On Valentine’s Day, four classical dancers – Navia Natarajan, N. Srikanth, Divya Devguutapu and Amrita Lahiri have written about how they have discovered and interpreted Sergera Rasa, expression of love

Mood and metaphor

Navi Natarajan | Bharatanatyam dancer

“His lips are fresh red buds,

His arms are tendrill,

Adhir is prepared

To bloom in his organs “

[Shakuntala and the ring of recollection

Translated by Babara Stoler Miller]

When someone reads these lines by Kalidasa, anyone experiences life, the presence of breathing of love. This is Sringara.

Poetry, sculpture and painting can cause happiness, even enthusiasm. One of the Navasas is Sriringara, layered and deep. It has to be limited to define it in English. While often translated as ‘romance’, it is very fine – it includes beauty, craving, passion, isolation, sexuality, sexuality and divine love.

Whether in Kalidasa’s work, Jaydev’s Geeta GovindaTamil Sangam poem, or Amaru ShatakaThe essence of the sarringara has been developed through nature, emotion and subtle imagination.

Khajuraho, Konark and Belur temples stand as some of the best representations of Sriingra Ras in Indian art. As artists, we inspect and absorb these impressions, allowing them to settle in our subconscious, only for them to emerge in pieces made by them later.

Even early Indian cinema performed Singra. My choreograph, especially the Vernams, is the shape of those moments when my mother talked about the lyrical classicism of some film songs. For me, sringara is not only about lovers – this is a complete beauty experience.

The beauty of many literary verses lies in their openness for interpretation, allowing the reader to find their meaning. In one Immortal (Compilation of love poems), Four lines in a relationship subtle subtle yet catch unavoidable flow. Viewed differently, it becomes a story – eradicating love over time, replacing the intimacy of silence. For a demonstration, I explained it because the woman is no longer feeling the need to live, recognizing the weight of what was lost. With a quiet resolution, she chooses to move forward, with the clarity that some departure is not over, but the beginning.

Divya Devagutapu | Photo Credit: Ramanathan Iyer

For the heroine inside

Divya Devagutapu | Bharatanatyam artist

Sriingara Ras is Raja Raja (King of Ras), because love is all included.

The poem we sing and dance, it has a dance in Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam, poets wisely understood that true fulfillment can only be found in the journeys that move towards Anant. The heroine or the heroine stands as a symbol for the seeker that is present in all of us.

He expressed this knowledge as life Jivatma Longing for meeting Perma (Divya) and heroine (heroine) is a symbol for the seeker who is present in all of us.

We have the ability to feel and express the female spirit (emotion) and the limit of the experiences of a heroine is her vast (isolation), and her position. For me, a heroine is the most beautiful metaphor for an emotional situation – for, she is a divine woman regardless of the penis.

Self-love is about complete acceptance of who we are. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Today, the idea of ​​’self-love’ is everywhere. Self-love is about complete acceptance of who we are without decision. Our Vaggeyakars have written about this perfection of life, love and relationships-everyday life is to play the last love between divine women (Radha) and divine masculine (Krishna). AshtapadisOr the emotional status of mature relationships in the Padam of Kshetrayya.

In fact, to appreciate and understand our poetry requires surrender and requires to overcome an argument of all emotions – anger, jealousy, sorrow, despair, fear and more. Although we feel that we experience love because of another human, our perception of another is really our internal experience. Our ultimate happiness or Ananda The presence of another is not caused, this is because we find that inner lover within us! And, this is the essence of our poem, a longing for a union with our lover.

In today’s world, instead of realizing men and women, it is air -conditioned to analyze everything from the place of inquiry and rebellion.

As a woman in the 21st century, I was also under it. However, the practice, exploration and formation of various heroines in these compositions gave me a chance to connect with my inner woman myself deeply. To be weak and feel, helps me find knowledge to navigate with me with compassion, compassion and acceptance.

For me, different heroines are many emotional stages that we experience every day. Some days we are ‘Khandita’, on others we are ‘svadhinapatika’. When we stop making ups, we catch the space and feel our feelings, we become a heroine, where there is no morality, decision or relevance. Only love, inclusive and acceptance. For me, this is self-love.

