Asia Dance Channel

Just like the Pancha Paandavas, the five great warriors of Mahabaratha; and the Pancha Bootha, which symbolizes the earth, water, wind, fire and sky existing together for the harmonious life; the term “Panchasunthara” means five men. Held at Auditorium Taman Budaya, Jalan H.S. Lee, this dance performance comprises of five short dances (in order: The Metrosexual Mayura, The Chakkar Lady, Lalitha, Black File, and TechnoTillana), each full of energy and carried powerful messages. Yet, the beauty of each mini dance is that it leaves room for the audience to interpret what they perceive from the movements and facial expressions of the dancers.

The five choreographers of this performances are: Ravi Shanker, a Bachelor of Arts, English graduate from University Putra Malaysia; Lakshman Balakrishnan, Assistant Artistic Direcetor of Asthana Arts Kuala Lumpur, known for his bold choreography with a touch of contemporary and new-age genres; Kunaratnam, a refined dancer who started his dancing career at The Temple of Fine Arts Kuala Lumpur and Lassya Arts with Guruvagur Usha Rama Chandran; Rama, a dancer, choreographer, designer, prop maker, make-up artist and everything a creative person could be, and winner of the Aattam 100 Vagai dance competition; and Lawrence, House Instructor of Asthana Arts Kuala Lumpur.

The Metrosexual Mayura
Just like every successful dance, the opening act is important to capture the audience’s attention and to usher in the atmosphere of the entire production. The Metrosexual Mayura, choreographed by Rama, is about two crows trying to be beautiful and pleasant like a peacock.

Dressed in black, Thinakaran and Narendran (the crows) danced about on stage in their pitch-dark costumes. Moving about the stage gracefully yet aggressively, they came to a shocking halt when the peacock (Rama) emerged with its dazzling green costume, illuminated by the yellow light. The crows frowned with jealousy, and burst into a series of fast, aggressive dances that seemed to be belligerent. The Peacock, while retaining its docile and amicable character, reacted fiercely.

At the disappearance of the red lights, the “fight” was over, and mournful, sad frowns carved themselves on the face of the crows; they wanted beauty. They craved for it. The peacock finally understood their jealousy and sadness, and offered to share its feathers with them.

Perhaps what needs to be highlighted from this dance is the importance of friendship regardless of our races. Through friendship, much can be attained. Fights need not occur. Peace will reign.

The Chakkar Lady
After The Metrosexual Mayura, the second dance seemingly crept onto the stage with its slow and soft music. A beautiful lady (Lakshmy Priya) with a dashing dress appeared on stage, showcasing her gold, and her greed and love for riches. To her, money was everything; love was nothing. Value was placed on gold and riches, for they were countable; but love, no measurement could measure the width, depth and height of it. To her, what is viewable and tangible is worth loving; but love itself, which is so abstract and intangible, has no value.

A man (Kuna) tried to convince her that there is more to life than just money, money, and money; there is love. She resisted the idea. The music crescendos as her resistance increases and the man try harder to convince her. At a loud, accented note unveiling the moment of eureka, she finally realized her foolishness. The initial fast-paced and resentful movements change 180 degrees to a graceful, loving series of dances to exhibit love.

The entire dance spoke for itself – that greed and desire for riches brings one nowhere, but love, ever so gentle, will enrich one’s life much more than riches can. What is lovelier than love itself?

Lalitha
A person once said that “love is like a rose. It looks beautiful on the outside... but there is always pain hidden somewhere.” Similarly, Lalitha, performed by five girls (Annamah, Vaishnavi, Prema, Denashini and Hanusa Devi) and one guy (Lawrence, who is also the choreographer), is a depiction of how love can be a pool of thorns.

In red costumes, the girls danced around the stage, seemingly decorating the stage with love and desire. But as Lawrence entered the scene and danced with one of them, the others wore frowns on their faces. Perhaps this symbolized the longing they had for love, but longing spiced up with love makes the heart bitter.

With Black File, he addressed the issue of injustice with dance. At the beginning of the dance, sound clips of people saying their names brought the audience into a state of nervousness while three men walked about the stage, occasionally pausing and raising their hands, symbolizing the act of pledge (patriotism) and imprisonment.

Abruptly, the sound clips stopped and in came a progression of rock music, during which their dances included movements of falling and hitting the ground, a symbol of oppression and grievances.

The highlight of the dance was when these three dancers appeared at the left side of the stage, laid on the floor, covered themselves with white cloths (a symbol of death and ironically, peace), and painted themselves with red paint (a symbol of blood). At the right side of the stage were four other dancers who dressed like chefs holding ladles in their hands. In front of these four dancers was a table with a variety of plastic fruits and vegetables, covered with a huge white cloth.

The chefs took away the cloth, looked at their hands while they transferred their ladles from one hand to the other with a fanatic and psychotic look at their faces, and then, with a horrifying and angry glance, they forcefully hit the fruits and vegetables with their ladles four times. This continued for another four times, and quickly, they covered the “spoils” with the white cloth and burst out in an evil laughter together.

While one’s interpretation may vary from the other, all can concur that the main gist was protest towards injustice. One may even go to the lengths of questioning the efforts of the authorities with regards to injustice. Perhaps and hopefully through this dance, awareness about injustice can be successfully created, questions will be raised, and answers will be the inspiration of pursuance.

Technotillana
Culture is the way a person or a group of people live their lives, with regards to general customs and beliefs. Culture stays because people make an effort to retain it. Yet, the world is never still. Technology has reformed the world and changed the mindsets of people. Socializing has moved from spending time playing games, talking and dining together to clubbing and dancing. Working changed from toiling hard under the sun to sitting in an air-conditioned room, in front of the computer and typing.

The thing is, should culture change? Or should it remain as it is even if many distractions exist? This is what this dance tries to question while portraying the changes (and hopefully not damage) culture has endured.

A fusion of both traditional and contemporary dance, Technotillana was an interesting choreography by Ravi Shanker. This dance also showcased how we fit into the society and how our perceptions about the world and technology are slowly changing.

Panchasunthara was quite a successful event, although there were a few glitches every now and then (in between dance performances especially). Yet, despite those minor hiccups, the audience left with a smile on their faces. After all, isn’t a performance all about putting a smile on the audience’s face and having them nod in agreement with what the performance was trying to portray?