Summer Recap (and maybe a couple of other things)

So.. sharing a couple of clips from the summer sessions on my socials started turning into a long analysis, so I figured I might as well put it all in here. (Grad school Ameya with rambling analyses about all things dance is back! Buckle up, y’all!)

I split this summer’s classes into two sessions, each with distinct themes, because sometimes, looking at a piece with a very specific lens brings focus to those specific aspects in a way that “general” practice does. A simple example: if you’re listening to a song with focus on the lyrics, your experience will be quite different than if you listen to it focusing on the rhythms or the melodies. Third Eye Blind’s Semi-Charmed Life is an excellent example of that, with its happy pop vibes being a strong contrast to its melancholy introspective lyrics.

So, the two themes? Nritta in June and story-telling in August. One of the things I love about Kuchipudi is that those two aspects truly go hand-in-hand. There is not a separation between the two in our practice, but I think it is still important to focus on pieces through the lens of each because it draws out nuance, and the more we delve in the nuances, the better we can hone our craft as dancers.

The pieces I ended up choosing for the Nritta session were Hari Mastergaru’s Thandava Nrithya Kari as well as Pedda Mastergaru’s Lakshmi Pravesam and Hamsanandi Thillana. From a personal perspective, as I shared on Facebook, these pieces are all incredibly special to me. I got to watch Hari Mastergaru choreograph Thandava Nrithya Kari for Amma to perform at the Kalabharati in April 2001 and then I learned it myself about ten years later, when I was in college. Lakshmi Pravesam is one of those iconic pieces that I also adored to watch as a kid, both while watching the cassette tape of Ksheera Sagara Madanam on repeat, and again as I watched Amma rehearse with Bhanu Aunty for her program at the Kalabharati in 2000. I don’t remember when I learned it, but it was after my rangapravesam. Hamsanandi Thillana, on the other hand, was a piece I learned for my rangapravesam.

Thandava Nrithya Kari has an elaborate expansion of the pallavi, with cross-rhythms in trisram, misram, khandam, and sankeernam alternating with chaturasram-based movements, all through the lens of Ganapati dancing exuberantly. In addition, it of course starts and closes with a jathi, and the charanams are also driven by the rhythmic footwork. It has all the markers of an invocatory item, with an energetic start and a good balance between lyrical interpretation and pure abstract movements.

Lakshmi Pravesam is another extremely interesting piece. It is literally performed the moment Lakshmi arises from the churning of the milky ocean in the dance drama Ksheera Sagara Madanam. The lyrics are simple and succinct, and the majority of the dance uses more or less the same hand gestures, indicating Lakshmi Devi spreading prosperity wherever she goes. A less imaginative choreographer probably would have done a handful of word-to-word variations and wrapped up the song in a few minutes, but Mastergaru’s vision is this piece where you don’t realize that it’s the same couplets being repeated for minutes on end because of the riveting nritta sequences, but they are all entirely in character and even as abstract movements, they convey the essence of the sahityam, which is that Lakshmi has come and that she is bringing prosperity wherever she goes.

The thillana is an obvious fit for the theme - it’s a genre known for its nritta, and this particular thillana has jaathulu as well as absolutely delicious syncopations. It requires skill, stamina, and steadiness. It is a weighty item - the term that best describes it is gambheeram, which I don’t quite know how to translate into English.

The thing is, I could pick up the same three pieces and revisit them from the perspective of the second theme, story telling, and even that would be perfectly apt. Yes, even the thillana.

Lakshmi Pravesam is the easiest - it’s literally an excerpt of a dance drama, at a pivotal moment in the story.

Thandava Nrithya Kare is a snapshot of a scene (a reel, perhaps, in modern parlance): Ganesha dancing, with Vishnu playing the mridangam and Brahma on nattuvangam.

With the Hamsanandi Thillana, in just a few short variations, in a very succinct manner, for the lyrics “Bhoomijaa manohari sripathe purushottama kripaalavaala,” Mastergaru has us depict the birth of Seetha, the Shivadhanurbhangam, and her wedding to Rama.

And that’s the beauty of these pieces - by appropriately executing the nritta, we are inherently highlighting the stories within the pieces through our movements.

***

The second summer session had me doing a few Krishna-based pieces with the students based where they were in their dance journey, which got me thinking about a different aspect of learning a performance art: performing.

The a-ha moment I had is that there are really two types of performances - the ones where we are essentially doing a test run, and the ones where we are truly performing and showing our craft and skill. This is especially true for dancers earlier in their training, but I think there is value in that approach even as we go further and further into the journey.

I do want to call out - I’m not saying some performances “deserve” better quality than others. Instead, I want to acknowledge that as much as we learn in the dance class, there are things that can only be learned through performing. And so, we want to have performances where we are essentially testing out new (to us) material. There is a finesse that comes from performing a piece several times, but to achieve that finesse, you have to perform it “the first time” somewhere.

The summer showcases at the end of the summer camp are like that. They’ve had a crashcourse in a item (or two or three) in a few short weeks, and now they get to share the items they’ve learned in front of a “safe” audience: their family and their dance class friends.

In contrast, there are performances where you come in wholly prepared and present fully polished and well-honed material. It is very much like when a comedian goes to a familiar joint to test out new material before taking his routine out on the road.

This upcoming Saturday’s ICAPS performance is an excellent example of that. We have a young dancer doing a solo, and these pieces are all ones she has been practicing for most of this year at the very least and a few were pieces she learned last year. I am pretty sure she has presented every one of these pieces at least once, and I know she has presented a couple of these a few times, and that is good.

Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say, if you are in the Richmond area on August 23rd, come to the program! I’ve been watching this set of pieces daily for weeks, and I still cannot get enough of them.

On that note, I am off for now, but I will try to write more soon. love & light!