‘Easier done than Said’ – Dancing it out - Stupendous Sudhana Sankar’
| Susmita Saurav, IOP Correspondent - 21 Jul 2022

The dancer Ms Sudhana captivated the audience with her immaculate performance for about 75 minutes. It was later known that this solo performance of hers for about 75 minutes is a major solo recital after her knee injury and the consequent surgery.

By Susmita Saurav           

New Delhi, July 21, 2022: It was last Thursday, another busy working day in Delhi. The evening roads, as usual could be seen with office goers hurriedly catching their usual mode of transport their way back home. But it seemed all roads were leading to Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre at New Delhi. It was an evening of a Solo Bharatanatyam Recital there by Ms. Sudhana Sankar, a promising artiste and an accomplished dancer. Ms. Sudhana is a graded artiste of Doordarshan Kendra, Delhi since 2015.  She is also a recipient of ‘Scholarship to Young Artistes’ of the Ministry of Culture and of the Government of NCT’s Sahitya Kala Parishad Scholarship. She is also a recipient of ET NOW ‘Women Leadership Award’ – Professional Bharatanatyam Dancer in December, 2019.

The event started on time with many top bureaucrats and VIPs turning up and with the traditional lighting of the lamp by the dignitaries on the dais, Dr. Vinod Paul, Member, NITI Aayog, Smt. S. Radha Chauhan, Secretary, Department of Personnel & Training, Dr. Atulya Misra, Additional Chief Secretary to Tamil Nadu and Chief Resident Commissioner of Tamil Nadu in Delhi and the teachers (Guru) Dr. Saroja Vaidyanathan (Padmabhushan Awardee) and Smt. Rama Vaidyanathan (Sangeet Natak Akademi  Awardee).    

It was unique of the dancer, Ms. Sudhana, before start of the recital, to have dedicated her performance of the day to all the COVID-19 warriors, doctors, policymakers, scientists, researchers, front line workers and healthcare professionals who fought this deadly virus incessantly for the last more than two years. 

The invocation piece by Ms. Sudhana Sankar was a presentation on Lord Vishnu, who manifests himself as the Himalayan Mountains. This was an elegant piece, squarely supported by the musicians.   

The second piece was a ‘Varnam’.  It elaborately describes the love of the heroine towards Lord Thyagaraja (a form of ‘Shiva’).  This piece was the longest one, with the dancer bringing in her face the powerful emotion of the heroine and encapsulating the highs and lows of this exhilarating human experience.  What is adorable is the dancer’s unswerving stamina that endured a non-stop 30-minute non-stop performance without the tempo losing for a moment!!!

The next presentation too centered on Lord Shiva.  It’s the story of a young girl smitten by Shiva, waiting for Him to cross her street and hopefully look at her just once.  The dancer beautifully expressed the silly ploys of the girl who is in a state of anguish to get His attention.

The fourth presentation was an emotional piece of Draupadi when she was dragged by the Gauravas by the hair and the disrobing of her saree in the dice hall, and that too in her menstrual period.  This was a classic presentation by the dancer.

The replication of Draupadi’s traumatic state at the gambling hall of Cauravas, as brought out by Sudhana on the stage, was applauded by the audience, many of whom who were seen to be in tears at the end of the presentation. That exemplifies the involvement of the dancer in entirety in demonstrating the woes, torture, agony and torment and suffering of Draupadi at the hands of Kauravas, when she was deprived of her fundamental rights, outraged in a room full of ‘honourable entities’, none of whom came to her rescue.  The vocalist Ms. Sudha Raghuraman and the other orchestra too chipped in to make this item, the masterpiece of the recital.

The fifth and the final presentation of ‘Thillana’ was on Lord Krishna wherein the nayika (Heroine) is mesmerised by the enchanting music of Krishna’s flute.  This piece was music to the ears and eyes, making the audience feel joyous and cheerful.

The event concluded with felicitation of the invited guests and the artistes.  What was palpably significant was none of the audience was in a haste to leave the hall. 

This is ample evidence to the fact that the dancer captivated the audience with her immaculate performance. It was later known that this solo performance of hers for about 75 minutes is a major solo recital after her knee injury and the consequent surgery.

One could imagine the quantum of hard work Ms. Sudhana should have put in for months together and the grit and the perseverance she possesses to make her recital an everlasting memory in the minds of the art loving audience and to herself.

Image Courtesy - Vinay Tiwari 


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