Bharatha Natya Kalalaya, Chembur

We had the wonderful opportunity to perform on Mahashivratri at "NATYANJALI 2024" (20th Natyotsav and Nataraja Aradhana) organized by Shanmukhapriya at Shri Subramania Samaj Temple, Cheddanagar. We are excited to show you snippets of our performance, and we hope you enjoy it as well.
Our heartfelt gratitude to Guru Jayshree Nair and the Natyanjali team for organizing the event flawlessly and for thier unrelenting support.

Dancers : Akshata Rajendra and Sangeeta Amburaj Stanley

Music credits:
Nattuvangam : Guru Prema Nagasundaram
Vocals : Guru Padmini Radhakrishnan
Violin : Shri B Anantharaman
Mridangam: Shri Mumbai Shankarnarayanan

Today, January 22, 2024, marks the long-awaited consecration ceremony for the Ram Mandir, which is at full swing at Ayodhya. As all of us come together to celebrate this glorious and historic event with venerations and prayers; we share the immense devotion, pride and fervent joy that resonates in the hearts of millions around the globe, and we take this opportunity to offer our salutations by sharing our recent performance in praise of Lord Rama.

'Shree Rama Nee Nama' - this wonderful song of devotion is a composition of Saint Badrachala Ramadasu, in praise of his Ishta devta – Lord Rama. So immense is his love for his lord that he finds nothing sweeter than the name of Lord Rama. His name is sweeter than all the fruits and sugarcane and thus brings sweetness to the lives of the ones devoid of any flavour. The one who protected the elephant king Gajendra, the asura son – Prahalada and even the daughter of Mother Earth, Sita. He resides in the hearts of sages, Lord Shiva and Hanuman.
Shree Rama nee nama in Ragam Kharaharapriya is set to adhi thalam.
Choreography: Guru Prema Nagasundaram
Dancers : Sangeeta, Akshata, Sandhya and Sakshi

Vadhyam
Nattuvangam: Guru Prema Nagasundaram
Vocals : Guru Padmini Radhakrishnan
Violin : Shri B Anantharaman
Mridangam: Shri Mumbai Shankarnarayanan

Every year we put up the Annual Day of the Institute in order to showcase our young budding talents and our creative experimentation in terms of themes and dance dramas. From our Annual Day last year in December, we bring you a story, to inspire and instil the unwavering Bhakti in oneself to help overcome the many challenges that life throws one’s way. A story of the Haridasa saint, philosopher, a renowned composer of Carnatic music, poet, reformer – Sant Kanakadasa.
Saint Kanaka Dasa an ardent Bhakt of Shri Krishna, travelled all the way to Udupi to get Darshan of his Ishtadevta Krishna. However, he is stopped at the entrance of the Temple by the priest of the temple and is shooed away for Kanakadasa is deemed to be unfit to enter the pious temple for belonging to the lower class of the society. Undeterred by this derogatory treatment, Kanaka head to the back of the temple and continues to venerate Lord Krishna with songs pleading him to allow his bhakta to have a glance of him. And lo behold! The wall of Krishna’s sanctorium breaks to form a window and the idol of Krishna turns around to face his ardent devotee.
This window is now fondly known as the Kanaka kindi - or Kanaka’s window through which Kanaka reaches out to his Krishna. When you visit Udupi Temple today, you have to see the Krishna Idol through the Window. Temples have always had the main deities facing eastward as per Hindu Prakara. However, The Udipi krishna temple till date has a west facing idol. Devotion can truly move the immovable Deity, For God isn’t bound by our mortally enforced differences. A true devotee shall shall always find refuge in Him.
This is our humble attempt at depicting this moving story without any props and to the best of our abilities.
Episode out of our Dance Production – Bhakti ki Shakti
Kanakadasa
Concept and Choreography – Guru Smt. Prema Nagasundaram
Vocals : Guru Padmini Radhakrishnan
Violin : Shri B Anantharaman
Mridangam : Shri Mumbai Shankarnarayan
Performers :
Akshata – Priest of the temple
Reyansh – Krishna idol
Laxmi - Kanakadasa

Bharatha Natya Kalalaya, Chembur wishes one and all a Happy Mahashivratri; and present to you from our archives, a beautiful padam on Lord Shiva as he dances in bliss and reigns as the presiding force and deity in the Chidambharam Temple. He is adorned by snakes and tiger skin, he holds the damru and is revered by all the sages as he is the primordial source of truth and enlightenment. He is known as Adiyogi by the sages. The husband to Goddess Shakti herself and the protector of all – we down to thee.

Choreographed by: Guru Prema Nagasundaram
Performed by : K*m. Sailakshmi

Vadhyam:
Nattuvangam: Guru Prema Nagasundaram
Vocals: Guru Padmini Radhakrishnan
Mridangam : Shri Sriram Subbaraman
Violin : Shri B. Anantaraman

Patience and perseverance can make magic happen. Divya Srikant has been planning her Arangetram since a few years now and each time she zeroed down on a date, a different plan would cause her to extend it. Eventually she fixed her Arangetram on 4th April 2020. All preparations were in full swing and in full vigour to only be put to indefinite halt just two weeks before the d – day as the lockdown imposed due to Covid 19 caused the world to stop on its tracks. Just when there was ease the second wave hit us all pushing all her plans yet again and finally it was time for her to head out to USA to realize her academic and career dreams. With the drop in cases and eased out lockdown restrictions post second wave, Divya and her family along with her Guru’s constant reassurance and encouragement, went on to pave her way to finally fulfil her dream of completing her Arangetram.
On the 27th of July, by the grace of God, respected elders and Gurus, K*m. Divya Srikant, a student of BNK, Chembur completed her Arangetram held at the Mysore Association. A feat that was definitely not easy for her, her parents or her Guru. However, when you persevere you can break down obstacles and can surmount great difficulties in life. Divya, however, ensured all of this wait and sweat was worth it by giving a stellar performance and dancing with all her heart.

It’s been a month since that beautiful day and we thought it apt to share the joy with you all through a snippet of her arrangetram and some beautiful clicks from that day.

Our sincere thanks to the Vadhyam who stood by us despite the circumstance and came together to make the event memorable as always.
Vadhyam:
Nattuvangam : Guru Smt Prema Nagasundaram
Vocals: Guru Padmini Radhakrishnan
Mridangam : Mumbai Shankaranarayanan
Violin : Shri B. Anantharaman (Ravi)

Please Note: All the Government laid rules were followed including wearing masks, limiting number of attendees, sanitization and social distancing.

Today, as we celebrate the International Dance Day along with many others across the globe, unified by our love and devotion to dancing, we revisited one of our original home dance production; "Buddha - The Enlightened one".
We are living in one of the most unsettling and critical times in history. A constant state of anxiety, fear and illness with a constant bombardment of bad news from everywhere is what made us revisit this Dance Ballet. Buddha is known to have found peace and awakening by going through many trials. His preachings of peace and moksh from the bondages of karma is the need of the hour especially at such times. May we all find hope, solace and help by reminiscing over his teachings.

Dance helps cope in such difficult times and dancers everywhere would tell you how the art is always bigger than the artist. Finding some sort of refuge, happiness, calm or even expressing anguish and sadness, helping us be sane during these difficult times. We all owe it to all artforms that nourish our minds and souls. We at BNK, Chembur, are forever grateful for having been students of this artform and bow in devotion to the art and to lineage of Gurus who have passed it on from one generation to the next.

