A jugal of a different kind

Divya Kasturi is a familiar face on the Chennai dance scene. And Chitravina Ganesh is well-known in the kutcheri circuit, both as a chitravina player and a vocalist (as part of the Carnatica Brothers). Tomorrow, on the first day of Brahma Gana Sabha’s dance festival, as part of the Margazhi concerts, Divya Kasturi and Chitravina Ganesh will be coming together to perform a one-of-a-kind Bharatanatyam concert, where the vocals will be replaced by the chitravina.
Divya, who learns Carnatic music from Ganesh, says that the idea just popped up during one of their discussions.“We were having a conversation on different things, and he just brought up this idea. We tried two-three sessions together and it was a pleasure dancing to the chitravina, as it is close to human voice. Since he is my guru, we found that we had a better connection while performing together. We did a performance in London, in September 2017, at the Indian High Commission, and thoroughly enjoyed it. We thought we should do this in Chennai as well, and what better time than during the Margazhi
season?” she asks.
She says that replacing vocals with an instrument has been attempted earlier, but this is probably the first time the chitravina is being used in a dance performance in Chennai.
Ganesh says that the chitravina, a 21-string, slided instrument, produces a sound that is close to human voice, and so, using it for a Bharatanatyam recital works very well. “Divya is a multi-faceted artiste; she is a dancer who also knows vocals. I just trust her completely and give her a lot of responsibilities, and play as I usually do in my concerts. She does abhinayams for ragams, swarams, everything… I even asked her to sing a few lines as she danced so that the audience will be surprised,” he says and adds, “During the London performance, we took some compositions from the Pancharatna Kritis, for which, when the swaram comes, she put thalam and for the sahityam part, she danced. And towards the climax of the performance, I did a rhythmic exercise for which she had to respond.”
Divya feels that there is a lot of freedom and liberty when dancing to an instrument. “I’m so used to focusing on the steps while dancing, so when I danced to the chitravina, I found that I could really concentrate on the music. Also, when I’m doing a regular Bharatanatyam recital, I rehearse with the orchestra so much, practising the jathis, the rhythmic aspects and all that. From our earlier performance, I found that there are a lot of surprise elements, as we are constantly taking off from each other, which helps us bring out our creative best,” she says.
She says that she realised the value of having learnt Carnatic music, and feels it is essential for dancers. “You need to be super-alert, otherwise you can’t move a muscle,” she says. She adds that they have taken the learnings from the previous performance and improved their act this time. “When we did the first time, we had rehearsed some compositions and hadn’t for a few others. Every performance is a learning experience for an artiste. We have taken the positives (ideas that worked then) and tried to refine the performance,” she says but adds that this one will still be different because lot of the execution is going to be impromptu. “Our creative instincts do not operate the same way every time we perform; it takes inspiration from the place where you are the, and the people who you are with, so it changes every time. The same kalpanai cannot get repeated in exactly the same way again, so every performance is going to be different. We have choosen certain compositions that would help the dance elements, which would also enable the audience to hear the dance and see the music!” she explains.
The way in which the accompanying artistes are going to be part of the performance is also something they have learnt from the previous performance. “There, they just landed up on stage on the day of the performance, this time, we decided to rehearse along with them just to give them an alert on what is going to happen. The two of us have a lot of sync, but the other artistes involved need a little bit of planning,” Divya says. This performance will have violinist Karaikal Venkatasubramaniam, mridangist CN Ramakrishnan, and kanjira player Nanda Masti as the accompanists. “The kanjira is a new inclusion, which we did not have it during the London performance,” adds Ganesh.
Divya admits that attempting a new production during the season is quite a challenge. “I tried to do a production that I had tried in London earlier, despite my friends telling me not to do that. Logistically, it was a problem because everyone is busy during this time, so I found it hard to get the lighting setups and all that,” she says. However, she feels that the audience has evolved now and is open to new attempts. “We think that the audience we get during the season are purists, but the times have changed, and so have people. They actually want to try something that is different,” she signs off.