If ever I was able to watch only one Bharatanatyam performer from the hundreds that exist, I would choose Malavika Sarukkai without batting an eyelid. Of course, after making that choice, the eyelid would bat crazily questioning why such a straitened situation existed at all. Similarly, soon after I began to breathe in the magic she created through primarily her own dancing in Vamatara: To the Light, niggling doubts began to assail me as to how to read the work and the professed content in our present-day scenario.
Malavika Sarukkai has a softness of touch that always imbues a sometimes tyrannically angular form like Bharatanatyam with a languorous grace and fluidity. This has always amazed me when I watch her dance. It is not necessarily her choreography: indeed, while the four others who performed in the group pieces with her were commendable dancers themselves, none brought in quite this quality to the body. To melt into movements of liquid sinuousness from sharply defined postures, and then un-melt too is an ability most dancers struggle to achieve. And to do that with seeming effortlessness and incredible musicality is part of the rich gift that Malavika Sarukkai offers us.
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