– SKOKIE, Ill.
Kalidasa’s “Cloud Messenger” (Meghadootam) was rendered through operatic ballet here at the North Shore Center for Performing Arts on Sept. 7. Produced by Cleveland Cultural Alliance (CCA) with Oscar-nominated Bombay Jayashri Ramnath as its music director, the dance drama was conceived, scripted and choreographed by the well-known duo Shijith Nambiar and Parvathy Menon. The free afternoon performance was presented by All India Movement for Seva (AIMS) to celebrate its philanthropic achievements over the 14 years since its inception.
Kalidasa’s acclaimed masterpiece in 111 Sanskrit verses expresses in a languid meter the pining of a nature spirit (yaksha), exiled to the Vindhya Mountains in central India, for his impatient beloved awaiting at their Himalayan home on mount Kailasa. The yaksha confides the pangs of love-in-separation to the first somber water-laden monsoon cloud that nestles the mountain peak before continuing northwards. He describes the varied landscapes and wonderful scenes that this improbable messenger will see on its long itinerary. The 5th century “Indian Shakespeare” is treasured for his classical dramas, his felicitous turns of phrase and delicate sentiments.
In this CCA production, the shape-shifting messenger is constituted by those tears of yearning and comes to embody the soul of the yaksha. This allows Nambiar, dancing out the vicissitudes of the cloud’s itinerary, to depict a spiritual union of sorts before evaporating, but not before drenching the despairing yakshi with love. The 90 minutes of scintillating group dances in synchronized patterns are set to melodies garlanded around core ragas such as Mohanam, Desh and especially the monsoonal Miyan Ki Malhar. Nature, animal behavior and festive scenes below are portrayed in a manner befitting the master poet’s fertile imagination.
Despite some pre-narration of scenes, the challenge remains in dramatizing through dance an elegiac Sanskrit poem, sonorous verses originally meant to be contemplated, before audiences unfamiliar with the classical language. While the richly varied tapestry of Meghadootam is mostly reduced to a magical backdrop to the operatic ballet, more adventurous connoisseurs of the spectacle may still need to read the original, at least in translation, to savor its intrinsic beauty.
Founded by Swami Dayananda Saraswati, AIMS has since constructed over 100 free student homes near government-run schools in India to allow rural children access to education and healthcare. It has impacted over 20,000 students and their families through 18 educational institutions and 270 evening tuition centers across 15 states. The free event was intended to raise public awareness and encourage patrons to sponsor a child from one month to a year. Swami Pratyag Bodhananda from Surat (Gujarat), had driven all the way from Dayton, Ohio, to underline the Vedantic underpinnings of Seva, how spiritual knowledge translates, through love, into service.
Having already toured the West Coast and the Southwest, the dance troupe from India is performing next in Detroit before proceeding to the East coast.