Srikanth Aswathy with wife and dance partner | Photo Credit: Shaju John

Creative bond

N. Srikanth

Bharatanatyam dancer

My early years were spent in Melatur and summer holidays were packed with Bhagwat Mela training. I started performing when I was six years old and my first role as a heroine (Chandramathi) was 12 years old. Some plays were openly displayed by Singram. My first Bhagwat fair will teach Guru Krishnamurthy Sarma Sambhog/Rati soon and ask me to copy my expressions. When I could not understand some of them, he would smile and say, “You will understand with experience.”

Talking about those pieces or explaining it was shameful for teachers at that time, probably because the Bhagwat Mela is a form of ritual art in which a certain amount of purity is attached.

As a student of Bharatanatyam, my first guru was a nattuvanar, who taught only age-appropriate objects. Thus, Sriingara was to be learned from life experience.

Ashtapadi Jaydev’s, ‘Sakhi Woh’, a favorite piece of Srikanth and Ashwathi is photo credit: Special arrangement

Aswathy was my student earlier and we performed together long before getting married. At that time, I used to teach him a lot of Khandita heroine Padam. I used to tease her that she was good at cheating her lover. It is ironic that the spring hero and the heroine later became a life partner. After marriage, we started to find Sriringara on stage and are one of our favorite pieces Ashtapadi Jaydev’s, ‘Sakhi Woh’, which we first presented as a couple.

Today, we teach students who are in contact with innumerable forms of Shingara – from subtle to extreme – and sometimes it is difficult for them to be related to the psyche of the heroine/hero who behaves in a certain way. . We often ask questions why she is always waiting for her lover, and why he should send her friend as a messenger. If it is a chronic composition, we cannot tamper with the sensitivity of that era and those characters. To portray progressive ideas, it is better to select contemporary poetry.

While performing on the stage, our gurus taught us to maintain a certain ooucityam (decoram). The line between obscenity and sexuality is very thin. While this is the subject of the subject -Vastu, we like to place the depiction of Sriingra Micro on the stage.

Amrita Lahiri | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

It is saying through dance

Amrita Lahiri

Kuchipudi dancer

I will find some aspect of love and a dance that can express it. Whether it is a longing, jealousy, love without love, telling a friend the details of a secret meeting, gossiping about someone’s new romance, or a girl who is not ashamed of her feelings, in classical dance it Everything is the technique and technique of expressing. The vulnerability is one that makes it really for exciting art and it is most clear in Srimingara – love.

Srisaraja is considered, and for a good reason. It is not more enjoyable to see and experience, but also difficult to navigate. After all, art reflects life. Interesting, songs of Virha Or are rich in compared to those people, or Sambhoga,

Padam and Javalis are poems that best express every nuance of love. In one, the heroine says, ‘I saw that her body was seen glowing like gold at sunset, when we were alone from the river, and I gave myself (Tamil Padam’ Netru Veran Andre ‘). In another song, she says, ‘If she comes to my door, I will go in front of her to stand in front of her, without losing concentration, I will hold her hand, bring her in and make her sit on the bed. With joy, Oh my friend, I will put it on my chest on my chest, rub it (from ‘Valapu Dats Neren’ – a Telugu poem which by Kesreya).

The author of most of these poems is how ironic that men -dharamapuri are Sabbaiyar, Kshatray and Jaydev. They write in a female voice, and one performs a miracle in his understanding of his understanding and women’s feelings. Finally, the penis does not matter, neither in love, nor in art.

It is not more pleasant to see and experience. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

In Kuchipudi, love leads to a dramatic and dynamic dimension. Satyabhama, who is probably the most famous of Kuchipudi characters, is the pride of Krishna but jealous wife. His story is a lesson in leaving someone’s ego. He is upset because Krishna placed Rukmini on him. Walks through a similar subject Geeta GovindaWhere Radha suffers from Krishna due to only one desire to be one. In life and love, someone learns to let the key of happiness go.

In dance, there is a crowd of love and imagined lovers. Dear only exists in our reactions.

What’s interesting is the nuances of personal experience of love. Friend, friend, becomes the most important. She is the one who is listening to the complaints of the heroine, for her argument, for her argument and her pain. There is no real hero. Friend is the main partner of this journey as he is a witness and guide in these experiences of love.

For centuries, this expression has been fulfilled and widened by hundreds of dancers, most women, but some men, who dare to bring the most beautiful and weak spirit on the stage – love.