Aniruddha Knight presenting his lecdem cum efficiency at Dance For Dance pageant, in Chennai, 2022.
| Photograph Credit score: Particular Association
When Aniruddha Knight, grandson of T. Balasaraswati, and from a lineage of musicians and dancers who may be traced again to the Thanjavur Courtroom, first appeared on the scene some many years in the past, he appeared to disappoint — his Bharatanatyam method was not fairly as much as expectations.
In his new avatar, Aniruddha is mature and polished, and appears able to tackle the mantle of his heritage. He has established himself as a trainer of advantage, and selected to focus on the padam-javali side of Balasaraswati’s legacy.
Music is, nevertheless, Aniruddha’s energy. He sang, he emoted Balamma-style, with Anita Ratnam alongside, who prefaced each bit with heart-warming attention-grabbing tidbits. Mixed with orchestral help par excellence, the programme titled ‘From the Coronary heart of Custom’ for the ‘Dance for Dance pageant’ introduced by Kalaavahini Belief, was a deal with.
Aniruddha says he was introduced up creating the abhinaya for a padam on the spot. “After all, the kais had been taught beforehand; I watched my mom (Lakshmi Knight) carry out this fashion. There was all the time music in the home. After I was actually younger, about two or three, they might costume me up for leisure. T. Viswanathan or T. Ranganathan would play or sing one thing and make me dance. My grandmother felt I might proceed dancing.”
The present was part-lec-dem, part-performance. The vocalists (Usha Shivakumar, Vidya Shankaranarayanan), having sung for his mom Lakshmi Knight, have an extended affiliation with the bani. Music and dance went collectively in tandem, with music as the place to begin.
Aniruddha demonstrated just a few padams. He would begin the track and the beat, and the musicians would take over. He would stroll forwards and backwards whereas emoting, true to the Balamma model. Every bit had an inherent rhythm, quicker for a extra superficial piece, and slower in any other case, however by no means too gradual.
The dancer’s music and his expressions had been each outstanding — is he a musician who can dance, or vice versa? He, nevertheless, will get distracted by the music, and that is available in the way in which of the circulation of expressions. If he may solely maintain on to the expressions and the sthayi for a bit longer, the world shall be at his toes.
Aniruddha Knight and Anita Ratnam on the Dance for Dance pageant, in Chennai, 2022.
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association
Aniruddha’s finest was the 1700s padam ‘Shiva deeksha paru’ (Kurinji, Adi, Ghanam Seenaiya), when a younger lady, who has taken to Shiva worship, will get keen about Rajagopala himself. She is in two minds as to whom to decide on. His expressions, in an easy circulation of abhinaya, had been masterly. One other spotlight was the Ninda stuti, ‘Kacchi rangan krupai’ (Kalyani, Adi, Ghanam Krishna Iyer), when the heroine chides the lord for his miserliness.
‘Tamarasaksha’ was demonstrated to indicate what number of alternative ways ‘lotus-eyed’ may be proven. Aniruddha took up some Kshetrayya padams that night (‘Chellanayanulera’- Sankarabharanam, ‘Mosamayya’- Ahiri, ‘Payyada’ – Nadanamakriya), the wealthy music flowing with dance in poetic confluence all via.
The stalwarts within the orchestra had been Adyar Gopinath (mridangam), B.S. Purushothaman (kanjira), Devarajan (flute), Sikhamani (violin) and Joe Daly (tampura).