Jaivant Patel gave audiences in Wolverhampton a rare treat on Saturday 15th June; an evening that was special both for its programming of classical work, and its focus on male performers. Though the preceding evening of the Samarpan Mahotsav weekend offered four female performers who might see each other as peers, this evening ‘Shivam’ offered up performers on a wide spectrum of experience. Sundaresan Ramesh and Vinod Nair began the evening with Bharatanatyam, Sooraj Subramaniam brought us Odissi, and we were then taken on an exploration of Kathak with Shyam Patel, Jaivant Patel, Pranav Yajnik, Mithun Gill and Shyam Dattani.
Mithun and Shyam P seemed to stretch themselves with new developments in their practice; Mithun with his use of prop, costume and unusual movement vocabulary in a more conceptual work that he has choreographed with his Guru Sujata Banerjee, and Shyam P in his presentation of Pandit Rajendra Gangani’s complex and playful footwork. Jaivant and Pranav gave refreshing performances of abhinaya work, while Sundaresan and Vinod both offered neat technical lines, crisp footwork and light airy jumps.
The highlight of the evening was in seeing Sooraj and Shyam D, who both elicited loud cheers and whoops from an audience that seemed rightly blown away. Sooraj presented two short pieces of Odissi repertoire with the usual unparalleled levels of grace and poise. His pieces were completely devoid of gimmick or spectacle, and the choreographies felt simple and symmetrical. It is difficult to describe his dancing without defaulting to superlative language, but spins were simultaneously expansive and crisp, arms carved the air with both ease and strength, and his torso seemed to balance playfully on his lower body, shifting delicately from one side to another. Such was his technical precision that I was able to appreciate the detail in the movement of his eyes.
Shyam Dattani performed with a maturity and presence that also arrested the space. His piece ‘Udaan’ is choreographed by Guru Urja Thakore and while it’s no longer new, I felt Shyam infused it this time with impressive levels of dynamic clarity, confident technique and commitment. Fast movements would come to a sudden still with impeccable control, and there was no shying away from either complex footwork or slower expressive moments. Shyam offered up small treats during the choreography - an unexpected drop of the hand here, a beautiful lilt in his torso there, with well-designed lighting taking care of all these details. His performance was full of charm and I would go as far as to say, swag! The refinement in his performance allowed this shining through of his personality.
Despite the large number of solo performers, the evening kept us refreshed and engaged with each work averaging at 7-8 mins. This may have been designed with accessibility in mind; Jaivant is trying to develop theatre-going audiences from an Indian population that is generally more engaged with community-centered events and unfamiliar with classical dance. However, I was torn between enjoying the variety within classical work and craving longer performances where I could have the chance to get to know the performers a little better. Hats off to Jaivant for such a memorable evening!