic and as soon as the imaginative and prescient is about, the whole lot else falls in place. The Kandyan kind is created by them.”
Surupa, who can also be a educated Bharatanatyam dancer, says Odissi has utterly conquered her coronary heart. “I’m grateful for what Bharatanatyam taught me as a toddler. I’ve, nonetheless, been dancing Odissi for over 35 years, and that is what I might be doing for the remainder of my life. That is additionally my method of propagating this way and making an attempt to maintain alive the legacy of my guru, Gauri ma (as Protima was fondly referred to as)”.
The journey, she says, has been robust. “Gauri ma went so early and I needed to make sure her imaginative and prescient didn’t collapse. I did my greatest to do justice to one thing that I used to be given so generously. It’s robust to make a dwelling out of artwork. However I additionally really feel blessed to have been given an area like Nrityagram which allowed me to dedicate myself to artwork. The place separates you from the day by day pressures of life . It’s laborious right here, however additionally it is like an incubation, the place you reside, breathe and develop in dance.”
They’ve stored Protima’s legacy going with residential courses, Surupa says. “The ensemble options our residential college students. We even have free weekend courses for the folks from round Hesaraghatta.”
On why one doesn’t see many Nrityagram performances in Bengaluru, Surupa says, “We want somebody to ask us to carry out. The Bengaluru efficiency of Ahuti represents a wrap. We completed our US tour with the dance and needed to honour the town through which we stay with our dance. After this, we might be travelling to current the identical present in Colombo. This dance in Bengaluru is particular to all of us as dancers.”
Ahuti might be offered at Chowdiah Memorial Corridor on April 12, 7.30pm. Tickets, priced ₹500 upwards, obtainable on BookMyShow.
