This dance performance in Hyderabad will get you immersed in bhakti

An Abhang is a devotional song in praise of Krishna which origi nated in Maharashtra during the Bhakti movement. These songs, unlike conventional songs with the bhakti rasa, aim to bring God to common people. Divya Ravi, a dancer based in the UK, comes to Hyderabad with her Bharatanatyam solo titled Varkari, to an intimate show at Kourtyard Kacheri. Varkari is an amalgamation of all the Abhangs Divya has worked on, in different contexts. She starts with the very first Abhang she had choreographed, and showcases the dramaturgical arc of how she has evolved in choreographic journey with Abhangs.

“The beauty of the Varkari sampradaya is that it advocated the idea of a personalised godhead, a deity who each one could have a very deeply personal relationship with. The beauty that we observe in most of the bhakti, and specifically in the Varkari tradition, is the versatility of emotion in the context of how they connect with Vithala. There is so much variety in that, and that’s what I’m hoping to explore through this piece,” Divya says.

The dancer was inspired to explore Abhangs when she visited Pandharpur in 2019. As an Abhang is not widely explored in Bharatanatyam, Divya did not have a template to work with, so she resorted to the movement vocabulary, and how her body responded to the unique music and Pakhawaj beats. The choreography is also inspired by folk dance forms like Lavani, Dindi and Kala. “The Bharatanatyam vocabulary is retained, but there is an added layer, a texture which comes from these folk art forms,” she says.

Divya deeply resonates with what the Varkari sampradaya stands for, and aims to spread awareness of their ethos. “The idea of God is a little like ‘holier than thou’, somewhere kept up there in the temple, very distant. But the Varkaris aimed to bring that concept of the deity from the walls of the temples into the streets, into the homes and into the hearts of the common people,” she explains.

Having performed for multiple audiences abroad as well, Divya says that the performance can be understood by everyone as long as you’re able to authentically convey that emotion. “In my opinion, if we as artists focus on delivering the emotional experience, people will connect to it in some way. They may not exactly understand why they have felt that, but they will feel it because it’s only an emotion,” she says.

Tickets at INR 1500. November 9, 6 pm. At Old School Brindavanam, Jubilee Hills.