Reviews
Lila - July 2009
Stomp!
A delicate chime from the sparkling bhekamukha girdle falls to the
floor. Stomp!! A white accent piece from the beautiful allaka headdress
flutters behind a richly clad dancer. Stomp!!! A delicate bahichudi
armlet slides down a graceful, slender arm. STOMP! An anklet is flung
off stage. The highly talented and gorgeous women of the Jayantika
Dance Company danced with such speed, grace and force during Sunday’s
performance of Lila: The Love Story or Radha and Krishna that
costume pieces were literally cascading from their bodies.
Four
pieces comprised the delightful program performed in the Odissi style
of Indian dance, which although performed as devotional dances well
over 2,000 years ago, achieved a popular revival in the 1950s when it
was transformed into a performance art. However, the spiritual roots
remain deep in this spellbinding and evocative dance form, especially
as performed by Shalini Goel Agarwal and Jayantika’s founder Jayantee
Paine Ganguly.
Lila, taken from parts of the Gita Govinda by
12th-century poet Jayadeva, traces four stories related to Lord
Krishna, an incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu. The first segment
portrays his seductive flirtations with the gopis (female devotees of
Krishna). Bell-encrusted anklets provided a rhythmic accompaniment to
the musical soundtrack, thereby demonstrating the dancers’ finely
attuned sense of rhythm and musicality that complemented their elegant
hand gestures, body movements and refined characterizations.
Krishna’s
main squeeze is the lovely Radha, but the second piece displays the
heartbreak she experiences at the hands of the womanizing trickster
Krishna. Ganguly took on both roles, infusing each with heartbreaking
poignancy (in the case of Radha) and rakish charm (Krishna).
Krishna
and Radha reunite in the next vignette with Agarwal this time playing
both characters. Her radiant smile as Radha was full of touching
honesty, and as Krishna, her sweet ministrations to Radha would make
anyone fall in love again.
The final episode is the
above-mentioned ecstatic dance of celebration between Radha and Krishna
where both Ganguly and Agarwal danced with wild (yet technically sharp)
abandon. A brief introduction to each piece was helpful for Western
audiences unfamiliar with the symbolic and almost mime-like gestures of
the Odissi style. Yet, even without these educational remarks, the
Odissi style presented (as choreographed here by Gurus Kelucharan
Mohapatra and Jyoti Rout) retains an ancient and primal storytelling
quality that, although incredibly refined, touches something deep
within us.
The riveting evening, though, belongs to Ganguly and
Agarwal, whose coy beauty captures audiences with a simple glance, cock
of the head, or dazzling smile. During one of the introductions, we
were told that significant, and often daily, training is required for
this complex dance form, and with these two performers it shows in
every delicate hand gesture, each percussive stomp, multiple flashes of
the eyes, and serpentine undulations of the torso. This is a must-see
performance.
[A]
beautiful, intricate, and all-around amazing performance. I can’t
imagine a better way to wait out a monsoon then to watch the graceful
interplay of these gorgeous women; the slow, delicate contortions
alternating with the staccato raga stepwork.
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