Article by Desi Talk Chicago Sankara Eye-Foundation Stages Odissi Dance to Carnatic and Hindustani Music Chicago was treated to a first-of-its-kind synthesis Sangam of Odissi dance against a backdrop of both Carnatic and Hindustani classical music on March 9 at Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago (HTGC), Lemont, Ill. The concert featured Odissi guru Sanchita Bhattacharya accompanied by Chitravina N Ravikiran and Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya on santoor. They were accompanied by percussionists Hindol Majumdar on tabla and Ramesh Srinivasan on mridangam. The ensemble was performing within their fundraising US tour hosted by Sankara Eye Care Institutions (SECI). The program was divided into three equal parts, starting with North India (Hindustani) music on santoor accompanied by tabla, continuing into South Indian (Carnatic) chitravina and mridangam,, then Odissi dance. The grand finale consisted of a unique conversation between the two styles accompanying dance storytelling, question-and-answer (sawaal-jawab), fusion (sat sangat), friendly rivalry between the percussionists (tani-avartanam), and extempore exchanges between musician and dancer. In deference to the preponderant turnout from Chicagoland’s Bengali community, the artistes added a couple of short pieces of Rabindra Sangeet composed by Tagore. Tarun soon switched to a composition in Hemant, the foremost raga of the Maihar gharana (school) of which he is the only santoor exponent. His guru the late Ravi Shankar, from whom the idea of such a composite trio (trigalbandhi) ultimately derived, belonged to the same gharana. Sanchita began with a Tagore salutation (vandana) set in raga Yaman to goddess Saraswati residing in the heart of the poet. To dance music composed by husband Tarun, she followed with the numbers Moksha and Durga Vandana from the hymn (stotra) to the fierce goddess Chandi that she dedicated to all the women in the audience for Womens Day. “Indian Mozart” Ravikiran began with Saint Thyagarajas “Meru Samaana” in ragam Mayamalavagowla that featured improvisation. Ending with a short Bengali piece by Tagore, he recounted how his chitravina maestro grandfather had received tributes from Tagore, Gandhi, and others. The following duet (jugalbandi) of chitravina (and mridangam) with the santoor (and table) was in Vachaspati, a Carnatic ragam that has been popularized in the North India by Ravi Shankar, and others. The ‘trigalbandi’ of chitravina, Odissi and santoor, was set to Papanasam Sivam’s Tamil composition in ragam Hamsanandi, which spoke of crossing seven hills to attain Balaji at Tirupathi. Sanchita sketched some of Vishnu’s incarnations (avatara) and episodes such as Krishna’s subjugation of the serpent Kaliya, the eyelid-less Lord Jagannath, who never slumbers, etc., into her story telling through gestural movement and striking poses. Ravikiran confessed that this is the first time he is performing as a dance accompanist and with minimal musical improvisation. The globe-trotting danseuse is founder of Sanchita Odissi Dance Foundation in Kolkata and in Raleigh Durham, N.C., for training the next generation. Featured in a movie on the life of an Odissi dancer, she has received many awards including the honorific “Devadasi” from Puri’s Jagannath temple, whence this sacred dance style emerged. Husband Tarun had revolutionized the santoor so as to render glides (meend), so characteristic of Indian music, within the lower octave on the hammered instrument. A child prodigy, Ravikiran has been playing the 21-stringed chitravina since age 10. He has over 600 Carnatic compositions in all 35 rhythmic patterns (tala), several operatic dance dramas and also music for Western orchestras to his credit The shades of the Chitravina are considered closest the nuances of the human voice. Using mostly plain notes, the strokes of the Santoor, which can produce both fast paced staccato as well as tranquil passages, served as counterpoint. Despite the surprising meends that Tarun was able to eke out of the hammered dulcimer, much to the audience’s delight, he was repeatedly unable to keep up with the Chitravina. Also, the goal of improvisation would have been better served if the two musical teams, Carnatic and Hindustani, had been able to rehearse together beforehand. Some disappointed connoisseurs in the audience remarked that the trigalbandi had served tantalizing appetizers, while they had been expecting a full course. In its grand US tour from Feb. 16 to April 1, the Sangam ensemble is performing in 13 cities to support SECI’s fundraising. There are 12M blind people in India, an additional 50M are visually impaired, and 90% of them are among the rural poor. Yet 80% are treatable or preventable. Founded in 1977 by Drs. R.V. Ramani and Radha Ramani in Coimbatore, India, SECI is today the largest and fastest growing free eye care provider in the world. Performing over 150K eye surgeries annually for the rural poor, it has by now reached the 1.1 million mark. SECI has built eight super specialty hospitals across India with a target of 20 hospitals by year 2020. The tour was sponsored by OneWorld, whose business manager Vaibhav Vyas gave a video presentation of their real estate offering in Chennai. There was an auction for 3 items: 2 round trip business class tickets to India on India that sold at $5K; round trip packages for two to New York and to Ireland both with American Airlines. Captions for Sangam trigalbandi performance on March 9 at Lemont temple (album): 1) #39 Sanchita Bhattacharya depicting the goddess Chandi spearing the demons. 2) #50 Ravikiran (L) playing Chitravina accompanied by Ramesh Srinivasan on mridangam 3) #58 Tarun Bhattacharya (R) on santoor accompanied by Hindol Majumdar on table. 4) #82 Performers taking their bow (L to R): https://plus.google/photos/103723751286886995587/albums/5990385278442942305
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 15:47:05 +0000
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