Dallas teen performs arangetram to full house

DALLAS: Swati Ravi, a high honours student at Greenhill School, Dallas, performed her Bharatnatyamarangetram recently in Texas, to a 700-strong audience mostly comprising NRIs. Dallas hosts around 25 such Indian dance debuts each year ranging from Bharatnatyam to Kuchipudi and Odissi.
The invocation comprised of a Kauthuvam on Lord Muruga, followed by Pancha Nadai, which mainly comprised of steps rather than body movements.The centerpiece of Swati’s arangetram was Varnam on Dasaavatharam – Kamala Jaasya, in which she depicted the ten incarnations of Vishnu with dexterity and emotions.

In the Padam called Navarasa Ramayana, Swati wonderfully depicted the nine emotions by enacting scenes from Ramayana. She also had Padams on Lord Shiva and Devi. The two-hour-long performance also included Madhuvanthi Thillana, a fast paced dance with a lot of movements. Swati also did a Padam tribute to Madhusri for completing 75 arangetrams.