Soundarya Natyalaya, a premium Bharata Natyam dance school presented its 4th Annual Recital on May 3rd, 2009 at the Hindu Temple of Atlanta.

Gayatri Subramanian, the Artistic Director of Soundarya Natyalaya choreographed & performed with her students on live music. Gayatri’s Guru Smt. Padmini

Radhakrishnan from Mumbai did the vocals, accompanied by CV Subramanian on Violin and Santosh Chandru on Mridangam.

The students of all age groups, as little as 4 years did a wonderful performance that enthralled a house full of audience and held them on their seats for about 2.5 hrs. Program commenced with a short sloka, Natyaveda – describing the four Vedas and how Lord Brahma picks the essence of all the four Vedas to compile a fifth Veda called “Natya Veda”. This was beautifully performed by Aditi, Suganya & Sherin.

This was followed by Pushpanjali, a traditional invocatory dance in praise of Lord Ganesha, Lord Shiva & Goddess Saraswati in Ragam Hamsadhwani by Aditi, Bhavya, Sherin & Sriradha where the dance was perfectly coordinated and the dancers gave a commendable performance.

Alarippu – This dance showcased by the young students was an Alarippu, a short invocatory nritta piece that involved the flexions of neck and body and beautifully presented by Dhanasree, Mehak, Priya & Sanjana.

Maha Ganapathim - A famous prayer in Sanskrit to Lord Ganesha was performed by the little girls Shreya, Samiksha & Esha with ease and zest.

Bho Shambho – Lord Shiva also known as the cosmic dancer performs his divine dance to destroy a weary universe and in order to recreate it. This famous nritta padam had jattis, technical movements that showed the ‘Tandav’of Lord Shiva and lots of poses, completely synchronized by these senior dancers Ashka, Suganya & Shubha. After the traditional numbers, Soundarya Natyalaya presented a thematic dance ballet, “Krishna Leela” depicting the different stages, moods and works of Lord Krishna’s life. It portrayed Krishna as a god-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero and the Supreme Being. There were episodes picked from the great scriptures describing the greatness of Lord Krishna.

Gayatri Subramanian as Yashoda depicted the scene of Lord Krishna’s birth and how people of Gokul rejoice the birth of Krishna. This was followed by a scene, Yashoda-Krishna by Gayatri Subramanian. The profound love and affection of Yashoda for her child was depicted in a famous padam, “Krishna nee Begane”. Gayatri expressed her emotions both as Yashoda and Krishna and enacted on various scenes such as Yashoda seeing the universe in Krishna’s mouth, Krishna troubling Yashoda while putting him to sleep. Gayatri brought out the best emotions one could ever imagine of. This was followed by a scene where little Krishna is adorned, loved and bedecked by Yashoda and Little Krishna was played by Gayatri’s 3 yr old daughter, Kirti.

The ballet flowed with the next scene of Navaneeta Krishna . This scene showed how Krishna loved butter and loved it even more when it came to sharing butter with friends. This cute and mischievous dance was set in a melodious Swaram thereby bringing out the mood of notorious, vibrant Krishna perfectly played by Samiksha, with Esha & Shreya as his friends when they enter Gopi’s house to steel butter and milk.

Gopi Lola Gopala was the following scene performed by Shriya, Rhea, Jheel & Divya, the little Gopis of Gokul where they dance in devotion to Krishna visualizing little Krishna playing and appearing in front of them.