Depictions of daSAvatAra

[rshankar]

These compositions and their choreography have always fascinated me.
Let's start with bharatanATyam - where by default, daSAvatAra appears to use uDumalai nArAyaNa kavi's 'pArkkaDal alai mElE...
My all-time favorite, in terms of energy and sheer exhilaration is this one - a creation of the supremely gifted choreographer Sri Sahankar Kandasamy and his troupe of wonderful dancers. The dancers are graceful, and even evoke feminity, without being feminine themselves - a rare quality indeed. Minor crib is that they could have finished with gItOpadESam for the 'bhU bhAram tIrka bhArata pOr muDitta SIlA' segment. And of course, very evident that the choreographer is not not a Sri vaishNavaite - because the pArkkaDal scenes in this depiction are sans lakshmi!

And here is Sri Kandasamy's choreography as a duet for two female dancers...

And since imitation is considered by some as an expression of flattery, Sri Kandasamy must be very 'flattered' with this presentation that copied his choreography, but falls short on the execution.

And here is the original, presented by none other than the 'nATTiya pEroLi', the late Smt. Padmini Ramachandran, that set the bar so impossibly high...

The also rans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoYqUVxZsRo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ckAOTK5Quk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpsWcbam93o

Here is another with exerpts from a different composition, which we discussed earlier

Moving on to kucupiDi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEisG7q0P4I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9UpQanNycA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGgUfqVSZEo

oDissi - here, a daSAvatAra piece seems to be synonymous with jayadEva's 'praLaya payOdhi jalE'
In this dance form, I love the version of Smt Samjukta Panigrahi's, who IMO is synonymous with oDissi, and this is the bar that other oDissi dancers have to live up to; and in keeping with the tradition in oDiSA, Smt. Samjukta refers to it as the 10 incarnations of krishNa (in oDiSA, krishNa is considered God and not God incarnate as the other avatArs are) - and as an aside, don't you think Sri Raghunath Panigrahi's singing is unparalleled?
Part 1
Part 2
And some more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C-SJoQS1Sc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUJ1GaHMBhU

It is popular even with the sATTriya dancers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Muy3qFf7xUs

And not surprising that is part of the maNipuri repertoire with the dance form's strong vaishNava tradition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr-iWLTXRdE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-PmUMEdriQ

Feel free to add your personal favorite versions and comment on the ones that I have posted.

[Rsachi]

Thanks Ravi for your notes and links. Very useful!
My daughter choreographed and presented with her Balavihar students Jayadeva's composition sung by her students in the MSS tune. It was a big hit, won the 1st prize and was the talk of the town.
Unfortunately we didn't get it on video...

[rshankar]

Unfortunately we didn't get it on video...

Now that is sad!

[rshankar]

Glad you liked, Sachi the links. Was your daughter's presentation in kathak?

[Rsachi]

Ravi, she herself does Kathak but the kids did some basic dance moves and more acting.the key things were costumes, immaculate timing and expressions to music.it was all fun

[Lakshman]

The best audio clip of pArkkaDal alaimElE that I have heard is by R.Suryaprakash. He sings ciTTasvarAs, that he composed, for each one of the caraNAs.

[rshankar]

The best audio clip of pArkkaDal alaimElE that I have heard is by R.Suryaprakash. He sings ciTTasvarAs, that he composed, for each one of the caraNAs.

I agree - it is a wonderful version!

[Sreeni Rajarao]

Ravi,
Interesting thread! I plan to watch the links you have provided in the coming days.

For now, just wanted to say that I have witnessed, from close quarters, a beautiful performance highlighthing the dasAvatAra - live music performed for Bombay Sisters version of dEvakinandana nandakumAra (madvAcArya's composition).

Unfortunately, I do not have any video clips that I could share.

[mohan]

Dancers from Kalakshetra perform daSAvatAra to Swati Tirunal's 'kamalajAsya'. It is a rAgamAlika composition commencing in bilahari.

[Rsachi]

Ravi, as we all are wont to do, I discovered in the attic a 3 CD set of TMK on Dashavatara. He sings a fine RTP on the ten avataras in Shankarabharanam in the end. You can buy it here: http://www.kalakendra.com/shopping/dasa ... rrency=INR

mIna mandaradhara sUkara
naramRgavatu bhArgava

raghuvIra haladhara
ZrIkRShNa hayavAha ava