It was a longish programme and at times the explanation was inaudible. The message was received albeit disjointedly. It is necessary to educate your audience as you go along to keep their interest and attention. This is especially crucial with a new production or when unfamiliar text is used.

The ‘building of the temple’ scene was the highlight of the programme. The choreography, the lyrics, the music, and the execution by the dancers came together very effectively. The artisans are working on the temple sculptures. The dancers freezing in sculptured poses while the artisans worked, and the ‘lifting and the placing’ of the ‘sellais’ received well-earned applause. The texts used were varied and showed painstaking effort. Ancient verses in Tamil, Nataraja putte, describing the dance of Shiva, Parvathi and Muruga, in ragamalika, as well as verses from the Natyasashtra, the treatise of dance, depicting the 108 karanas that are found as stone carvings on the passage walls in the gopurams of the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram, were used. A Thevaram by Thiru Gyanasambandar, hidden within the temple precincts and lost for hundreds of years was found by the Tamil king Raja Raja Chola. This composition is now frequently used in the temple and Lakshmi included it for this scene.

There were five dancers representing 5 planets, the number being symbolic of the 5 activities of Shiva, also the 5 primeval elements. Treating the whole universe as sacred space, the movements of the planets rotating and revolving in space were depicted in dance movements. Lakshmi portrayed the formless Shiva in ‘Ananda natanamaduvar Tillai’. She then expounded another bhakthi piece, ‘Tillai velliyilai vandha kondaro thirimbium varuvaro’ in ragam Yamunakalyani, a composition of Bharathiar. The procession of the utsava murthi on the occasion of Tiruvadirai when all devotees congregate was well depicted as a mallari in ragam Gambhira Nattai. A ‘nondi chindu’ also by Gopalakrishna Bharathi ‘Kaanamal irukkalagadhu‘, continued the same theme of bhakthi.

The intense devotion and despair of some devotees especially those such as Nandanar, who could not enter the temple by virtue of being lowly born was dealt with in ‘Varugalamo Aiyya’ in Manji ragam. The lines ‘Undan paramanandan thandavam parke varugalamo’ and ‘ oru puniyam seiyyamal irindainai’ were especially moving. The pleading of the devotee for a glimpse of the deity, and his humility in asking if his ‘upachara’ or offering was fit enough to be accepted by the Lord Nataraja was sensitively emoted. In ‘Theruvil varano’, the poet Muthu Thandavar likens the longing of the devotees for the Lord, to a nayika who longs to be with her beloved. The thillana in a Hindustani ragam composed by Charumathi Ramachandran described the five natyams of India as seen in the olden days, and as mentioned in the Natyasashtra. The last item was a Thirupugazh, ‘Yethanai vidhangal’ by the poet saint Thayumanavar… ‘My ego is what comes between me and the experience of Shiva’s dance of happiness... The ultimate experience of a devotee is the dance of Shiva in his heart.’

The excellent orchestra consisted of Bama Visweswaran and Chitrambari Krishnakumar, vocalists, J.Shankar, mridangist, Kannan, veena player and Roja Kannan as nattuvanar. An exhaustive effort that dealt with devotion to Shiva and the varied ways in which people yearn for the vision of the eternal truth.