Kathak in Chennai is something to look forward to and rasikas here through the aegis of Karthik Fine Arts had the singular pleasure of witnessing the work of the eminent cultural ambassador from Pune, Rohini Bhate. She has retired from the stage, but her troupe from the Nrityabharathi Dance Academy proved able successors to her artistry. Essentially a soloist, Bhate currently specialises in group choreographies and ballets, either within the traditional repertoire or sometimes outside of it.

One did feel the dearth of nritta in the presentation though; nritta, which is the mainstay of the Kathak repertoire, the often-spontaneous rendition of taal, and the sawaal-jawab sequences that never fail to exhilarate, was given a brief mention in the doha-kavit dominated piece ‘Nritya-Gopal’ centred on the gopis coping with their sorrow on parting with Krishna.

The season of spring- the season of hope after a dreary, grey winter has inspired many a poet and dancer. Bhate presented a beautiful light-hearted choreography heralding the advent of this ‘Season of Seasons’ in a Hori depicting the colours of Holi. The vibrant dancers dressed in multi-coloured hues imbued the presentation with joie de vivre, as they flitted in and out like butterflies with a delectable lightness of step.

Bhate’s innovations in Kathak have taken her on a path of abstraction, this time about ‘time’; the music combined the traditional, replete with the melodious strains of the sitar and santoor, and keyboard music, while the dance alternated between stiff, stucco movements descriptive of the clock or of the time-keeping trap that we are slave to, and at other times just movements with a gentle beat, keeping time, of course! The wonderful synchronization of the dancers and their effortless transition to this robotic style made an impression in as much as the visualisation of the piece did.

The wonderfully uplifting orchestra besides the singer had Chinmay Kolatkar on the harmonium and Nikhil Phathak on the mridangam. The dancers were: Amala Sekhar, Manisha Abhai, Aditi Prashanth, Varsha Godbole, Roshan Datye, Sharvari Jamenis, Mugdha and Leena Panse.