Nrityagram Dance Ensemble of India. - Sylvia and Danny Kate Playhouse, New York, New York - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, Oct, 1996 by Doris Perlman

SYLVIA AND DANNY KAYE PLAYHOUSE JUNE 18, 1996 REVIEWED BY DORIS PERLMAN

Nrityagram Dance Ensemble of India was founded by Protima Gauri Bedi, who, after falling under the spell of Indian classical dance, moved to a remote rural area in northeastern India, forsaking a protected and luxurious existence in Bombay. She became a pupil of Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra, whose disciple she remains, and, with hard-won aid from the Indian government, founded Nrityagram, her ten-acre "dance village" where any young girl can study at no cost the delicate, filigreed Odissi dance form, which dates back as far as the second century B.C.

Five lovely and accomplished women--Jaya Mukherjee, Anitha Nair, Pavithra Reddy, Bijayini Satpathy, and Surupa Sen--formed the ensemble which made its New York City debut in a program of six Odissi dances. Aided by narration from Bedi, the audience could appreciate at least some of the mudras (hand gestures! and bhava (facial expressions) which convey mood and story. A demonstration of a dispute between the divine lovers Radha and Krishna, for example, was as absorbing as the dance which followed. In Batu, a dance dedicated to Lord Shiva, four dancers bring to life poses from the temple walls of Konarak. The final tableau reminds the ballet-oriented of a particularly elegant eastern Pas de Quatre.

Mangalacharan, a traditional dance of invocation dedicated to Jagganath, the Lord of the Universe, opened the evening. Sen and Satpathy demonstrated precise, controlled technique that conveyed restrained emotion. The ten incarnations of Vishnu the Preserver were narrated in Dasavatar, where all five dancers created a kaleidoscope of vivid tableaux. Pallavi ("to blossom forth,'), an abstract dance, showed the choreographic possibilities of the odissi technique as the dancers displayed varied combinations of rhythms. Sen and Satpathy closed the evening with Moksh a dance of liberation that displays the achievement by the dancer of moksha, or oneness with the divine energies.