A buffet of Ballet

All the dance enthuisiasts can head over to experience some great ballet performances as Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra is up with their 11th Festival of Ballets that kick started on 9 May. 

The first day of the festival featured the dance performance Meera. The performance brought up the glory lies in her ability to articulate through her poetry the turbulence that transpired in her life. Meera’s life seems to be an allegory for most women, that centuries later, her name lives on. Wherever she went, through the effervescence of her poetry, she spread the message of liberation and urged an inner awakening. The performance was choreographed by Shashidharan Nair and the music was given by Shubha Mudgal under the production and direction by Shobha Deepak Singh. 

The second day of the festival (10 May) will feature the performance Shree Durga. The performance is choreographed by Shashidharan Nair and the vocal composition is by Shanti Sharma. The performance highlights that Durga and Kali are not vehicles of a bygone era but remain pertinent today. One reads daily about the atrocities on women. When the Gods give boons they themselves become victims of these boons and it is then that they invoke Shree Shakti; feminine power, to vanquish demons in society. Female power conquers over mindless demons of society.

On the third day (15 May), the festival will  present Karna. It is choreographed by Late Guru Krishna Chandra Naik and Shashidharan Nair. The music is given by Barun Gupta. Towards no other persona of the epic of Mahabharata do circumstances remain consistently so hostile. Karna’s life and times are frozen in their entirety and his fortunes into a perpetual predicament. This ballet is dedicated to all the Karnas natural and unnatural, who are denied the rightful place in the social milieu, seen in its correct perspective. Karna’s life has been so unfair that it immediately elicits sympathy. His life in the epic is resplendent with magnificent misadventures and acts of valour.

The closing day of the festival (17 May) will be featuring Kumar Sambhava. The music is been given by Barun Gupta and the scripting is done by Neelabh. The act is directed by Shobha Deepak Singh. It is an endearing story of the demon Tarak, who enjoyed sacred protection in the form of a boon of invincibility from Lord Brahma, of which he took blatant advantage and wreaked havoc on earth. In desperation, mankind appealed to Brahma and the gods to save them from Tarak’s oppression and Lord Brahma said that Tarak could only be killed by the son of Lord Shiva and Parvati, with the intervention of Kamdeva, the god of love. Shiva and Parvati married. After a peaceful existence in the mountains, Kartikeya, their eldest son who was incubated in six wombs of celestial virgins, was born to allow the world to rejoice. Kartikeya was taught by Shiva. At the end of his training Shiva asked his son to lead the army into battle and rid the world of Tarak. 

After a ferocious battle, Kartikeya mustered all his powers and released a deadly bolt against Tarak, that instantly saw him crash to the ground, dead. And so, the darkness lifted from the heavens and earth and the gods and humans rejoiced. Kamdeva’s death and his wife Rati’s lamentation offer the poignant and sad reality of a tale, where good and evil coexist.