A give and take of Odissi and Kandyan
‘Ahuti’ the second collaboration between Nrityagram and Chitrasena ensembles to premiere in Sri Lanka
In a rare meeting of the dance forms of Odissi and Kandyan dance, India’s Nrityagram Dance Ensemble, in collaboration with the Chitrasena Dance Company will present ‘Ahuti’ in its Sri Lankan premiere.
To be staged in both Jaffna and Colombo later this month, this second collaboration between the Chitrasena and Nrityagram dance ensembles takes place 12 years after their groundbreaking first. ‘Samhara: The Braid’ toured the globe from 2012 to 2017 to glowing reviews. The show was nominated within two categories for the New York Dance and Performance Awards (also known as the ‘Bessie’ Awards) in 2012.
“I was very young, in my 20s, and just starting off my professional career,” Thaji Dias, granddaughter of Chitrasena and Vajira, and principal dancer of the Chitrasena Dance Company recalls. “It was a life-changing experience for me to be a part of Samhara.” Through that first programme, Thaji began experimenting with emoting through the traditional Kandyan dance form. “We were giving meaning and sensibility to the movements and even just trying to understand what it meant to give meaning and sensibility to the movements,” she says.
For Heshma Wignaraja, Artistic Director of the Chitrasena Dance Company, the first was a production of such heart and soul that she didn’t know if a second was even possible. “It was an experiment at the beginning…I remember Surupa (Nrityagram’s Artistic Director Surupa Sen) telling me, ‘now that we have had a conversation, I think we have to go beyond that and sort of embrace each other’,” Heshma recalls.
Both ensembles dwell deeply within the traditional bounds of their respective forms and are in no way interested in changing or diluting their art for the sake of appealing to a modern sensibility. In order to bring Kandyan and Odissi together without compromising the integrity of either form, Surupa offered a piece of percussive Odissi music for Heshma to respond to with Kandyan Dance. “Immediately, I was completely taken up by it,” Heshma says. “It’s all rhythm based and the core of it worked for us because Kandyan Dance is a percussive dance form.”
“Setting movement to that was also very interesting because it brought out a completely different sensibility in the Kandyan form,” Thaji adds.
Ahuti, choreographed by Surupa Sen, will feature the music of Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi in arrangements that feature Kandyan drums as well.
Over a number of weeks the choreographers and dancers worked together to create a production where “both are giving and taking in one space in a way that complements each other”. The two groups “are energized and stimulated by contact with the other,” reviewed Marina Harss for the Fjord Review, “The Odissi dancers gain more rhythmic attack; the Kandyan dancers become more vivid storytellers.”
The programme opens with ‘Sankirtanam’ (translated “prayer”) - a dance in praise of Krishna, by the Nrityagram ensemble, followed by Poornarati (“complete offering”) where they are joined by the Chitrasena group. Both Heshma and Thaji are most excited by ‘Invoking Shiva’ (seen on our Magazine cover) , a dance attributed to Ravana. The piece was presented in 2012 as a duet between two Odissi dancers. For this production, it is a duet between Odissi and Kandyan Dance.
“It’s a story-telling piece, so there’s a lot of the ballet idiom that my grandparents really did their work in,” Heshma points out. “If Seeya (Chitrasena) was alive, he would really have been bowled over. And the whole dance would have been one of my grandfather’s favourites. [He] was really inspired by Indian mythology… so there is a lot of personal draw to that piece, for us. It takes a lot of emotional strength as much as the movements,” Heshma adds, acknowledging the kind of commitment that Thaji has demonstrated in stretching and growing as a dancer via ‘Ahuti’ and this piece in particular.
“I enjoy the piece because it’s challenging, it’s really opened avenues for me when it comes to dance and emoting,” Thaji adds, grateful that Surupa gave her time and space to learn the Odissi techniques and then the freedom to reinterpret the dance through Thaji’s own Kandyan tradition. “It’s really something new for my body… I really love performing the piece and I feel every time I perform it or rehearse it, that there are things I didn’t think of before. That is really exciting for me because I feel like I’m growing in the piece itself - the whole challenge is what makes it really fun for me.”
The programme also features the piece ‘Alap’ which is taken from the first collaboration between the two groups. “This is actually my favourite piece right now,” Thaji says. “I’ve been dancing this for 12 years now and it truly takes that long for it to settle into your body. And it’s the one I’m most comfortable with.”
The Nrityagram Dance Ensemble in collaboration with the Chitrasena Dance Company presents Ahuti on April 21 in Jaffna at the Jaffna Cultural Centre (free passes can be collected at the Centre) and on April 25 and 26 in Colombo at the Bishop’s College Auditorium. The show runs for 100 minutes including a 20 minute intermission. Tickets are available at mytickets.lk. For further information, call 0777366543.