Soundarya Natyalaya presented 3rd Annual Dance Recital (Bharata Natyam) by its students on Sep 6th, Saturday at Hindu Temple of Atlanta Auditorium.

Gayatri Subramanian, the artistic Director of Soundarya Natyalaya performed and conducted the recital. Gayatri has over 200 stage performances to her credit all over India, Malaysia & USA. She has undergone a rigorous training in Bharata Natyam from Guru Smt. Padmini Radhakrishnan, Mumbai. Apart from getting trained in dance, Gayatri has also been trained in Nattuvangam (verbal incantations of the rhythmical patterns of footwork). She has been teaching dance in Marietta since 2003.

The Annual program commenced with the Sloka recitation by the young students Shreya, Samiksha, Neha, Divya, Dhanashree & Mehak. It was a booster to the program with such young children chanting slokas.

After this, Gayatri enthralled the audience with her invocatory dance, "Pranavakaram Siddhivinayakam" , in praise of Lord Ganesha, describing his Aananda Thandavam. Her ability to showcase both Nritta and Abhinaya was very well witnessed in this dance that was beautifully choreographed by her.

The next in number was "Thodaya mangalam", performed by Kavita & Beth, yet another invocatory dance where the dancers pay obeisance to the presiding deity & describe his greatness. The dancers expressed fluid movements effortlessly with good synchronization and conveyed the meaning of the song with good expressions.

The third item was "Jatiswaram" that was based on live music by Gayatri Subramanian, accompanied on the violin by her husband CV Subramanian and on the Mridangam by Jai Radhakrishnan. The dancers Ashka, Suganya & Shubha were crisp in their movements with good control over rhythm and command on their footwork. This dance being a pure Nritta item showcased the technical aspect of the Bharata Natyam and was equally performed with ease.

It is rather unusual to see young children performing both theory and dance in a single item. But it was made possible by these young children Shreya, Samiksha, Neha, Divya showing 9 different types of head movements followed by Swarajathi and by Dhanashree & Mehak showing 6 types of leg movements followed by a Geetham. They surely deserved a special appreciation considering their age, the youngest being only 4 yrs.

Another notable dance was "Om Shakti" , depicting the different forms of Goddess Shakti as Durga, Lakshmi & Saraswati and how they emerge to be one. The scene of Mahishasuramardhini killing the demon was very impressive with Shubha as Durga and Beth, Aditi as the demon. Everyone did a wonderful job to their roles and the song that was sung live gave an electrifying effect to the dance. The last pose of the three Goddesses emerging as one left the audience spell-bound.