Anil Natyaveda and Aparna Sindhoor's  creation - Encounter  had the audience spell bound with the sheer beauty of very powerful pure dance movements. The presentation was held at the Dance Complex in Cambridge, MA.

The program was spilt into two parts, the first half featuring individual dance numbers while the second half was a dance theater based on "Dopdi" a tale by Mahasweta Devi.

The event opened with Divine, a poem by Kabir that featured Aparna Sindhoor, Raghu Naryanan, Smitha Radhakrishnan and Soumya Ramanathan. Set to the folk tunes from Bihar and UP, the musical rendition was very uplifting. The dance movements fit the the music the choreography light, without quite trying to delve into the depths of Kabir's words. The group choreography was light and lovely.

The second item SELF by Anil Natyaveda and Rajesh Raveendran was filled with  intense physical movements, in the Kalari Payatu style. Anil and Rajesh  enthralled the audience with their excellent artistry and strength of movement.

The next item was a highlight of the first half. It was set to Bob Marley's song "No Woman No Cry".  The varied emotions of the song were beautifully brought out in the piece by Anil Natyaveda, Rajesh Raveendran and Raghu Narayanan.  Aparna's own experience of understanding the meaning of the song when she heard it for the first time as she landed in America was brought out with a sense of humor. In some sense  the whole choreography to me was a reflection of an immigrant experience. Immigrants questions everything  in a new country and even make fun of the experiences they do not understand.  Later they become one with new land and accepts those experience as their own.

This was followed by an Ashtapadi by Aparna Sindhoor, which she said she performed as a tribute to her Bharatanatyam Guru, the legendary dancer Venkatalakshamma.

The next piece, Gravity with Anil Natyaveda, Rajesh Ravendran, Jill Cunnigham and Vyvyana Loh was again notable for its choreography and beautiful movements.

The second half had a dance theater piece based on Mahasweta Devi's story of "Dopdi", a tribal woman abused by the military.  Aparna Sindhoor and SM Raju's anti-establishmentarianism philosophy and their support for the cause of the poor tribal people came through loud and clear in the piece. The script was very well done and was able to bring out the essence of the tale in  very short period of time.  Given the complex nature of the piece this was no small feat. The use of music, narration, props and costumes was very creative.  The powerful and often disturbing script was interlaced with humor and enough entertainment to keep  the attention of the audience on the main theme of the script while not creating strongly negative emotions that could put the audience off the play. Use of contemporary and Martial Arts movements were perfect for the piece.  Kudos to team on this presentation.  Aparna was brilliant as Dopadi.  

Many dancers trained in the classical arts , especially Bharatanatyam were part of the presentation. During the Q and A session, Soumya Ramanathan, a very talented Bharatantayam dancer said that she enjoyed working on this presentation for this was something different.

The excellent dance training and artistry of the team members was visible through out the presentation. The western idea of  exploration of "Here and Now" rather than the eastern idea of exploring the depths of spirituality  seem to fit perfectly with the personality of the artists.  It was nice to see this group pick themes and songs like Bob Marley's that they understand and make statements about issues they care about . I wish more Indian dancers in the west dance to English songs for often it is the language they know the best.  Predominant use of Kalari Payatu and contemporary dance movements was perfect for the presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

To learn more about the work please visit, http://www.navarasa.org.

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