Eighteen dancers (all of them women engineers at MIT)  took center stage at Little Kresgee on Feb 15 2009, to present a thematic Bharatanatyam presentation Shakti – Power of Women. The presentation featured tales of powerful women from ancient India – Kannagi , Savithri and Draupadi.  The show was dedicated to the India School Fund a charity that is running a school in Rajugela India.

The production was created entirely by the dancers of MIT Natya using ragam , tanam  and jathis to tell these tales. The orchestra featured Suhas Rao (Violin, undergraduate student at Harvard), Akshay Anantapadmanabhan (Mridangam, undergraduate student at Cooper Union), Mathura Sridharan (Vocal, Undergraduate Student at MIT) and Ranjani Saigal (Nattuvangam) . Renuka Ramanathan  and Amrita Saigal are co-presidents of MIT Natya. Shubhi Goyal, Saloni Jain , Mohini Jangi, Amrita Karembelkar, Sonya Makhni,Samiksha Nayak, Shriddha Nayak, KavyaKamal Manyapu,Sandya Raval, Sivakami Sambasivam, Krithiga Shanmugasundaram, Mathura Sridharan, Krupa Suchak, Viral Modi, Anjali Thakkar and Chandini Valiyathan were the other members of the team.

It was but natural that a presentation about Shakti should open with Adi Shankaracharya’s Aigiri Nandini.  With lamps in hand the dancers paid tribute to Shakti, the Goddess of strength. The presentation then moved on to tell the tale of Kannagi focusing on a few key aspects of the Silapaddikaram tale , including the marriage of Kovalan and Kannagi, Madhavi’s Arangetram ,meeting of Kovalan and Madhavi, separating of Madhavi and Kovalan and Kovalan’s reuniting with Kannagi, moving to Madurai , the execution of Kovalan and finally the burning of Madurai by Kannagi.  Mathura as Kannagi, Renuka as Kovalan and Anjali as Madhavi brought the characters to life.

Savithri was the heroine of the next tale. Her marriage to Satyavan, her happy married life with Satyavan in the forest and finally her winning over Yama through her wit were beautifully presented. Of note was the wonderful forest scene where all dancers donned the roles of different animals and really brought the forest scene to life. Anjali as Savithri, Renuka as Satyavan and Mathura as Yama did justice to their roles.

Draupadi brought the trilogy to a grand conclusion. The tale focused on Draupadi’s Vastraharan (disrobing). The theatrical story telling of this piece was done brilliantly. Kavya Kamal as Dushasana, Chandini Valiyathan as Duryodhana, Shriddha Nayak as Shakuni and Mohini Jhangi as Yudhishtira and Renuka Ramanathan as Draupadi brilliantly executed their roles. Abhinaya took center stage in this piece and succeeded in gaining the attention of the audience.

The show concluded with a Thillana and Mangalam. Suhas Rao, Askhay Padmanabhan and Mathura Sridharan provided wonderful orchestral support to the performance. 

MIT Natya is perhaps the only Bhartanatyam club of its kind at a major university which is able to attract so many people to the art form. Many dancers in the group had never learned dance and kudos to the committee for creating such excitement for this ancient dance form and to get so many to participate. The choreographers KavyaKamal Manyapu, Renuka Ramanathan, Amrita Saigal, Mathura Sridharan and Anjali Thakkar deserve a thunderous applause for creating a unique production featuring a live orchestra and eighteen dancers.

As a Bharatanatyam teacher it was exciting to be part of this show for it is clear that this art form is here to stay.

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