Aham Pravahini: An Immersive Dance Journey

Aham Pravahini, a Bharatanatyam production, conceived and choreographed by Shobana Balachandra, premiered at the Bharata Kalakshetra Auditorium on 13 June 2026. Shobana has drawn inspiration for this theme from a poem called Fear by Kahlil Gibran. In fact, the short poem was recited in full during the opening stages of the presentation. Gibran’s poem uses the analogy of a river in describing the fear one faces when confronted with a situation where there is no turning back. He says, ‘In existence going back is impossible.’ The poem concludes with the message that ‘fear disappears when the river realises that it is not disappearing into the ocean but becoming the ocean’.

Shobana has used this 19-line poem without the concept of fear, to describe a river’s journey from origin to the confluence with the ocean. In 76 minutes she traces a river’s origin from the melting of a glacier, the joining of small rivulets to gain power and force, the effect of the river on the lives of people living on its banks as well as people from afar, the sense of joy it brings to them, the festivals that include the river as an integral part during the immersion of the deities, the effect of drought which threatens a river’s existence, the revival with the coming of rain, and finally the meeting with the ocean and the thought that this is not the end but a new beginning.

This narrative has been beautifully choreographed for eight dancers who were exemplary in executing what has been asked of them. The Bharatanatyam repertoire including the alarippu and tillana, was seamlessly included in the presentation in a delightful manner. The hard work that Shobana has put in, was evident in the way the non-stop performance of 76 minutes to recorded music was presented.

Embar Kannan’s brilliant music was a true enhancer of the overall production. The use of the typical beat unique to Bengal during the Durga festival and the dance choreography for it were brilliant. The use of folk music from Tamil Nadu during the revival of the river after rains and the jatis created by Bharadwaj to portray the falling rain were wonderful. During the show one was so engrossed that one did not notice the nuances of the music, it required the scholarship of S. Sowmya to tell us, in her chief guest’s speech, how Kannan has used very appropriate ragams for the various events portrayed. It was a revelation even to Kannan, who confessed that he never thought of this when he was writing.  The second chief guest Akhila Krishnamurthy mentioned her association with Shobana and other dancers when writing about them. She praised the simplicity of the production and the fact that the dancers just danced for the joy of the dance, and she particularly liked the metaphor of the ocean being the dance.

The production featured disciples of Shobana Balachandra: Preethi Anand (co-producer), Roopa Prabhu Krishna, Lakshmi Vishwanath, Poornima Nayar, Sambavi Jagadish, Suganya Natarajan, Gheya Chakra, and Shobana herself.

The music was composed and directed by Embar S. Kannan, with vocals by Deepika Varadarajan and Shravan; Bharadwaj on the mridangam; Embar S. Kannan on the violin; Ganapathy Subramaniam on tabla and percussion effects; Kishore Kumar on the sitar; and Shruti Sagar on the flute.

All the participants were brilliant and gave us a memorable evening of very satisfying dance. It must be mentioned here that it was very gratifying to see an almost full house in such a large auditorium, a rarity for a dance performance in Chennai.