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wundermonk
20 May 2012, 02:22 AM
Story here (http://www.dailypioneer.com/vivacity/66241-a-duet-with-your-personal-god.html).


Dance forms mingled with spirituality at the just-concluded Ancient Arts Festival. Utpal K Banerjee caught a few enlightened moments

If indeed you need to define Reela Hota, you would call her a danseuse. But then she is also a yoga practitioner and heavily into spirituality. She believes in allied art, one that combines the purest innermost expression with a higher consciousness.

And so it is that she leads others in seeking enlightenment. “We wish to highlight therapeutic and peace-inducing aspects of dance, music and allied arts and their clear relevance in getting rid of stress in our lives,” she told us before her show at the Ancient Arts Festival at Kamani, held under the aegis of the Rays of Wisdom Society. She echoed Chinese savant Confucius: “If nations seek peace, they will have to go to society first. If society wants peace, it has to look for peace in its families. If families desire for peace, they will have to look within individuals, to start with.” Here was that quintessential quest for peace.

Strung together as Rabindra Avibyakti (Expressions of Tagore), it was culled from the poet’s songs, poems and aphorisms — all of which resplendently spoke about peace — and synchronised with the classical and contemporary dances of the land. After a traditional invocation of Saraswati Vandana in Odishi by Reela, the youthful Sudeshna and Paramita of Kolkata’s Gaudiya Nritya Bharati performed to Tagore’s lyrics: Your vina plays in my mind, / I oft listen, I oft forget, I oft leave it just behind… They interpreted the spiritual song in a dance idiom which has been classically re-mapped barely two decades ago, saying, “We use the four musical instruments of Natya Shastra to visualise Tagore’s idea of vina: Tat (string), Sushir (wind), Ghana (metal cymbals) and Anaddha (percussion drum).”

Tagore’s Dui Pakhi (Two Birds) came through brilliantly in Kathak and modern dance by their exponents Vidha Lal and Naresh Kumar. At a mundane level, it is a poetic narrative of the futile encounter between the forest bird and the caged bird who are lovelorn and can never meet. Said Vidha, “At a spiritual level, I present the higher mind, liberal and versatile.” To this Naresh responded, “I remain the bounded soul, which is static, having lost all agility.”

Vidha’s electrifying pirouettes on stage were countered by Naresh’s modern arabesques and restrained body language. Explained Naresh, “My body is crafted by guru Narendra Sharma with whom I have done the celebrated play Wolf-Boy right here at Kamani in the 1980s. This is homecoming.”

Reela’s Odissi magnum opus Nirjharer Swapnabhanga (the Fountain’s Awakening) came next. It is a long poem by Tagore: How have the sun rays this morning entered my soul and caressed me within the cave’s dark... It was both sung and recited to describe the mountainous load of stones and earth choking the feeble fountain which nevertheless gushed out to conquer the world. Odishi is not the right dance form for this kind of masculine virility but Reela did her valiant best and came through with flying colours. Said she, “I don’t act out the fountain; I’m the fountain: gurgling, ebullient!”

A Manipuri dance-and-drum performance by Prem Manipur Cultural Association then took over the auditorium as young boys joined rhythm with the Pung Cholam (drum dance) and Kartal Cholam (cymbal dance). The girls executed the Raas Lila with exquisite softness and subtlety. Together with Reela, they took up Tagore’s aphoristic verse on how everybody imagines becoming the godhead during the Chariot Day processions, much to the invisible amusement of the Supreme Know-all. The verve and vigour brought out the spiritual message very well.

The grand finale was an ensemble performance based on the Tagore song: This is how I have received your companionship...

It was one of the loftiest of metaphysical sentiments expressed by the poet when he became one and the same with his God. Asked how they personally interpreted the metaphor, Sudeshna and Paramita said, “We thought about the classical imagery of Ardha-nareeshwara (the hermaphrodite God) where Shiva unites with Parvati in the same body.” In group choreography, it was a good simile to contemplate upon.

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