Ballet parking

Meera meets Karna and Abhimanyu through classical ballet, scheduled over the next seven days in the capital

It's time to witness a change in the classical dance scene, with a week of scintillating ballet performances. Catch an emancipated Krishna worshipper, Meerau00a0-- her dancing and singing symbolising female abandon, or the heroic Abhimanyu, pushing his way through guile and physical violence.

These are some of the themes at the Summer Ballet Festival by Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra. The colourful acts will bring endearing characters from the mythological archives alive, and cast a spell of rare classical charm. Padmashri Shobha Deepak Singh plays protagonist in the evolved endeavour.

ABHIMANYU
Au00a0dance drama in Mayurbhanj Chhau (May 13)
Choreography: Shashidharan Nair
Music: Barun Gupta
Script: Neelabh
Lighting: Milind Sharad
It reflects the Chhau dance idiom, and blatantly exploits the martial nature of Chhau in the Mayurbhanj district of Orissa. The performance channels the dance through an ancient web of connivance, guile and physical violence. The hero stands redefined both in terms of tearing away emotional concepts which cloak and obscure well-known epic figures, as well as in reshaping 'heroism' through a more primal movement impulse.

PARIKRAMA (May 14 and 15)
Choreography: Shashidharan Nair
Music: Shubha Mudgal
Lighting: Sharad
It presents a state of mind that forms an integral part of the Indian psyche, plunging into and emerging from the cycle of human birth and death. Parikrama commences with the Hiranyagarbh or 'the Golden Egg,' a state where nothing was, and everything is. The Hiranyagarbh is covered with filaments of five elements - ether, wind, fire, water and earth. Brahman, the soul of the Hiranyagarbh, seeks to manifest itself in the form of the atman from a state of non-being to that of being. "A fusion of dance, music and lighting lets you see music and hear dance," smiles Shobha.

Karna
Au00a0ballet in Mayurbhanj Chhau (May 7)
Choreography: Late Guru Krishna Chandra Naik, Shashidharan Nair
Music: Barun Gupta
Lighting: Sharad Kulshreshtha
Karna, as delineated by Vyas, provides the most penetrating study of relations between man and his destiny, nature and nurture, deemed and redeemed. Providence was consistently unkind towards this righteous hero. Karna realised values by winning in circumstances of 'limitation and peculiarity.' This ballet is dedicated to the Karnas of the world, who in the social milieu, must be seen in the right perspective.

Meera
A dance-drama on the life of Meerabai. (May 8 and 9)
Choreography: Shashidharan Nair
Music: Shubha Mudgal
Lighting: Sharad Kulshreshtha
Wherever Meera went, she widened the message of liberation and urged an inner awakening through her poetry. The performance is an attempt to redefine the image of Meera. It analyses and interrogates the situation of women in India, who seek space in a male-dominated society. "While in the beginning, Meera seemed to pose no creative challenge, by the end of our research, we were convinced that the miracles in Meera's life were allegories of hurdles that women survive," says director Shobha Deepak Singh.

Summer Ballet Festival
When: May 7 to 15, 7 pm to 8.30 pm
At: Kamani Auditorium, 1, Copernicus Marg for passes,
Call: 23386428/ 29