Often, when I watch Bharatanatyam or any Indian classical dance performance, I find it difficult to follow the literal meaning of the mythological stories being danced out in front of me. I get stressed. I think I won’t get it because I’m not Indian—I’m a Westerner, an outsider. I think it’s a language I won’t understand; even though I have some training in classical Indian dance forms, it still seems so abstract. But there is no right way to experience something. Each person’s interpretation of a dance performance is unique and valid. 

When I saw the Sarada Kala Nilayam Dance Festival, directed and produced by Sweta Ravisankar, at New Expressive Works in Southeast Portland on August 17, I let my attention wander naturally instead of hyper-focusing on translating precisely what I was seeing. There was so much beauty to enjoy visually and aurally that my fear of not “getting it” became moot.

The three-part event, which was performed twice, once at 2 pm and again at 6 pm, to what looked to be two sold-out shows, included a solo performance of two dance works by this year’s Kalpana artist Jeeno Joseph, a Malayali-American Bharatanatyam dancer from New York. Kalpana is a program in its third year created by Ravisankar to support emerging dancers and musicians interested in collaboration by providing a free platform to showcase their work.

The performance also included a jathi recitation (jathis are the rhythmic patterns/syllables in Carnatic music, such as “Ta ki ta” for a pattern of three, or “Ta ka ta ki ta” for a pattern of five) by the junior and senior students of S. Ravisankar (a disciple of Sri Sanjeevi Rao and Gundupalli Sri Krishnamurthy Rao in Chennai), Sweta Ravisankar’s father, who is a mridangam exponent and composer as the culmination of a three-week workshop.

The third part of the program was the premiere of “Guru Vandana,” a new choreographic work by Ravisankar that distilled the impact a guru or teacher has on a person’s personal growth, narrated by both Ravisankar and 12-year-old Sai Abhinav. Nine dancers performed the work to live music performed by S. Ravisankar on mridangam, vocalist Deepti Ravidath, with Gowri Namboothiry and Ravisankar on nattuvangam and Nandini Viswanathan on violin. To complete the immersive experience, Henna application by civic leader and Amrapali Boutique owner Sushmita Poddar and food by Hyderabad Hub were available in the lobby as well as Invest Ed a youth-led non-profit by Yalini Gopalswamy.

In the spirit of transparency, I must disclose my connection to this event. I participated in the Jathi workshop and recitation, and I am friends with Ravisankar and have had the honor of dancing alongside her several times. This connection is thanks to my Odissi dance teacher, Yashaswini Raghuram, who is also an accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer and a performer in this production. I have also had the privilege of learning Odissi alongside friend and fellow student Arshia Rejeshnarayanan, who is also a Bharatanatyam dancer and a dancer in this production.

However, these connections did not prevent me from seeing the performances with fresh eyes. Instead, they allowed me to deepen my understanding of it all, and gave me access to see the performance twice instead of the usual one time most writers get when reviewing.

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The evening opened with a solo by Joseph, which transported us to the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas and set the scene for Shiva’s divine dance. “Drums pulse with each step, resonating with the sound of OM. Stars cascade from the heavens, heralding his celestial dance,” read one line of the Malayalam song, “Himagiri NIrakal,” that Ravisankar read to us before the orchestra played and he danced. 

Joseph is tall, expansive, graceful, and fierce as a dancer, so it’s easy to imagine him dancing under the moonlight as Shiva. Dressed in a black, purple, blue, and gold saree tied around his waist like a dhoti, he complemented his costume with a simple traditional gold necklace, a gold cross on a chain, and a single bangle on each wrist. His eyes were accentuated with a thick swoop of eyeliner under his eyes, and his forehead bore a prominent white bhindi between his eyebrows and above a dark-colored elongated teardrop, creating a captivating effect and making his eyes appear larger from a distance.

A full beard and a handlebar mustache further enhanced Joseph’s look. His personal style added another layer to his character. He’s probably the coolest-looking male Bharatanatyam dancer I’ve ever seen, and is subtly a nice mix of Eastern and Western cultures. The dance built to a frenzy, pushed along by the music, with Joseph ending it with a flourish in the traditional pose of shiva with lights and music dramatically ending simultaneously.

