An evolved technique, inspired imagination and the challenges of instant improvization with accompanying musicians on stage are the expectations from a solo Kathak performance. A dance-and-music festival, titled Sambandh and held at the G.D. Birla Sabhagar, was helmed by Luna Poddar and had her in a performance. She did justice to the niceties of her tradition, accompanied as she was on the tabla by the redoubtable Subhankar Banerjee.
Poddar started her recital with the well-known Panchakshara Stotra. She then moved on to the section featuring upaj, thaat, aamad, paran, tukra and ginti bols, all of which form the central repertoire of Kathak. Poddar revealed the control she has over her form, the depth of her training and her execution of the complex mathematics of rhythm that she cleverly performed along with Banerjee. She concluded with a piece choreographed to the ghazal, “Dekha Mujhe to Shyam”. Munmun Ahmed of Dhaka delivered the other classical recital. Her performance was a study in the nuanced conventions of the Lucknow gharana.
Poddar’s choreographic work, presented by the students of her dance academy, included a tarana in Raga Kirwani and two other pieces, Gati and Quest. She forayed into a less determinate realm of freer movements taking off from the classical form. The tarana was an exploration of a musical composition by Jayanta Banerjee. The movements devised for the tehais, parans and tukras were often reduced to just that — movements — rather than dance. Dinesh Poddar’s lighting, however, created an interesting narrative through illumination and darkness.