Young dancer Aishwarya Balasubramanian impresses with her mature approach

Aishwarya Balasubramanian
| Photo Credit: Iyappan Arumugam

Aishwarya Balasubramanian is a well-rounded dancer whose  performance shows her growing maturity as an artiste. Starting with an interesting Pushpanjali in ragamalika in Adi, composed by violinist Easwar Ramakrishnan, and visualised with offbeat usi sollus that were intoned perfectly by nattuvanar Jayashree Ramanathan, she displayed her good sense of timing at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha’s Pongal Dance Festival.

Aishwarya, following sadir-researcher Jeetender Hirschfeld who advocates concentrating on the nayika bhava in nayika-centered compositions than moving the attention to the nayaka as is the practice today, interpreted the nayika as a strong, serene woman, confident of Rajagopala’s love in ‘Mohalahiri’ (Todi, Adi, Sivanandam). She walks into his presence, smiling coyly.

The dancer, a student of Anita Guha,  created visuals of sringara using props of a painting that she talks to, a feather that reminds her of the nayaka’s touch, and a calf that reminds her of him. The yearning was there, but it was mild and matter-of-fact. The bhakti, as the nayaka was Rajagopala, was present, but not overly emphasised. In fact, Aishwarya introduced a raas-lila to show how understanding she was, sharing her beloved with other women. She turned an almost physically-debilitating yearning into a ‘happily-waiting for him’ piece.

Mridangist Ram Shankar Babu’s jathis were rhythmic, but did not sound as catchy during the first piece. Credit goes to Jayashree for her firm, soothing intonation. Aishwarya is light on her feet, but tends to avoid steps with araimandi. Her tattu-mettu showed the deep-seated posture and the contrast was dramatic. Some rooted steps will be welcome.

The music came together very well: Hariprasad’s best, and possibly the evening’s, was the Nattakurunji ‘Vazhi maraithirukkude’ (Adi, Gopalakrishna Bharati). The melody flowed while the percussion was unobtrusive. Aishwarya was suitably mature without overdoing the pathos. There was some build-up to the highpoint when Nandi moves, and that was avoidable.

While Easwar’s violin was melodious throughout, he also shone in the Maand thillana (Adi, Lalgudi Jayaraman). Sujit Naik (flute) was tuneful as well. The dancer was well-rehearsed and performed the finale with good timing and energy.