“The honor and pleasure to teach Kavitha was truly mine.”  Guru Ranjani Saigal

As an audience of nearly 200 filled the auditorium at Keigwin Middle School in Middletown, CT, the question on the minds of most was, “How does one depict the story of “Savithri and Sathyavan” in a bharathanatyam ballet?  Fifteen year old arangetram alumnus, Kavitha Vijayasekar and her orchestra did just that.  In this story from the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, Savithri is not only a depiction of the Goddess, but also the princess born to King Ashwapathi and Queen Malavi.  The beautiful, valiant, and above all most clever young woman, defeats death itself through her ingenuity and regains the life of her husband, Sathyavan. 

The program was the result of an inter-state collaboration between the disciple Kavitha and Guru Ranjani Saigal which was made possible due to the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship which Kavitha received in January, 2008.  "In the ten years of this grant ,this is the first year that we have awarded this for Indian classical dance and I must say In over ten years of working with this grant program, I have never seen anything so beautiful” said Ms. Lynne Williamson, the Director of the Institute of Community Research, one of the granting institutions. Kavitha received the grant after completing her arangetram last year, under the tutelage of Smt. Kausalya Srinivasan, a very talented Guru from Chennai, India who is a student of Smt. Chita Vishweswaran.

The program was  the final presentation for the grant where Kavitha and her Guru presented their work..The program opened with a Bhoomanjali, followed by Lalgudi's  masterpiece varnam, “Devar Munivar Thozhum” in Ragam Shanmugapriya. Kavitha's fine delivery of complex Jathis and beautfiul depiction of Sancharis got her a much deserved applause from the audience.

Kavitha then proceeded to present her Guru , Smt. Ranjani Saigal's Production Savithri where Saigal had creatively interwoven classic musical compositions including Ganesh Pancharatanm, “Bruhi Mukundethi”, “Paal Vadiyum Mugam” , “Chollu Nee Kuzhandaai” and others with Jathis and narration to tell this story. Through this garland of musical presentations studded with jathis and with English narration woven throughout, Kavitha poignantly presented this story of Savithri in bharathanatyam ballet form .  Kavitha single handedly depicted a range of characters including Narada, Sathyavan, Savithri and Yama the God of death. The quick change between characters from the gentle Savithri to the fierceYama showcased Kavitha's Abhinaya talent beautifully. The audience was struck by the beauty of the
presentation.

 During the entire program  Kavitha was supported by the mesmerizing voice of Srimathy Geetha Murali, the scintillating drumming of our 17 year old mridangist, Arun Saigal, the soul-wrenching melody of our 14 year old violinist, Rasika Murali, and the versatility of Srimathy Bhavani Prakash, who played the veena and the flute.

Guru and Nattuvanar, Smt Ranjani Saigal awarded Kavitha with the title, “Nrithya Nipuna” for her incredible rendition of Savithri. Saigal praised Kavitha for her devotion to the dance form, applauded her for traveling four hours on weekends for classes, and Kavitha’s perseverance in delivering a beautiful performance in spite of an ankle injury.  In her remarks, Kavitha thanked her Guru for her patience, encouragement and praised her incredible choreography.  Guru Saigal’s enthusiasm and creativity, and Arun Saigal’s willingness to give up his vacation time and to provide mridangam support for the practices, helped Kavitha deliver a crisp and beautiful performance.

Kavitha is a 15 year old honors student at Glastonbury High School in Connecticut.  She is also a member of the Youth Committee of the Connecticut Tamil Sangam which helped organize and MC the program.  Special thanks go to Shruthi Raman,Niveda Natchiappan, Sooriya Sundaram, Ajay Raghavan, Pranav Panchatsharam, and Neeraj Sooriyanarayanan.

 Always interested in helping others, Kavitha dedicated the performance to raising awareness and increasing funds for the CTTS Education Fund, which assists promising and needy students in the state of Tamil Nadu.  In lieu of gifts, she requested that friends and family donate to this worthy cause.  The entire event was a celebration of our youth as three of the participants were under the age of 18.  Mridangist Arun Saigal, will be a senior at Phillips Academy while violinist Rasika, will be a sophomore at Norwood, Mass.  We applaud the efforts of all three young members of our community for their dedication to our cultural heritage.

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