Shachi Phene performed her Arangetram at the Lexington High School in Lexington, MA on July 18, 2004. I have watched Shachi's dance for a long time and yet I must say that I was not quite prepared for her wonderful performance which dazzled the audience. Shachi is the student of Smt Ranjani Saigal of Eastern Rhythms in Burlington. She has also received advanced training from Smt. Kausalya Srinivasan of Chennai, India.

Shachi commenced her program with an Abhang "Vandana Tuzala". This was very appropriate considering Marathi is her mother tongue. One thing that struck me from the very beginning was her use of the stage. Often youngsters confine themselves to a very small portion of the stage which robes the dance of some of its dynamism. After the prayer to Lord Ganesha she proceeded to present a traditional Jathiswaram in Ragam Vasantha. This was followed by the famous Mysore Vasudevachar krithi, "Mamavathu Sri Saraswathi", a piece dedicated to Goddess Saraswathi. The beautiful krithi brings out the grandeur and grace of the Goddess of knowledge and Shachi did justice to the piece.

The central piece of the Arangetram was a dance set to Thyagaraja's Pancha Rathna Krithi in Nattai , "Jagadananda Karaka". The piece was complex and the jathis chosen were challenging. But Shachi executed the fast moving piece with its complex jathis with ease. Her performance of the well executed long jathis drew applause from the audience.

The second half began with my favorite item in the whole repertoire. Puttaparthi Narayanacharlu's composition, "Adenamma". The song describes the dance of the Divine Dancer "Lord Nataraja". Shachi brought out the essence of this dance very well. The movements and the expression along with the difficult poses made this a very challenging and interesting piece. She brilliantly expressed the " Navarasas" or nine emotions, which is quite a challenge for a young girl. The grand finale with her spinning on her knees (a challenging step) around the stage drew a lot of applause from the audience.

The orchestra with vocalist Babu Parmeshwaran , mridangist T. Vishwanthan, violinist Vinod Kumar , flutist Sivakumar was excellent. Their rendition of each song was unique and exciting. Sandya Nadkarni did a wonderful job as an MCEE.

Shachi's smile was always on, even as she performed fast and complicated jatis. She gave me the impression that she truly enjoyed what she was doing and she was dancing for herself, rather than the audience. Shachi's Arangetram was truly masterful.

Shachi's smile was always on, even as she performed fast and complicated jatis. She gave me the impression that she truly enjoyed what she was doing and she was dancing for The hard work that she did along with the excellent training she received from her gurus has shaped her into a fine dancer and I sincerely hope that she continues to dance and explore this art form further.

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