Campaign decodes communicative power of Bharatanatyam

Called Nirikshana Narratives, the campaign saw dancers sharing various aspects of the classical dance. The word Nirikshana roughly means ‘to investigate’

The team didn’t expect thatthe campaign will be a huge success with 560 performances interpreting the idea of nirikshana so beautifully. Rama, who closely observed the campaign, was extremely overwhelmed by the responses. “It became like a collective where the entire Bharatanatyam world came together to harness the communicative power of the classical dance. It was very interesting to see how young Bharatanatyamdancers interpreted the word nirikshana and how they have used Bharatanatyam vocabulary to express it,” shares Rama.

Dancers from Singapore-based Apsaras Arts Dance Company are quite thrilled about participating in the campaign. Aravinth Kumarasamy, artistic director of the troupe, before boarding a flight to Chennai, tells us, “We came to know about the campaign through social media and found it interesting. We thought of conveying a social message through classical dance. We were affected by the recent tragic bore well incident in Tiruchy. Our dancers performed an impromptu choreography in order to share the message of the importance of ‘prevention’ over rescue, urging the communities to seal off all unused bore wells to prevent any more tragic mishaps. The dancers who took part in this campaign are Nikita Menon, Maanasa Sri Ganesh, Aiyshwarya Kumar, Kshiraja Govind, Shobana Ravichandra and Krithika Rajagopalan. The dance was choreographed by our resident choreographer Mohanapriyan Thavarajah.”

Rama Vaidyanathan will also be convening a conference on Bharatanatyam where she has invited more than 65 artistes and speakers from all around the world to present their view points through lectures, performances and panel discussions.