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Sita Haran Review - DanceView
Rita Felciano

DanceView Vol. 26, No. 4 - Autumn 2009
Rita Felciano

With Sita Haran, the Chitresh Das Dance Company (Cowell Theater, Sept. 27) has a winner. Choreographer and dancer Das has created a charming, utterly accessible yet refined story ballet about the most famous section of the Ramayana. It served as a reminder that “kathak” means, “story telling.” Using a gestural language made up of specifically Indian and more generally understood movement vocabulary proved to be a smart decision. Elaborate program notes, supplemented by taped narration also helped in following the complicated plot, but it was Das’ choreography and the clarity of the interpretation that made Sita such a delight. This is a show that should travel beyond the confines of its Indian audiences.

Purists might object that, contrary to tradition, “Sita’s” choreography is set and the dancing is not as rhythmically intricate and nuanced as it would be if the dancers were working within given parameters and to live music. Pure dancing – though there were lots of pirouettes – played a secondary role to the story telling. Das also wrote the serviceable score, heard on tape.

But on its own terms Sita works. The story picks up when the Demon King Ravan, upon his sister’s instigation, kidnaps Prince Ram’s wife Sita who had followed her husband and his brother into exile. It ends when Ram rather ignobly kills the Monkey King, Bali. All the parts were danced by Das’ nine-woman company, with five o’clock shadows and pencil-thin mustaches where necessary.

The dancers understood that dance drama will descend into melodrama unless clarity and restraint work in tandem with each other. Not that there weren’t a few Bollywood touches. The skirt swirling Joanna Meinl’s flirtatious and spurned Surupanaka was a little too exaggerated just as Anjali Nath’s much suffering Sita a few times looked too much like Lillian Gish. But those are small quibbles. Seibi Lee in the double roles of Marich, the retired roué, and as Hanuman, minister to Sugreeva, the wronged prince of the Monkeys, was magnificent. Her gestures were large and readable with a huge range of facial expressions. With beautiful clean lines and strong stances the brothers Lakshman (Farah Yasmeen Shaikh) and Ram (Rina Mehta) looked alike but Shaikh, in an interesting shadowy way, showed his greater perception of the world around them. Completely loyal, his was not a blind loyalty.

Even small parts were beautifully worked out. Labonee Mohanta’s fleet-footed Golden Deer had a wonderfully nervous anxiety about it. Jatayu, The Grand King of Eagle’s, gradual expiration just about broke my heart.

Sita was very much a company piece though it did have its star, Charlotte Moraga, in the role of the two villains, Ravan, the demon king, and Bali, the monkey king. Evil is always attractive on stage, but Moraga pushed it into the world of the titans. Broad of chest and arms like trunks, villains had grandeur, fierceness and yet a touch of the comic to them. Moraga’s was a major accomplishment.