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Every year with the arrival of the spring, the city
awaits the most happening cultural festival "Vasanthahabba"
at Nrityagram. After an absence of one year, Vasanthahabba
was back again last year on February 3, 2001, enthralling
the city audience with some ethereal performances from
internationally acclaimed artistes. Every year the number
of audience has been growing, from 3,000 in 1994 to
a whopping 15,000 last year. Some of them had come two
hours earlier to witness this dusk to dawn festival
and surely they were not disappointed!
Click
on the images below to get a bigger picture
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The programme began literally with a bang,
with the thundering beat of 'Dollu Kunitha'
by folk artists from the Malnad parts
of Karnataka. This folk dance is performed
by cowherds to ward off evil spirits and believed
to have originated from the legend of Dollasura.
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| Then
it was Bharatanatyam by Bhanumathi's group
who did a dance recital called 'Purnanjali'.
This performance was entirely done in Namaskar
posture. |
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Nrityagram has two star performers in Odissi
and one among them, Bijoyini Satpathy
did a solo in Odissi. |
| Then it was
time for some ethereal magic. Famous Kathak
couple Nirupama and Rajendra presented
'Saath-Saath' and in their gleaming pearl
white costume enthralled the audience |
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Nirupama and Rajendra also presented a dance
drama from the excerpts of Ram Charit Manas,
depicting the courtship of Lord Rama and
Sita |
| One of the most
awaited performance was by Daksha Seth
and company. They presented 'Bhookamp'
on the theme of earthquake and 'sarpagathi'
on the dance of snakes. The movements inspired
by Kalaripayattu and the flexibility of their
body kept the viewers spellbound. |
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Renowned Grammy award winner Pandit Vishwa
Mohan Bhatt and his son presented a recital
on their 'Mohan Veena', an adaptation of the
guitar. They also performed the piece from
the movie 'Meeting of Two Rivers' which got
the Grammy award. |
| 'Somana
Kunitha' is a cymbal and drum based folk
dance from Southern Karnataka done in praise
of Lord Shiva. The unique thing about this
performance was that an all women group presented
it. |
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The
audience comprised people from all walks of
life- villagers from Hesaraghatta, music connoisseurs
from all over Karnataka and foreign visitors. |
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Click
here to read more about Nrityagram
| Text and Photographs
by Levine Lawrence |
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7:49:33 AM 
