Sunanda Nair: Lion and Clever Rabbit. Mohiniattam and Bharatnatyam

On April 24, 2010, Houston audience witnessed a fine evening of dance drama performances by Sunanda's Performing Arts Center at The Stafford Civic Center

The dance drama brought to life, a forest teeming with greenery and wild life - the chirping birds, the strong elephants, the nimble deer, the slithering snakes, the bear, the rabbits and the big bad lion. Every animal character was vividly portrayed by the young dancers of the school and the angika abhinaya of each character was well chiselled out. Racheal Neycheryil depicted the fierce lion with great agility and swift easy movements and to add to it all, was the brilliant mukhaja abhinaya, which brought out the fierce character. Uvika Aravind, a brilliant Bharatanatyam and Mohiniattam dancer, suited the role of the wise rabbit to perfection.

Bearing testimony to Sunanda's skills as an outstanding teacher and choreographer, the scenes were well etched out, especially the one where the representatives of each animal clan go to meet the lion. Jenny Simon as the jackal, Mamatha as the Mother elephant, Shilpa Dias as the baby elephant, Layaa Rajaa as the best friend of the wise rabbit and Marina Chandy as the bear, showed good abhinaya skills. The music, the interwoven commentary and dialogues in English and colorful costumes added to the overall effect.

Rama and Sweta Bharadvaj     Panchatantra Animal Fables

Ramaa Bharadvaj -an acclaimed dancer/choreographer & recipient of the Lester Horton Dance Award - and her daughter Swetha Bharadvaj lead their company of 10 dancers as they transform into forest creatures that narrate the wisdom of life. The production features original lyrics in 4 Indian languages with narration in English.

Concept, Choreography & Direction -- Ramaa Bharadvaj
Choreography Assistance - Swetha Bharadvaj
Original Music Composition -- Rajkumar Bharathy 
Original Lyrics -- Dr. Chitturi Satyanarayana, Sumati Gandhi & Ramaa Bharadvaj 

Ananda Jayant

Lion and Rabbit