Dance fest in honour of Lord Shiva

MUMBAI: With Mahashivratri falling on February 13, a prominent temple at Chheda Nagar in Chembur has organized an elaborate dance festival in honour of Lord Shiva from February 1-13. Another name for Lord Shiva is Natraj, and this annual event is named Natyanjali, literally an offering of dance.
Senior dancers guided or inspired by gurus like Darshana Jhaveri (Manipuri), Asha Joglekar (Kathak), Kanak Rele (Mohiniattam), Rajee Narayanan (Bharatanatyam), Chitra Visweswaran (Bharatanatyam) and Gopinathan Nair (Kathakali) will perform.
The Sri Subramania Samaj temple has been organizing this cultural extravaganza since 2005. P S Subramanian of the Samaj said, “We drew inspiration from the famous dance festival at Chidambaram temple in Tamil Nadu. Over time, hundreds of dancers and troupes began to perform in the run-up to Mahashivratri. Slowly, Shiva temples across South India adopted a tradition of hosting dance festivals on this occasion, and we thought of doing so in Mumbai.”
Natyanjali has grown from a three-day programme to a 13-day event this season. “Initially, we allotted time slots of one hour to individual artistes, but have now reduced it to 20 minutes given the vast number of performers. Participants arrive from all parts of the country as well as abroad,” Subramanian said.
The highlight of the opening day, on Thursday, is Nruttamaalika, a garland of various genres, including Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Mohiniattam and Kuchipudi, all performed by expert teachers. “Most have been training students for decades, some of them run their own institutes,” said Jayashree Nair, herself a teacher since 42 years. Nair has composed the act and is the nodal coordinator for Natyanjali artistes worldwide. Bragha Bessel, a senior Bhartanatyam exponent from Tamil Nadu, will perform the same day.
“We are practising for the group show for up to 10 hours, and are rather particular about attendance. We would have included Sattriya performers from Odisha too, but they were unable to arrive for rehearsal. Yet, there is always next year,” Nair said.
On the final day, 50 of the best gurus will perform individually for five minutes each. There are two weekends before February 13, and each has up to 14 performances.