DANCE REVIEW : San Jose Troupe Dances Life of Saint

Dancer and choreographer Mythili Kumar has named her Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose after what she and her students do best, telling stories through mime. In Indian classical dance, abhinaya describes a highly coded system of expressive gesture, which was put into play Saturday night at the James Armstrong Theatre in Torrance to dance scenes from the life of a revered 15th-Century saint-poet-composer.

For those not fluent in Sanskrit or Telugu, languages in which lyrics were hauntingly sung by Asha Ramesh, English narration helped explain each vignette from “The Life of Annamacharya.” Some of the mime easily crossed cultures: the wagging of a finger to scold the young saint for not doing his chores, his prayerful devotion to Lord Venkateshwara and later, his earthly flirtation with his soon-to-be wife. At other times, the swiftly circling arms that stop to carve filigree patterns, and the fingers that spread into starfish shapes on hands revolving this way and that, were clearly a graceful, unknown language.

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Sprinkled throughout were non-narrative steps of bharatanatyam: the very vertical, bobbing walk and angled limbs that rock the body from side to side in wide stances and deep knee-bends. This company’s style is soft as opposed to crisp, with very little emphasis on sharp footwork and rapid turns. In unison group work of mostly symmetrical V-shapes and circles, the clear line and eloquent face of Priti Radhakrishnan consistently stood out, as did the beautifully articulate arms of Radhika Kannan.

Each of the other young dancers had an emerging, individual grasp of mime that is lit from within, although an occasional “dance-by-numbers” feeling emerged. Abhinaya is an art enhanced by age and experience, as Kumar displayed in an extended solo exploring the longing and bliss of divine love. Also enriched by experience were onstage musicians N. Narayanan (mridangam), Shanthi Narayanan (violin) and Dr. P.T. Narasimhan (flute).