Shakti Aishvarya Nochur’s Dance Arangetram

I had the pleasure of attending the dance arangetram of Shakti Aishvarya Nochur’s on Sunday the 16th September in Newton High School Auditorium. It was a joyful experience to watch a youngster born and brought up in a different culture that has taken to an Indian art form of classical dance and excel in the same. Credit goes to the dedication and the training Shakti’s Guru Neena Gulati imparted and instilling interest and confidence in her pupil. Shakti seems to have taken full advantage of the opportunity. The enormous time and energy she spent in pursuing the art form and her deep interest and sheer dedication is evident from the evening’s presentation.

There is something special about this presentation. A typical dance arangetram involves a single style of classical dance i.e Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Odissi etc. The pieces of music could be in different languages- Telugu, Tamil Kannada, Hindi etc. Shakti’s presentation combined all the three different styles of dance mentioned above though a major portion was dedicated to Bharatanatyam style. The movements in each of these styles are quite different. Shakti effortlessly moved from one style to the other with no compromise whatsoever on the purity of each style. From the brisk and sharp movements of Bharatanatyam to the graceful, fluid movements of Odissi, the transition was seamless .The presentations were neat and there was clarity.

In the Bharatanatyam portion, Shivathandavam and Kaliyanarthanam were very pleasing to watch. The center piece of the performance was the varnam in ragam Huseni. The abhinaya was very clear and the jathis were crisp. It was perhaps the one of the best pieces in the presentation. The brisk footwork in the Pallavi and the abhinaya in Dasavathar and the Pallavi in the Odissi style was very pleasing to watch.

Special mention should be made of Shakti’s skill in demonstrating , in quick succession, the Navarasas (nine emotions) in Shiva Navarasa and the ten incarnations of Vishnu in Dasavathar piece. The transitions seemed seamless.

The choice of the ragas and krithi’s for the various pieces of dance was indeed praiseworthy. Ragas such as Kambhoji, Huseni, Gambhira Natai, Nilambari and Kalavathi and the Ragamalikas add an extra dimension to the whole presentation.

Nattuvangam by Guru Neena Gulati and the musical support provided by Sangeeta Shroff (Vocal), Gowrish Chandrasekhar(Mridangam), Surya Sundararajan (Violin), and Dr. Suresh Mathur (Flute) admirably enhanced the performance,

I hope Shakti continues her learning and give more presentations in the future.

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