On 11th May 2019, the city of Hyderabad beamed with the bliss of Bharatanatyam. A prestigious evening hosted by Shilparamam saw a stalwart performance by much-acclaimed dancer Pritika Krishnakumar.
Pritika who started learning Bharatanatyam from Dr. Jayashree Rajagopalan (Director of Nrithyodaya, Mumbai and the student of Dr. Padma Subramanyam), under whom she also trained in the 108 Karanas. After completing her Masters in Developmental Psychology from the United Kindom, she is now training under Guru Rukmini Vijayakumar in Bangalore and is a core dancer of her Radha Kalpa Dance Company.
Pritika started the evening with a Pushpanjali, an invocatory piece in praise of Lord Ganesha in Raga Arabhi, set to Adi Tala. The next performance was titled Shankarabharanam in which she depicted Lord Shiva who is both Invisible Without Form, Aroopa and with Form.
In his physical form, the Lord adorns many ornaments each of which has a beautiful story attached to it. The most unique and celebrated aspect form of Shiva is the Ardhanadheeshwara. The form of Ardhanareeshwara is the representation of the union of Purusha and Paramatma, masculine and feminine. As Ardhanareeshwara, Lord Shiva and goddess Parvati exist as one. Ardhanarishvara illustrates how Shakti, the female principle of God is inseparable from Shiva. The union is exalted as the root and womb of all creation. This presentation was in Raga Malika, Adi Tala. A choreography of guru Rukmini Vijayakumar. She then presented ‘Madu meikkum kanne !’ This song was a dialogue between Lord Krishna as a child and his mother Yashoda. Krishna who wants to go out to play and rear the cattle while Yashodha tries to stop him giving reasons like Krishna might be attacked by wild animals and thieves. It’s Composed by Oothukadu VenkataSubbier, set on Sahana raaga. This song is taken from Priyadharshini Govinda Kalakriya series. Pritika finally concluded her performance with a beautiful thillana which was composed for Guru Naramada in Vallachi Ragam, Adi Talam.
Post the wonderful presentation the audience was thrilled with her perfect postures and blissful expressions. As a concluding note, Shilparamam-Hyderabad co-ordinator Smt Sucharita said “Shilparamam would thrive to bring in art and artist from different backgrounds to harness and promote art.” She also announced that Shilparamam, Hyderabad is also curating a festival to tribute Padmasri Guru Th. Babu Singh in the upcoming week and asked all the Rasika’s and art enthusiast to take part in it and make it a huge success.
