From: janaki@cs1.bradley.edu (Venkata Nemana)
Subject: Hema Rajagopalan in Bradley Univ.
Organization: Bradley University
Distribution: usa
Date: 10 Oct 92 23:30:08 GMT



Friends,

There was a "Bharat Natyam" performance by Mrs.Hemarajagopalan
on Ocober the 3rd in Hartmann Center for Performing Arts at
Bradley University. 

That was one of the rarest feats on an American-campus, and was a
pleasant mixture of "Abinaya" (action) and "bhava" (expression)
by the artist. This heart_touching_experience has provoked me to post
a report/critique.


Though the artist didnot start the performance with a traditional
"Guru sthuti" (praying the Teacher)!, the rest went off classically
and traditionally.


The event started "right ON-TIME" in the raga "Naata" with a prayer to
Lord Ganesh, the first God. Then there was another Ganesh Sthuti,
introducing the artist to the audience. This was a "ragamalika",
set to more than one raga, "Shanmukha priya", "Mohana Kalyani".
The next was a "varnam" in the raga "Thodi", a composition by
Swati Thirunal, which expressed the eternal love between the human
soul and the Lord Vishnu, the supreme soul. 

Interruption!:-
Though the audience was informed at the entrance that they can take
video pictures, but not the flash photography, the dancer had to go
behind the curtains (in the middle of her performance!) to let the
organizers prevent the video capturing and free the still photographers.

It was very wise of the artist who explained what she was going to 
perform next, the meaning of the verses and kritis, with examples
of expressions and "mudras". This helped not only the enormous
American audience who are very far from this kind of classical
art, but also a fairly large amount of Indian lot, most of who cannot
fully digest what's the link between the music, the steps of the
"mridangam", the steps of the dancer, and her expressions.

The next was a pleasant presentation of the romance of "Lord
Krishna" and the "viraha vedana" of his lover. This was set to
the raga "Kapi", a suitable raga to express romance!! The great
artist in Mrs.Hema Rajagopalan, could bring a "brindavan", Krishna's
playground, to the stage through that "jaavali".

The next item "Sthree (woman)", was a masterpiece from the singer
Shri.Aravindakshan who looks like Yesudas and whose voice resembles
Late Maharajapuram Santhanam's, the "classical Music Maestro" from
the south. His "nattuvangam" was nodoubt the background of the
dancer's success. "Sthree" was a portrait of three different woman
personalities of the great epic "Ramayan", the jealous, the cunning
and the evil. The dancer projected all the three characteristics very
effectively to the melodious singing of Shri.Aravindakhan, perfectly
to the lovely "swaras" of Shri.Sankaran's flute and Priya's Veena,
and accurately to the rhythm of Shri.Ganeshan's Mridangam with a good 
mixture of bhava and abhinayam. Some of the marvellous ragas of this
ragamalika (to the best of my knowledge) are "Ananda bhairavi",
"Kalyani","Athana","Sankarabharanam","Hamsanandi","Bhairavi","Siva-
ranjani", "Bilahari", "Mohana", "Kapi", etc..

The sixth item was a famous kriti by Annamacharya in the raga
"Kuranji"  -- `Muddugare yasoda... mungita muthyamu..'. This again
is a presentation of Lord Krishna's childhood in "Repalle". The artist
hypnotized the audience who ultimately immersed in the flow and 
could imagine "Yasoda", Krishna's mother playing with the little
Krishna on the stage of Hartmann center for Arts. 

The last item was a traditional "Thillana", in the raga "Ranjani".
This was written specially for her who lives in Chicago, and runs
a "Natyakalalayam" (meaning, the art-temple of dance).

She deservingly won the 'standing ovation' of the inquisitive,
interested and art-loving audience.


-Janakiram.
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical