Come Sunday, 5 February 2023, all roads will lead to Rangabhoomi, Gachibowli, where the lucky hundred would be privilege to the ticketed maiden Sahityakalpa production ‘मम MĀRGAM’, by the young Bharatanatyam dancer and founder of Sahityakalpa, Sahitya Ramkumar. Speaking exclusively to Natyahasini, Sahitya Ramkumar says that ‘मम MĀRGAM’ is very close to her heart as for the first time she will be performing for 90 minutes on her own choreography.
Sahitya goes on to say that ‘मम MĀRGAM’ is her maiden hour-and- half-long work based in the Bharatanatyam idiom. “Mārgams are the name given to the traditional repertoire in Bharatanatyam that has a fixed structure. मम translates to ‘my’ in Sanskrit and thus this is ‘मम MĀRGAM’’,” she says and adds: “Since Mārgam also means journey or path this is my journey of exploration, experimentation and self-love.”
Explaining further about the repertoire of ‘मम Mārgam’, the young dancer reveals that it consists of five individual and distinct pieces in different languages created over the past five months. “This is my humble attempt at exploring the art of choreography that I have learnt in this process,” she says. The Sahityakalpa founder acknowledges the role played by Smt. Vithya Arasu under whose tutelage she is learning the Natya Sastra movements, Marga Nritta Karanas, whose teachings have had a special impact on her choreography and practice this time. “The pieces of this repertoire are also largely built out of the beautiful lectures and demonstrations of several research scholars that I happened to hear during the Covid period,” she says.
Another First that this Doordarshan ‘B’ Grade artist, Sahitya has begun is asking rasikas to buy tickets to watch the performance. All tickets were lapped up in a couple of days, the moment the youngster announced her programme on social media handles. “This is also a new attempt to ticket classical art performances in order to kick start the ‘Pay for Arts’ ideology in Hyderabad. It has been a long-time dream to start having a small value attached to the experience of watching classical art performance,” she says.
Sahitya reveals that the ‘Pay for Arts’ inspiration came from the artists in Bengaluru who seem to be implementing this effortlessly. The young Chartered Accountant student for her journey till ‘मम MĀRGAM’ wants to thank her gurus, parents and well-wishers for supporting her in all her endeavours.
Recovering from her recent injury and preparing for ‘मम Mārgam’, a Sāhityakalpā production, Sahitya is hopeful that the audiences will love her presentation.
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.