Nritya Chirantan: An Ode to Bangladeshi Dancers

Bengal Classical Music Festival 2017's third day opened with an extraordinary performance. Dancers Sudeshna Swayamprabha and Sweety Das (Manipuri), Amit Chowdhury and Zuairiyah Mouli (Bharatanatyam), and Mehraj Haque Tushar and Snata Shahrin (Kathak) showed on this prestigious stage, the standard and sadhana with which our local artistes are trained.

Titled “Nritya Chirantan”, the performance was organised and conceptualised by noted Manipuri dancer Sharmila Bannerjee, and directed and choreographed by Shibly Mohammad, Bimbavati Devi, and Kirti Ramgopal.

The performances flowed in one after the other. It began with Sweety and Sudeshna performing a Mangalacharan in Manipuri composition. Together on stage, the duo contrasted and complemented each other with their individual strengths. Sudeshna, one of the finest young Manipuri dancers of the country, Sudeshna was the epitome of grace throughout her pieces. Sweety's sweetness then emanated from both her mudras and expressions as she took over the stage next. Sudeshna came back and proved everyone right with a mesmerizing Tandava piece.

Amit Chowdhury and Zuariyah Mouli both, individually, displayed the gold standard for Bharatanatyam dancers in the country. Zuariyah, sweet and soulful, represented Bharatanatyam with utmost precision, but it was Amit, who showed the audience what a compact, composed dancer with strong foundation can do. While fluid and continuous in movements, Amit's biggest strength as a dancer is his eloquence and ability to distinguish one full mudra from the next. With women representing majority of the dance scene in the country, the applause that Amit's performances gained stood testament to what men can achieve as dancers.

Tushar then graced the stage for a short Kathak piece, right before Snata Shehreen presented basic and technical Kathak to the audience. This was before the duo got together for a duet. Their synchronization was worth following throughout the presentation, as each tehai ended with both their feet hitting the stage at the stage time.

Two by two, he dancers returned on stage, coming together for a chorus dance on the song “Nrityero Taale Taale” by Rabindranath Tagore. With Sweety and Sudeshna in the centre adorned in red, Amit and Mouli, and Snata and Tushar, wore the green of our land, and together, the six showed us Bangladesh - in colours, in dance, and in passion.