Bharata Nritya School of Dance

Updated on: Saturday, September 24, 2011

The Bharata Nritya School of Dance celebrated its first cultural programme under the banner of ‘Tarun Sandhya’ recently. This was the first time when Roshmi Bandopadhyay, principal, and her students, who have been prolific in performing for other organisers, were performing for their own school.

The event commenced with ‘Nataraj Vandana’ which was beautifully performed by the junior students of the school. The stage was then taken over by tiny tots, the youngest students of the school who danced spiritedly to a medley of children's rhymes. The audience thoroughly enjoyed their performance.

Howver, the main performance of the evening, was Rabindranath Tagore's ‘Chandalika’. “Tagore's story of an untouchable girl who falls in love with a Buddhist monk and regardless of her caste, he accepts water from her hands, still resonates with contemporary audiences. Though its political and social implications tend to be overshadowed by its powerful metonymic presentation of a picture of suffering, erring and redeemed humanity,” said Roshmi.

Sreemoyee Kaushiki Basak's brilliant portrayal of the passionate and embattled Prakriti, the protagonist of the play, was set off by Roshmi's performance as Prakriti's mother, Maya, in whom all-consuming maternal love blends with a transfiguring demonic energy. With Srabasi Basu as the monk Ananda, Kausani Bhattacharya and Aparna Chaudhuri as the doi-wala and churi-wala, respectively, and Paulami Dutta-Mustafi, Surabhi Ganguly, Sayantani Basak, Sulagna Roy, Prerona Roy and Ahana Gupta as supporting dancers, Roshmi's casting and choreography displayed the talents of her students to the best of their abilities. The background score, the makeup as well as the performance of every character was commendable.

The Bharata Nritya School of Dance began in 1971, in a ground-floor flat in Vidyasagar Niketan, Salt Lake, the home of the late Tarun Ganguly and his wife Krishna Ganguly. Their endeavour - to encourage young people to learn and love the performing arts - is carried on today by their daughter, Roshmi Bandopadhyay, who has trained in Bharata Nrityam under its foremost exponent, Dr Padma Subrahmanyam.

Bharata Nritya School of Dance

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