The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Mylapore wore an air of quiet purpose on 19 December 2025, for the inauguration of Kalavaahini’s Dance for Dance Festival. The three day festival (19-21 December 2025) was presented by Kalavaahini and curated by Bharatanatyam exponent Malavika Sarukkai, in association with Kartik Fine Arts, supported by BugleRock, and managed by Shreya Nagarajan Singh Arts Development Consultancy. 

The proceedings began with an address by Malavika Sarukkai, who spoke about the philosophy of the Kalavaahini Trust. Speaking on its decennial milestone, she emphasised that the Trust was born from a desire to foster a vibrant and salient flow of tradition, particularly for a generation committed to dance as a professional pursuit.

Her remarks were a candid reflection on the arduous reality of the modern classical dancer. She spoke of the lonely journey of creation and the staggering challenges of financing high-quality productions. In an era where the dancer is often left to navigate a disorganised sector, Sarukkai noted that the artist is forced to don multiple hats - moving far beyond the role of a performer to become a financier, choreographer, lighting designer, publicist, and administrative manager.

By highlighting this elaborate and exhausting process of creation, she positioned Kalavaahini not merely as a festival organiser, but as a support system. The Trust’s mission, she explained, is to provide the validation and timely encouragement that dancers need to maintain their integrity without succumbing to the pressures of mediocrity or financial instability. It was a call to the audience to recognise the grit required to sustain excellence in the current climate.

Viyoga: Fragments of Light

The evening’s performance featured the highly anticipated premiere of Viyoga: Fragments of Light, a work specially commissioned by Kalavaahini to mark its 10th year. Developed with the choreographic guidance and mentorship of Malavika Sarukkai, the production by the Sankhya Dance Company was born from Vaibhav Arekar’s personal reflections on disconnection.

Part One: Green vs. Grey

The piece opened with four female dancers (Eesha Pinglay, Swarada Bhave, Poorva Saraswat, and Anu Christi Pillai) who embodied the grace and resilience of nature. Their movements were sustained and elegant, marked by a fluid harmony that suggested the organic growth of the natural world. This pastoral serenity was soon interrupted by two male dancers (Gautam Marathe and Vaibhav Arekar), whose entry shifted the kinetic energy entirely. Their movements, sharp, percussive, and reminiscent of axes and bulldozers, mimicked the mechanical violence of construction and urban sprawl.   

The choreography effectively staged a "push and pull" between these two opposing forces. While the male dancers moved with a robotic precision, signaling a desensitised humanity, the female dancers remained defiant, their movements flourishing even when seemingly contained. Devoid of traditional sahitya, the piece relied on a sophisticated interplay of rhythm and melody to heighten the tension between harmony and disharmony.

This was further elevated by Sushant Jadhav’s strategic lighting design, which emphasised the verticality of modern architecture. In one of the most striking choreographic choices, the dancers utilised "tutting-inspired" hand movements, their interlocking limbs creating sharp, angular patterns that mirrored the rigid frames of skyscrapers. The impact of these formations relied heavily on the ensemble’s impeccable synchronicity; the dancers moved with a collective breath, ensuring that the geometric precision of the choreography never faltered.

Part Two : The Digital Mirror

If the first segment of Viyoga addressed the external environment, the second was a courageous plunge into the internal psyche. Vaibhav Arekar tackled the corrosive impact of social media, a theme that could easily have felt pedantic, through sophisticated abstraction. The piece was anchored by a stark visual: two dancers joined at the back, representing the "tempted" outward-facing ego and the neglected soul. In a clever subversion of tradition, the Sikhara hasta, historically denoting a deity or hero, was repurposed to signify the digital "like," a hollow gesture of modern validation.

The search for the inner Sada Siva was explored through Karthik Hebbar’s composition, Kidaikamo Nadanai Sada Sivanei. Through a meticulous use of angas and upangas, the dancers articulated the sensual indulgence of the virtual world with movements that felt both alluring and dangerously addictive. The transition from the innocent joy of connection to a messy descent into anxiety was handled with technical precision. Using the ensemble to create a sense of physical contortion, the choreography showed the body literally bent out of shape by the pressures of the virtual self - a performance not of poise, but of deliberate emotional chaos.

The music worked in tandem with dream-like lighting to evoke a visceral realm of the mind. While the entry of the Aham (the true self) provided a temporary refuge - a glimmer of the inner Sada Siva - the production avoided a simplistic resolution. The return of the "tempted self" served as a sobering reminder of the cyclical nature of modern distraction. By weaving innovative jatis into this contemporary narrative, Sankhya Dance Company proved the classical idiom’s profound capacity to reflect the neuroses of the digital age.

Part III: The Pandora’s Box of Desire

The final movement of Viyoga addressed the external manifestation of inner disconnection: the relentless hunger of over-consumption. Arekar framed this through the unsettling observation that "development" in rural landscapes has become synonymous with the arrival of the shopping mall. He posed the central question of the piece: Want or need?

The performance began with the ensemble moving in a cohesive, bhajan-esque harmony, evoking a shared spiritual consciousness. This state of collective grace was anchored by a rich tapestry of philosophical poetry, including the poignant Deha Devache Mandir and the timeless Nanati Bathuku. However, this spiritual trance was gradually disrupted. One by one, the dancers were lured away, falling instead into the predatory trance of consumerism.

The inclusion of the Kannada poem Kurudu Kanchana (Blind Gold) provided the perfect thematic pivot, illustrating the blindness of materialistic pursuit. This transformation was strikingly physicalised; the ensemble, initially dressed in muted tones and grounded earthy jewellery, ended the piece adorned in a hollow, artificial shimmer. The choreography further utilised the dancers to visually depict the mindless pollution - both literal and spiritual - of a world that knows no end to its desires.

In a poignant resolution, the production concluded with the verses of Sant Kabir’s Naiharwa humka na bhave (This worldly home no longer pleases me). It was a powerful choice that signaled a final turning away from the illusionary and the temporary towards the source of inner truth.

As the curtain fell on the first day of the Dance for Dance Festival 2025, the impact of the Sankhya Dance Company’s performance lingered. The evening was a successful marriage of Malavika Sarukkai’s curated vision of intentionality and Vaibhav Arekar’s brave, abstract exploration of the modern condition. By grounding contemporary anxieties like social media, urban sprawl, and capitalism, within the structural integrity of Bharatanatyam, the festival opened this edition with a powerful statement - that dance is not just a relic of the past, but a mirror to the present.

by

Pranati Goturi