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!da Dance Fest 2019 at God's Own Country - Third edition

Third edition of ida dance fest was organized on 14th and 15th December 2019 at 'The Land of Lords and Looms' -Kannur, Kerala, a region famous for the Theyyams and Handlooms.


On the first day, Kathak by Richa Guptha, Bharathanatyam by RLV Anand, Harinie Jeevitha & Bhairavi Venkatesan, Kuchipudi by Ruchi Krishna and Aavani Rakesh were presented.





An item that depicted the story of Lord Ayyappa in Ragamalika set to Aadi thalam was presented by RLV Anand. Harinie Jeevitha & Bhairavi Venkatesan started their performance with an invocation to Lord Ganesha. Through their next item 'Ananada Natana Prakasam' of Shri Muthuswami Deekshithar, both Harinie and Bhairavi captured the attention of the audience. Due to the deviation from the Bharathanatyam's traditional style of music in the background, their next item 'Janani Jagathkarini' did effect the 'classical mood' of the performance. It is not that the choreography or performance were not good. The music seemed to be more suitable on a space that aims a 'light flavor'. They concluded their performance for the day with Dr. M Balamuralikrishna's famous composition 'Om kara karini..'.







Dr. Mini Pramod (Mohiniyattam), Riya Anna Roy (Bharathanatyam), Manju V Nair (Bharathanatyam) and Dr. Ratheesh Babu-Sandhya Manoj (Jugalbandhi) were the artists who performed on the second day. Dr. Mini Pramod started with a Cholkkettu in ragam Saraswathi, set to Aadi thalam. It was followed by the composition of Maharaja Sri Swathi Thirunal's -'Shankara Srigiri...' in Hamsanandhi set to Aadi.





Her last item for the day was the padam 'Ajitha Hare Madhava..' in SriRagam, which portrayed the episode of poor Kuchela's reunion with his friend Sree Krishana after somany years. Their love and respect towards eachother were enacted. During the line 'Vijaya Saarathe...' Dr. Mini Pramod depicted the moments from the 'Geethopadesam' in the Kurukshethra war.



Manju V Nair opened her presentation with 'Kandena Natarajana..' in Lathangi set to to Aadi. In her next item 'Shri Ram Chandra Kripalu Bhajman', a bhajan by the Saint Tulsi Das, the dancer beautifully used the slow pace of the composition to portray the heart of a mother-Kausalya, who got only a very little opportunity to live with her son Sree Rama. He stayed in Ashram for somany years during his education, after returning he again left the palace and came back after his marriage. Soon again, he had to spend his life in a forest for long fourteen years! Today as Sree Rama, after his life in forest, is coming back to Ayodhya, Kausalya eagerly waits for him. Her mind wanders through the days which she spent with her son. As Sree Rama reaches Ayodhaya, she forgets herself in joy. The item in Yaman Kalyani was set to Mishra Chaapp.







The last performance of the fest was a Jugalbandhi by Ratheesh Babu and Sandhya Manoj, based on the concept of 'Ardha Nareeswara' in which the masculine-feminine aspects of Siva-Parvathi were staged through an episode of Brigu Maharaj.





Though there were a few good performances, the shortage of time was a bit of problem. Next time, it will be nice if the organizers think of either increasing the total duration of performance by starting a couple of hours earlier each day or by decreasing the number of dancers so that there will be enough time for those performing.











Earlier, on the first day, the District Collector Shri T V Subhash IAS inaugurated the two day fest. In his inaugural address he applauded the efforts behind conducting the National Dance Fest in Kannur for the third time. Shaija Bineesh and Bineesh Kiran were present.





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