The Annual TriNetra Festival organized by Jayashree Bala Rajamani showcases a variety of local traditional dance talent. The show is a paid event for the dancers, emphasizing the importance of supporting classical dance traditions.   The event was held on Nov 16 and 17 at the Scottish Rites Museum in Lexington, MA. 

The opening day featured two sections. The first was a Odissi presentation by Mouli Pal. The grace Mouli presented items that focused on nature. Following a beautiful presentation in honor of the Sun God, she followed with a traditional Oriya song describing nature that had been choreographed by the great Odissi Maestro, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.  Mouli added her own touch to the choreography. As always she was very graceful.    

This was followed by the world premiere of “Chakram” celebrating the cycles of the seasons by Jayashree Bala Rajamani. Her sister before each act recited the verses from the Kalidasa classic Ritu Samharam in English.  The choreography was set to pure notes and Jathis where Jayashree used her imagination to describe the seasons. The costumes were very creative and the dancers were well synchronized. It was very cute to see Jayashree’s daughter, Mayyari recite the Sollukattus. She was supported by Krishnan Parameshwaran on the Violin and Hari Shanmugam on the Mridangam. Kudos to both artist to be able to deliver so beautifully.

On the second day of the TriNethra festival of dance held on Saturday, November 17th,  Jayshree Rajamani’s Bharatanatyam students Nithyani Anandakugan and Varshini Mohankumar opened the show with a “mini margam” showcasing the compositions of Jayshree’s Guru , the late Vidwaan K.J.Govindarajan.  

The opening item, an invocation to Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles described the elephant headed God through fluid body movements and brisk jatis. Abhinaya (expressive dance) was the center-piece of the next item, Navarasa Keerthana, a beautifully choreographed story of Hindu epic Ramayana. Moving swiftly between portraying the roles of the main characters Rama, Lakshmana, Seeta, Ravana, Anjaneya and others, the two dancers Varshini and Nithyani endowed with pleasing stage presence, expressed the nine rasas, such as shanti rasa, vibhitsa rasa, adbhuta rasa and more while dancing to a tamil song composed in a melodious ragamaalika and set to a variety of rhythmic cycles and tempos. 

A rhythmic thillana in Hindustani raga Tilang heralding the union between the dancer and the divine followed by Mangalam with a prayer for happiness of all mankind concluded the thirty minute Bharatnatyam segment.

“I like Jayshree Aunty’s choreography because she uses Varshini’s strengths in storytelling and my strengths in executing the jumps and the spins in the adavus. The last two weeks were exhausting because they involved rigor in terms of daily practice. I’m glad the hard work was appreciated” said Nithyani after her performance.

After the Bharatanatyam presentation, Christine Burwell, the executive director for Munroe Center of the Arts, Lexington, Jayshree Rajamani’s partner for hosting Tri Nethra festival was invited on the stage. “The Arts make the world a beautiful place. Supporting the arts is important because they keep our traditions alive and vibrant” said Christine, congratulating Jayshree for her efforts in putting the festival together.

In the second dance segment of the evening, Urmi Samadar, an award winning Kathak dancer from the Jaipur Gharana presented as her first item, an invocation to Lord Ganesha and then a dance item featuring sixteen beat rhythmic cycle in slow (Vilambit), medium(Madhya laya) and fast (Drut laya) tempos.  Several interesting ways of counting numbers (gintee) leading upto the number sixteen, a description of Lord Shiva through body movements, lightning fast pirouettes and graceful poses were displayed in this item.

In her next offering, Urmi danced to a well rendered semi-classical Kajri in raga Pilu “Ghir Aayi hai kaari badariya, Radhe laage na mora jiya” sung by her sister and set to the eight beat rhythmic cycle, keherwa. The song described the thunder, lightning and downpour of monsoon season rain and Lord Krishna’s lament of feeling incomplete without his divine consort Radha. The coordination of stage lights to create the effect of lightning, hand and finger movements showing the rain, the abhinaya (dramatic expression) through eyes and facial movements brought out the beauty of this dance.

Urmi danced next to the devotional composition “Bhavani Dayaani” in Raga Bhairavi set to ten beat cycle Jhaptaal. Describing the revered Mother Goddess Durga’s Shakti in killing the demon Mahishasura, Urmi expressed a variety of emotions in a powerful manner. 

Dedicating the concluding Kathak item, Sawaal Jawaab to mothers and daughters, Urmi told the story of conversations between mothers and daughters through footwork. “Do your homework” said the tabla playing the mother’s role and “Relax, Ma, I will get it done.” replied Urmi’s feet playing the daughter’s role. Urmi’s unique ability to make the content of her dance relevant to the current times and her ability to articulate through speech were as impressive as her dance and earned her frequent applause from the audience.

In the evening’s finale, Boston’s Yakshaloka group presented the epic Ramayana through Karnataka’s 800 year old folk theatre form, Yakshagana. Boston based Yakshaloka group led by Shri Praveena Naduthota has been performing two varieties of Yakshagana, Badagu and Thenku with direction from Shri Raghuram Shetty and Shri Madhu Matthihalli who were both trained in India under renowned Yakshagana artists.  Magnificient costumes and accessories, elaborate makeup and the narration of the Ramayana story through Kannada songs based on ragas, improvisatory dialog in Kannada and English languages, the addition of comedy to nine rasas and the interaction of the actors with the audience made for an engaging experience from start to finish. 

What made the Tri Nethra festival unique was Jayshree Rajamani’s ability to bring together seasoned Boston area artists to show the differences in the manner dancers use their bodies to tell stories and to synchronize actions and gestures to music. The same story Ramayana, for instance was narrated in different ways via Bharatanatyam and Yakshagana. This was the fourth annual presentation by Jayshree Rajamani and Boston audiences look forward to the next annual festival.