Nirtyanjali 2011 - Over 15 Hours Of Dance At NEHTI

The annual Nrityanjali program held at the New England Hindu Temple on Mar 6 2011 attracted over 250 dancers aged 4 and up. $8000 were collected by the Youth Cultural and Educational Program committee that uses part of the proceeds to provide scholarships for graduating seniors . Anuradha and Prashant Palakurthi donated $2,000 to use towards the scholarships.

The hall was beautifully decorated. Donations of beautiful imagery of Deities donated by Dr. Anil Chawla adorned the walls. The temple priest inaugurated the event at 6:45 am. It was clear that the Boston area is blessed with a wonderful set of dance teachers and senior dancers. Without exception every item presented showed a high degree of â€˜Thayyari or readinessâ€. It did not matter if it was a baby pushpanjali or an adult student performance it was clear that no effort was spared of the part of the teacher to bring out the best in their students. Students of Sridevi Thirumalai, Sunanda Narayanan, Neena Gulhati, Jothi Raghavan, Sapna Krishnan, Meena Subramanium, Veena Telli, Shanti Muthu, Thenu Rajan, Ranjani Saigal, Kalapana Balachandar, Anu Surendran, Vyjeyanthi Prasad, Jayashree Bala Rajamani, Jeyanthi Ghatraju, Poornima Risbud , Prafulla Velury, Hema Iyengar, Jasmine Shah, Sheetal Dwarika, Mouli Pal, Sangeetha Vijey and Neha Parikh participated in the event.

The competition coordinated by Jayashree Bala Rajamani featured brilliant presentations by many students. Niveda Baskaran, student of Smt Sapna Krishnan won the first prize. Ramya Ghantasala, student of Jothi Raghavan and Devika Banerjee student of Mouli Pal won the second and third prize, respectively. Smt Meena Subramanium, Smt Sunanda Narayanan and Smt Urmi Samadar judged the competition.

In addition to presentations by young students, senior dancers Syamoita (Odissi), Mithila Ballal, Radhika Jaishankar, Jeyanthi Vijayakumar (Mohiniattam) and Mesma Belsare dazzled the audience with their presentation. Newcomer Kathak dancer Urmi Samadarâ€™s energetic presentation was delightful and it featured her student Keertana who traveled all the way from New York for the event.

The collaborative nature of dance teachers in the area was highlighted when Gurus Smt. Jeyanthi Ghatraju and Smt Prafulla Vellury presented a wonderful jugalbandi juxtaposing Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam.

It was also delightful to see college students Amrita Mangalat, Akshaya Krishnaswamy and recent college graduates Amrita Saigal and Samiksha Nayak who have performed at the temple since a very young age return to perform despite their busy schedules.

Personally I am always grateful to Lord Nataraja for giving me the opportunity to be part of this event for many years and to watch over 250 dancers perform. Each year my father gives me an inspirational Tamil verse written by saints on my ride over to the temple as a blessing. This year he gave me his own creation. For those who understand Thamizh I would like to share my fatherâ€™s words for Nrityanjali2011

In essence it says that for those who have worshiped at the dancing feet of Lord Shiva there are no desires left.

The power of Lord Nataraja and His Divine dance is reinforced each year as we see young children delight in dancing this form! Watching it one longs to say â€œHar Har Mahadevâ€.