Bharatanatyam born from the spirit of resilience
Covid-19 wreaked havoc in our lives, and this chaos extended to the world of performing arts, too. Drawing inspiration from those hardships and to spread hope and positivity, Bharatanatyam exponent Geeta Chandran has conceived a solo presentation, In Search of Infinity. Showcasing existing pieces and some new ones, created with the idea of seeing us through the pandemic, this recital is a display of the human ability to fight back.
“No doubt the pandemic brought new challenges, but we found ways to deal with it. We went online with our teaching, performances, discussions,” says Chandran, adding, “Only through art did we express what we felt.”
The Padma Shri awardee, like most others, saw everything to be limiting. “Then, I found spaces within that were leading to eternity, ananta, unending. You have a beginning, but you don’t have an end,” she says, recalling how she “worked a lot” in the last two years.
Chandran will use poet Jai Shankar Prasad’s Beeti Vibhavari Jaag Ri —a metaphor for the dark times to be put aside — for the first act. The recital also features pieces on the danseuse’s time spent narrating tales of folklore to her grandson. The concluding act is on a piece by Swami Annamacharya, chief priest, Tirupati Balaji Temple, calling for samdrishti (impartial view) towards those who may follow different sets of beliefs. “Each piece has a story to it and how we did it mostly online; meeting only when we got a window. It’s an emotional moment [to present this recital],” she signs off.