Kathak performance charms audience

SD Sharma 

Chandigarh, June 25

The concluding day of the National Classical Dance Festival belonged to the young  kathak virtuosos duo of  Elisha Deep Garg (22) and Sunny Shishodiya (23), both senior disciples of Pandit Birju Maharaj,  who danced straight to the hearts of the strong crowd  before  providing grand finale to the festival at the Tagore Theatre here today.  

The duo defined and delineated the aspects of Taandav and Laasya, which exude the respective emotive representation of masculine and feminine attributes of Shiva and Parvati, in opening invocatory 'Ardhang' which depicted the Ardhnarishwer swaroop of Shiv-Parvati.

They moved on to present a solo dance performance by Sunny Sisodia who teamed up with Elisha for a duet dance set in Tal Dhamar. There was an innovative sharing of pedant by Elisha when Sunny performed. He rendered pedant when Elisha took the centre stage.

In the second phase, the versatile Elisha presented a romance laden Thumri , ‘Lapak jhapak pag rokat Shyam’ which brought alive the chhed-chhad between Lord Krishna and his divine consort  sRadha. Later, they presented some compositions set to teen tal. The audience relished their synchronised foot work, precise body movements and emotional expressions.  

Live music by Jagdish on vocals and harmonium, Ghulam Mohammad on sarangi, Zuneid Ahmed Khan on tabla and Bhanu Sisodia on pakhawaj provided matching musical accompaniment. Chief guest Dr Shobha Koser and Balkar Sidhu, director, Tagore Theatre, honoured the artistes.

Meanwhile, the TS Central Library organised an interaction with well known poet Amarjit Amar to mark the release of his tenth book, ‘Ayina Hai Zindagi’, an anthology of  Urdu  ghazals  at Library Hall on Friday.