Graceful movements from manipur

Senior artistes from the Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy performed on the first day of the National Dance Festival 2017 organised by the Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University in association with the Department of Tourism and Culture at Ravindra Bharathi, Hyderabad.

Parul Devi started the performances with ‘Basanta Barnaam’ based on Turi Ragini set to Tanchap eight beats Taal and composed by Guru Padma Shri Babu Singh. This was based on the first chapter of Geet Govinda by poet Jayadev and Radha’s ‘sakhi’ is describing the beauty of the forest and the ‘sringara rasa’ prevalent while as a contrast, Radha is herself suffering the pangs of separation from Lord Krishna.

The next piece was ‘Hari Riha’by Debala Devi. It’s about Lord Krishna playing in the Chandrabali Kunja with other Gopis lead by Chandrabali and a ‘Sakhi’ narrates this to Radha.This was set to the song ‘Chandana Charchita Nila Kalevara’ in Lasya style.This was followed by a ‘Grishma Ritu’ dance by Ibemubi Devi based on the ‘Ritu Sanghar’ written by poet Kalidas.

The presentation was based on the popular Manipuri tradition ‘Nata Sankirtana’ set to ‘Rajmein ‘taal of eighteen beats and ‘Tanchap’ taal of eight beats.The dancers concluded the program with a group dance ‘Tanum Derena’ song form depicting the Raas Leela of Vasanta season.

By Jaywant Naidu