Joseph, a disciple of Guru Dr. Francis Barboza, and a student of thalam theory and Nattuvangam under Srimati Ranjani Goshal, is the founder and director of The Nadanam Collective. A first generation Malayali-American, born to parents who emigrated from Kerala to New York, Joseph’s dance journey began at age 5 in Kerala, India, under Barboza. He has since performed nationally and internationally, showcasing choreography that uniquely blends Christian and Hindu themes. For the SKN Festival, Joseph was keen on exploring the beauty of Malayalam musical compositions, poetry, culture, and rhythms through the traditional Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam.

The second dance Joseph performed was to “Oru Pushpam Maathram,” a song from Malayalam cinema that poetically describes a person waiting with a single flower for their lover who never arrives. It’s a beautifully descriptive but heartbreaking song that Joseph expresses gracefully through gestures, mudras, acting/pantomime, and facial expressions while sitting on the floor illuminated in a pool of moody blue lighting, finally lying down hopelessly when he realizes his beloved isn’t coming. Seeing a male dancer embody both masculine and feminine characters so deftly in his dancing is a pleasure.

“Guru Vandana,” choreographed by Ravisankar, consisted of five dances with a fun, casually scripted back-and-forth conversation-style narrative between Sweta and young Abhinav in between each dance, followed by soulful violin solos by Viswanathan, that the audience loved, transitioning us to the next dance. And, of course, all of the music, with jathis composed by S. Ravisankar, was just incredible. I felt honored to hear such expert musicians play live; it was a treat! Live music fills the space around the dancers, like another entity, in a completely different way than recorded music, making the production a richer experience for everyone.

“Guru Vandana” included a trio with an embedded solo by Ravisankar, two quartets, a duet, and a grand finale with all nine dancers exuberantly dancing onto the stage while playing the cymbals: Akshayah Jayakumar, Arshia Rajrshnarayanan, Indralekha Pasumarthy, Meer Nair, Priyanka Murali, Sruthi Raj, Sweta Ravisankar, Tejashree Harini Ganesh, and Yashaswini Raghuram.

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The songs were in Sanskrit, Hindi, Tamil, and Marathi, spanning cultures, time and geographical locations. They offered a philosophical look at the importance of having a guru or teacher in one’s life, how they offer guidance, inspiration, and wisdom, suggesting that all material achievements are meaningless without one, emphasizing that a guru is the highest power and that they are the dispeller of darkness or ignorance.

I particularly loved “Guru Ashtakam,” a meditative duet danced by Rajeshnarayanan and Jayakumar to a Sanskrit verse composed by Vedic scholar Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century in praise to the guru: “If one does not surrender to one’s Guru, then what is the point of seeking?” he says. The piece had a ritualistic feel, as the choreography repeated itself, facing different directions around the room. Because it was a “simpler” slower dance, at times, it gave me more time to absorb all of the details, from the shiny hot pink and green silk costumes to the Buddha-like sereneness in their facial expressions and the control and stamina it took for them to execute such articulate movement. Their unique individual styles of dancing offered a beautiful contrast while also complementing each other.

Because I couldn’t understand the words in the songs as the dancing was happening, I couldn’t say whether the dancing depicted what was being said in a song. Even though the dancing seemed abstract, I still felt a range of emotions throughout the performance evoked by the fantastic music, the dancer’s lovely facial expressions and smiles, the body language, and the dynamic complex rhythms created by their feet against the floor. Dance is a universally understood language, after all.

Ravisankar, who is an amazingly talented dancer who clearly loves dancing Bharatanatyam and the demanding rhythms and physicality that come with it, is one of the busiest people I know. Not only does she tour and perform internationally as a soloist, she also maintains dance schools in Oregon AND California. She choreographs traditional and boundary-breaking works around contemporary themes while maintaining the integrity and purity of Bharatanatyam.

Her work has been presented at festivals including the Women Choreographers of the Pacific North West, Union PDX, JamBallah NW Dance Festival, and she was the recipient of a New Expressive Works Residency, to name just a few. If you’ve been out and about this summer, you might have seen her dance at the reopening of the Keller Fountain festivities, Ten Tiny Dances in Beaverton, or at the Vancouver Music and Arts Festival, where she and her dancers taught the audience about the rhythmic structures of Carnatic music.

In addition to performing and choreographing, Ravisankar is also equally committed to creating opportunities for fellow artists through collaborative projects and performance platforms. She is also interested in reaching new audiences by experimenting with the ways Bharatanatyam is presented and translated to those unfamiliar with it, which I appreciate.

The sixth annual Sarada Kala Nilayam Dance Festival was a profoundly satisfying experience, akin to a complete sensory feast of symphonic sound, stunning visuals, superb dancing, and thought-provoking intellectual stimuli.