Productions

List of dance productions

The KYAAT Ensemble performs regularly at various festivals and programs around the country. Some of the dance productions are listed below:

Navagraha (The Lords of the Constellation)

This is a unique choreography telling the spectacular stories of the planets in the constellation, defining their characteristics and their effect on humans. Traditional  Navagraha Stotras of Shri Adi Shankaracharya are used as the Lyrics for this production. The music composition is a blend of classical Bharatanatyam Jathis, Ragas, Swaras and Navagraha Mantra creating an interesting blend of sounds.  For the special effects in this choreography, two more classical Indian art forms can be seen in the story telling, Yoga and Kalaripaatu, which adds strength and splendour to the Sanchari. The Choreography is in the Bharatanatyam Nritya Nataka format.

Manas (Based on mind, inspired from the Yoga Sutras)

Manas is a unique production on the concept of mind. The choreography is a blend of two powerful disciplines Yoga and Bharatanatyam. The production is based on the essence of slokas, selected from the Vedas, Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. Here the presentation is a visual manifestation to the chanted slokas —  a moving, breathing illustration of the primordial spoken words which are ancient and time honoured.

Sairandri — Traditional solo production

A powerful episode from the stories of Draupadi.

This story is picked from the Mahabharata where Draupadi and the Pandavas are at their last and crucial stages of exile. All of them are in disguise. The great princess Draupadi is disguised as a beautician for queen Sudeshna in Matsya, a small province. Here she faces the wrath of harassment  by Keechaka, the brother of Sudeshna. Unable to bear the trauma, she seeks help from her husbands and is astonished by their response … the story unfolds.

This is a 1-hour, two people dance-drama. The role of the Pandavas is played by one person is a Vachica Abhinaya format (a dialogue) where the role of Sairandri is in dance (Bharatanatyam) and the role of Pandavas is in theatrical format, with dialogues in English.

Nritya Nataka productions by KYAAT Ensemble

Krishnaleelamrutha

The stories for Krishnaleela are selected from Bhagavatam. The play is divided into three categories — 1) Baliya Kanda – enacted and danced by my young and extremely talented young students, 2) Yavana Kanda – presented by my talented teenage students and 3) Yuddha Kanda presented by senior students of KYAAT Ensemble.

Shiva Leela

Interesting stories of Shiva selected from various traditional compositions in a Margam format, which are enacted by my senior dancers and me.