Perilous Life Lessons Lurk in Bharadvaj’s Bold Animal Tales

Looking a little lost on the wide stage of the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach on Sunday, Ramaa Bharadvaj’s extensively revised version of her full-evening suite “Panchatantra” used folk and classical dance forms of India to retell tales that originated 2,500 years ago with a sage named Vishnusharma--tales making the actions of animals yield lessons about human behavior.

Adapted by Aesop in 500 BC, these pithy animal fables inspired Bharadvaj to create bold, juicy character dances. Additional pleasure came from watching the principal women of her locally based Angahara Ensemble parody fatuous machismo as practiced in several different species.

Each of the tales she chose involved dangerous misunderstandings and unnecessary strife, but only the first (about a volatile friendship between a lion and a bull) and the third (about teamwork between doves) made satisfying dance theater. The former boasted charming masks and intriguing political implications (which country is the lion and which the bull?); the latter capitalized on windblown lyricism and resourceful stagecraft.

Unfortunately, the promising crocodile-and-monkey story stayed mired in prosaic mime, never seizing the opportunity for two major dance duets suggested by the story: a pivotal marital squabble and a near-fatal water journey. Moreover, the final tale, with its overemphasis on a doting human mother, didn’t really fit with the others, though it certainly provided spectacular opportunities for Swetha Bharadvaj, Ramaa’s dancing daughter.

Her mother appeared to best advantage as the strutting, pre-Disney lion king and the lead dove, with Anjali Desai, Regina Jacob, Payal Hathi and Shivali Panchal making the most of subsidiary roles. Maria Bodmann narrated, supplying synopses and deft commentary, though her proven virtuosity as a puppeteer was pointlessly reduced to the task of merely holding two placards (a horse and a cat) and tilting them occasionally. Why not let herrod-puppets get in on the action?