Tapping our feet while listening to a film song or feeling the serenity of devotional songs, music and dance are an integral part of our lives. “Dancing is nothing but visual music,” says Kalaimamani Priya Murle, artistic director at Shri Silamvam Academy. A Bharatanatyam artiste for more than four decades, Priya will perform at Songs, Sung Dance, a poetry, music, and dance event hosted by Madras Mehfil — run by Vandana Srinivasan and her husband Anand Pattathil — and presented by Aalaap Concepts.
The evening will feature a variety of musical styles, including folk, film, ghazal, sufi, classical, and semi-classical. The event also has a segment featuring four Bharatanatyam performers Laasya Narasimhachari, Priya Murle, Uma Sathyanarayanan, and Vijna Vasudevan emoting to songs of each genre sung live by Vandana and her team of three musicians playing sitar, sarod, tabla, and keyboard-piano. “This event presents an opportunity for the dancers to respond and to do abhinaya — expressions to different kinds of music and celebrate the inextricable connection between music and dance,” says Akhila Krishnamoorthy, founder of Aalaap Concepts.
Vandana shares that sufi and ghazal were performed at cultural evenings during the ‘70s and ‘80s in the city. The purpose of the event is “to create public accessibility to this culture and to break the stereotype that the art form is not practised in the south. This performance is an approach to revive the love for Hindustani and classical music among the audience,” she explains. This show also breaks the barriers that Bharatanatyam can be performed only to one particular form of music.
Set to perform on a popular classical poem, Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi artiste, Laasya Narasimhachari, founder-director of Rasoham, says, “The art form has shown its versatility and it is a medium that is all-encompassing. And what I believe we are doing is creating a conversation between song and dance.” She also adds that abhinaya is an ability to connect with each other and that through the performances they are establishing an unspoken connection between the artistes and the rasikas.
Having curated a multi-sensory experience show, the presenters say that it is experimental. “We want to grow cross-pollination. This means encouraging the audience to collaborate with different art forms so that there is a lot more activity in art takes place,” says Vandana. Talking from an artistic point of view, Priya says, “It broadens my perspective as a performer and teacher to go in-depth and understand the meaning of a song and express it.”
The organisers believe that the whole process is feedback-driven and welcome the audience to share their responses. They request the audience to come with an open mind to learn from other art forms because budding artistes can explore ideas from the performances and evolve the art forms. “Even if they come up with one idea is enough for the art form to grow,” says Vandana while Laasya adds, “Together we make art beautiful.”
Songs, Sung Dance will be held at Spaces, Besant Nagar on April 6 at 8 pm. Tickets are priced at Rs 300, available at mdnd.com