Credits
Curation and choreography : Guru Prema Nagasundaram

Vadhyam:
Nattuvangam : Guru Prema Nagasundaram
Vocals : Guru Padmini Radhakrishnan
Mridangam : Shri Mumbai Shankara Narayanan
Violin : Shri B Anantharaman

Voiceover: Sanjukta and Laxmi
Editing credits: Kartika and Laxmi

The world is currently grappling with the second wave of the pandemic and has truly brought all our spirits collectively down. At such times we turn to our devotion and faith to help us get through these extremely trying times. On the auspicious occasion of Ram Navami, we surrender ourselves to Lord Rama. " Ram ka Gungaan" is a beautiful heart rendering composition which shall be performed by Anu Kaladharan. This beautiful piece praises the righteousness and high morale values upheld by Lord Rama. He, who without any hesitation or question obeyed the command of his step mother and left the luxurious life of the palace and position as king and went of to live in the forest for 14 years. He who never left his dharma even in the most trying of his times, definitely stands as a stark example of how we should be no matter how hopeless things seem to be.

Credits:
Performed by : Anu Kaladharan
Choreography and nattuvangam : Guru Prema Nagasundaram
Vocals: Guru Padmini Radhakrishnan
Mridangam: Shri Mumbai Shankara Narayanan
Violin: Shri B Anantharaman


We constantly pray and hope for betterment of all mankind all over the globe. Stay safe.

"Mahashivratri" - the Great night of Shiva; the night of the Shiva's heavenly dance is one of the most holy nights for all of us. Is there a more glorious sight than Lord Natraja in this iconic stance? Can one ever get enough of his opulent divine awe? No matter how long we devotedly gaze at his divine raised feet, the desire and longing inside the souls of his devotees could never be quenched. His dance invokes nirvana in the hearts of one and all as he dances the Tandav at Thillai. Even the greatest of the Sages chant his name and offer their prayers at his feet. He blesses us all as he dances, while his devotees worship him through the days and nights.

We the worshippers of His Natyam at BNK, offer our humble natyanjali on his feet on this holy occasion of "Mahashivratri".
"Parka Parka Tigatumo" - a composition by Gopalakrishna Bharathi, captures the awe of Lord Nataraja's Dance and devotion it ignites in the minds of his devotees beautifully in this padam in Ragam Harikambhoji set to Rupaka Thalam.

Credits:
Dancers: Sandhya and Laxmi
Choreography and Nattuvangam : Guru Smt. Prema Nagasundaram
Vocals : Smt. Anu Sankar
Audio Edits: Laxmi
Video Edits : Laxmi

The students of BNK, Chembur had the honor and privilege to offer our Natyam at the prestigious Natyanjali festival organised by the Sri Subramania Samaj, Cheddanagar which was aired at their Youtube channel. We are posting our performance here again for anyone who missed watching it there.


1. We begin with a padam in praise of Lord Ganesha, nardanam aadum vinayakane, describing Lord Ganesha as the dancing Lord who blesses us with his grace and astounding form. He is the remover of obstacles and forever the first to be worshipped.
Nardanam aadum in ragam Sriranjani set to Adhi thalam, performed by Sandhya.

2. Janani janani, a beautiful song describing the divinity of mother Shakti. She is the ferocious durga who slays the demon Mahisasura in a fierce battle thus protecting all from his evil atrocities. We bow down to her in reverence as she in her fierce motherly love always protects her devotees.
Janani janani in ragam Revati set to Adhi thalam, performed by Hamsa Venkatraman.

3. Ananda nadam aaduvar, is a beautiful padam in praise of Lord of dance, Lord Shiva. As he performs his Ananda Nadanam, the crescent shines and the bells clang aiding his divine moves. He is neelakanta, the one who drank the poison halala during the Samudra manthan. We pay our salutations to the divine Lord Shiva.
Ananda nadanam in ragam Poorvi Kalyani set to Rupaka thalam, performed by Laxmi.

Credits:
Choreography - Guru Smt. Prema Nagasundaram
Nattuvangam - Guru Smt. Prema Nagasundaram
Vocals - Guru Padmini Radhakrishnan
Mridangam - Shri Mumbai Shankarnarayan
Violin - Shri B. Anantharaman

Dancers : Sandhya, Hamsa, Laxmi
We thank one and all who graced us by watching our performances online.