It was the evening of September 27th 2008. The location was the Morse Auditorium of the Canton High School and the function was the ‘Bharatanatyam Rangapravesha’ of Shachi Risbud, a very young artist just fourteen years old.

Exactly at 5:30 pm that evening, the main curtain opened and Shachi began her solo dance debut with a graceful ‘Pushpanjali’, an invocation worshiping Nataraja, the deity of dance. This was followed by two Nritta items ‘Alarippu’ and ‘Jatiswaram’. It was amazing to see the perfect synchronization between Shachi’s footwork and the rhythmic patterns produced by the 6-piece live musical ensemble.

The dance items that followed were ‘Shabdam’ and ‘Varnam’. Shachi superbly enacted the virtues of Lord Rama in the ‘Shabdam’. Bringing out the emotions of blushing and the longing of a Virahini for her beloved could be a huge task for an artist this young, but in the ‘Varnam’, Shachi did it with the same effortless fluidity as she had done in all the previous items of her recital.

The second half of the program mainly consisted of dance items set to songs in praise of different gods. Here the audience could really see the grace of goddess Chamundeshwari, the rage of Lord Shiva, and the pranks and greatness of Lord Krishna which were all complimented by different rhythmic sounds produced by Pramath Kiran’s rhythm pads. Shachi continued with the presentation of Thillana, another Nritta item where she gave beautiful picture-perfect poses like the stone sculptures in the ancient Indian temples.

The zenith of Shachi’s performance came with ‘Kadhanakutuhala’, which was a fusion of Bharatanatyam and Jazz styles set to a fusion between the traditional Thillana in raga ‘Kadhanakutuhala’ and its Jazz improvisation. In this mesmerizing concluding item, her frequent transitions between the two totally different dance styles were awesome. Not only was this item a fusion of two different dance styles, but it was also a collaboration of compositions by Guru Poornima and her disciple Shachi.

It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that we both flew all the way from India just to witness this storm display its magnificent power without harming anyone watching it. One wonders, how at such a young age Shachi has taken such a great leap in the art of Bharatanatyam. A vast amount of credit for Shachi’s success in dance goes to her Guru and mother Poornima Risbud. A mother is the first Guru of her child. In the field of Bharatanatyam, Poornima has really proven it being Shachi’s mother and Guru.

The vocalist Neela Ramanuja, the Mridangam artist N. G. Ravi, the Rhythm Pads artist Pramath Kiran, the flutist N. Rajkamal, and the violinist Suhas Rao; all being some of the best in the Indian classical music had a major contribution to the success of this performance.

Let us bless Shachi for the best future in Bharatanatyam and other art forms she is practicing. We look forward to many more accomplishments and achievements from her.

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