Sandhya Sridhar has been learning Odissi from Ms. Swapnokalpa Dasgupta for the past four years. It is amazing that this talented youngster is ready for her “Arangetram” in a matter of four years time. She has performed in a few venues in the UK but in India this was her first performance.
In Tamil language “Arangam” means stage and “etram” means climbing. Therefore “Arangetram” is literally “climbing the stage” and thus denotes the first solo, formal dance performance of the student where the Guru presents his/her student to the audience after he/she has undergone years of training to be ready for a stage performance. It is the debut performance of the artist and in Western parlance can be considered as the artist’s “Graduate performance”
She is very talented youngster and in course of time has the potential to become one of the top Odissi dancers of India.
The orchestra on that day was fabulous. The vocalist was Mr. Debasish Sarkar who has a golden voice capable of climbing from the lows to highs effortlessly. Hearing him reminded me of Anup Jalota the legendary Bhajan and Ghazal singer of India.
Excellent sitar playing by Mr. Chandrachur Bhattacharjee whose fingers literally flew over the strings.
Similarly excellent flute playing Mr. Jayant Chatterjee from whose flute emanated very soulful notes.
The piece de resistance was the Pakhawaj (a percussion instrument played in North Indian classical music) by Ms. Poushali Mukherjee kept the beat and matched the other players admirably well. Enjoy the pictures. Shankar Adisesh