Celebrating Goddesses and Grace

The Irvine-based Arpana Dance Company marked its 20th anniversary on Saturday night by celebrating the attributes of female deities and formidable women in a multipart three-hour bharata natyam program called “Woman Divine” at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

Slides projected at the start of the evening suggested heroines: Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Aung San Suu Kyi and Sally Ride. But the dances that followed revolved around figures in Hindu mythology: the courage of a new bride who dares to rebel against conservative norms in “Mirabai Dance” and the woman who has enough passion to right a wrong in “Kannagi Dance.”

In group pieces with Arpana’s nine members, women’s sense of solidarity and community was evoked, according to the serene onstage narrator, Usha Sampath. There was a wedding-cake attractiveness to these dances, with an emphasis on graceful design and pattern.

Artistic director Ramya Harishankar and her guest, G. Narendra, made their marks most solidly in solos of delicately detailed mime, Harishankar as Krishna’s mother and Narendra playing Krishna as he craftily woos an angry Radha.

Both dancers created believable little islands of embodied, stylized emotion. Of course, seeing Radha cave in to Krishna because he’s such a smooth operator (a major theme in Indian classical dance) didn’t really fit into a goddess-heavy program, but we were, of course, meant to see a union of the human and the divine in that case.

Except for a few small glitches, the program flowed smoothly, often incorporating pauses to take in an impressive grouping or an individual silhouetted against changing washes of light. Impressive phrasing was more rare, however, perhaps most strongly missed in terms of bharata natyam’s virtuosic delights.

Harishankar and Narendra shared choreographic duties with A. Lakshman. Able musicians and singers were directed by vocalist Reji George and drummer D. Kannan.