Before the advent of summer, a night in the lunar calendar is dedicated to the god Shiva and celebrated as Maha Shivratri. Among the many tales connected with this day, one belief is that it is very potent time for one's spiritual awakening. And, what could be better than awakening oneself in an atmosphere of Indian classical music and dance.
At the fourth edition of the Maha Shivaratri Festival by Natya Tarangini, a city-based Kuchipudi dance academy, four engaging performances by well known artist will keep one engrossed in Shiva's bhakti. The line-up of performers includes classical vocalists Pandit Rajan Sajan Misra, Odissi dancer Swapnaokalpa Dasgupta Kathak dance duo Hari and Chethana, and Kuchipudi dancer Amritha Lahiri.
"We have tried to revive the old tradition of night concerts where legends used to perform at night," says Kaushalya Reddy, Kuchipudi dancer and director at Natya Tarangini. "Since one is supposed to be awake to get Shiva's blessings on this night, we came up with the idea of accordingly scheduling performances. Art such as music and dance gives anandam (joy) and de-stresses, relaxes and awakens the soul. So, after you have your dinner, just sit back and enjoy these performances," adds Reddy.
Since Nataraja (the lord of dance) is a depiction of Shiva, Hari and Chethana will perform Sambram (celebration of joy of dancing). Chethana says, "We will begin with a small shloka on Krishna, and move on to pure taal where we will present traditional aspects of Kathak including abhinaya and nritya and take it to the bhakti aspect. After this, we will have a jugalbandi between recorded percussion music and Kathak. We will also showcase the divine love between Radha and Krishna. We'll end the performances with Shivanjali."
For vocalists Pandit Rajan Sajan Misra, this festival holds another significance. Pt Sajan Mishra says,"Hum Benaras ko belong karte hain, jo ki Shiv ki nagri hai.....Maha Shivaratri is an auspicious festival so when we present something on this day, there's an inherent purity in that performance, is to convince Lord Shiva to hear our prayers, bless us and make our listeners experience this joy, too."
There will also be a contemporary and traditional group art show titled Meditation, at the Nandjeet Art Gallery Inside The school premises.
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