Motherhood heralds the mark of a milestone in a woman’s life – milking on a similar ideology, seasoned artiste Anuradha Venkatraman’s forthcoming production, Jananyey Namah is a soul-stirring dance recital on the journey of motherhood through the classical art form of Bharatnatyam. In a recent conversation, she tells us how the intend is to synchronise myriad emotions that perfectly encapsulate the journey.
Contrary to quintessential emotions such as compassion and unfaltering selflessness that are synonymous to motherhood, the danseuse reveals how the performance delves deep into the psyche of a mother. “The idea behind the performance was to touch upon the whole idea of motherhood with more wholesomeness. While I certainly intend to cover emotions like empathy and unadulterated love, this dance recital explores lesser-spoken about emotions such as grief, pain and the struggles of coping and adapting.” Reiterating how a different repertoire is touched upon through the performance – with verses of poetry taken from works of poets like Ramdhari Singh Dinkar and Rabindranath Tagore, the 37-year-old dancer says, “I’ve always believed that dance and poetry are intertwined In addition to a lot of poetry, the concluding bit entails a shloka written by Adi Shankaracharya, a tribute to his own mother. The will be a recital of versus in English and Tamil.”
Attributing the inception of the production to her personal experience dating back to her maternity days, Anuradha vividly reminisces, “While I’ve been dancing from since as long as I can remember, I believe this dance recital is a salutation on motherhood has been at the back on my mind ever since I became one, about nine years ago.”
While the solo performance is to invoke a deeper perspective of motherhood, the recital is open to children and adults. “ The entire theme has been curated keeping the temperament of the creatively inclined in mind. The language and the medium used is very lucid. Throughout my career as a performer for the last 15 years, irrespective of the gender, I would like to believe that this performance is a designated effort to invoke the nurturer in you. This Mother’s Day, I wish people sit up to take notice of their mothers and acknowledge their contributions through a much deeper perspective, rather than the customary notions we all have about our mothers going through the cycle of bringing us up.”
The show will take place on May 8, 7.30 pm, at Shoonya Centre for Arts and Somatic Sciences.
