Mysuru: The ‘Shraavana’ edition of Champaka Rashtreeya Kalaa Utsava, organised under the aegis of Champaka Educational and Cultural Trust, was held at the Champaka Academy premises in Ramakrishnanagar here recently.

The evening featured Bharatanatyam and Kathak performances from accomplished artistes from Mysuru and Bengaluru.

The programme started with a Bharatanatyam performance by Vidu. Dr. Nagalakshmi Nagarajan, Founder of Champaka Academy, Mysuru. Her presentation was be based on the work of Dr. Sukanya Prabhakar on female Haridasis who contributed a lot towards the Dasa Sahitya, but were less known.

She danced to the two compositions of Haridasi Nidaguraki Jeevobai, invoking Ganapati, the destroyer of all obstacles and a Sri Krishna Stuti portraying the young Krishna at Gokula and his stages of avatara where he blessed the people of Gokula as a child playing pranks, meserising them with his flute, showing them the path towards eternity and sometimes being a protector, protecting them from Kaliya.

The final keertana by Haridasi Dwarakabai Gadachinti was a climax of the exit of Krishna from Gokula and how the residents were at his feet to stop him not allowing the Supreme One to move out.

The songs were taken from the collection of Hariyannarasida Vaniteyaru, set to tune by Dr. Sukanya Prabhakar and sung by Vidu. Sumana Vedanth.

Next Kathak performance by Vidu. Bharathi Vittal, Founder-Director of Kalpanaa School of Dance, Bengaluru, and her disciples also took to Vishnu compositions and danced to a beautiful Dashavatara keertana sung by Shankar Shanbhog.

Set to ragamala and talamala, the 10 avataras were shown with their story line in a flow, keeping the audience in awe.

Vidu. Bharathi Vittal, along with her disciple Samir Pal, danced to a Meera bhajan, ‘Hari tum haro jan ke peer,’ showcasing the rich content in the bhajan through sanchari bhavas.

The tarana, the last number, was a pure dance number showing the technical aspects of kathak with intricate footwork and chakkars.

This was again ably performed by her very senior disciples, Bhuvana Guruprasad, Bina Kumar, Meghana Pratap, Siri Prahlad and Samir Pal.

The final Bharatanatyam performance by Vidu. Bhavana D. Rao, Founder-Director of Shivanoopura Narthana Kala Kendra, Mysuru and her disciples, started with the Pushpanjali, and came alive with Srimannarayana, an Annammacharya Kriti by Vidu. Bhavana.

Her young disciples danced beautifully to Nammamma Sharade, Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma and other keertanas and showed their passion for the art.

M.R. Satyanarayana, Resident Editor, Vijayavani, Mysuru, who was the chief guest, spoke of the importance of learning art forms for the mind to bloom in the right way and said that traditional Indian arts even leave the audience mind not only entertained, but with a socially responsible thoughts unlike modern forms that are provoking.

He also spoke about the importance of dance being an art form that uses the body, mind and the intelligent soul and hence, the development of a personality as a whole. He lauded the efforts of Champaka Academy in promoting these art forms for the benefit of the society.