Carefully crafted ...
A carefully crafted string of 'shringara' sankeertanams composed by Annamacharya and tucked into the ekaharya format of Ananda Shankar Jayanth's 'Shringara Darpanam' mirrored the earthy romance of the goddess leading to a celestial union. The lyrics, of this 15th century composer is in simple Telugu but its connotation is far and wide, transcending the material plane to merge into the esoteric. And Ananda's adaptation to the Bharatanatyam idiom did just this. It dwelt on the visibly intimate details that form the surface of the songs and subtly took us along the sublime....

With abhinaya to the fore as the lyric demanded, the dancer through mime implores in the garb of the heroine, to come over to her. There had to be a complexity of emotions like repentance, entreaty, love and nostalgia, each contradictory to the other, yet there. The maturity with which the artist allowed these to flit through her visage had to be seen to be believed. The news of the beloved lord coming to her, spins off utter confusion laced with excitement in the heroine who tries to deck herself to receive the Lord and in doing so gets her adornments all wrong. This was like child's play to a dancer of Ananda's caliber. She floated through the expressions giving us a feeling of living in the role. - Ranee Kumar in www.narthaki.com

Audience Responses
Thanks for enriching Abhinaya Sudha and congrats again for your inspired performance. - Swapnasundari

My wife and I were at your performance this evening at Satptaparni. Let me tell you it is one of the finest performances we have ever seen. To you goes the credit of carrying Annamacharya into the realm of Bharatanatyam. You managed to bring sathvika abhinaya into your performance making it unique in more than one way. Your foot work was superb. I am sure it would be a good stand-alone performance at any major social event. Thanks for the invitation; we were rewarded by a great performance! - -Anjaneya Reddy

Dear Ananda, to say that today's show was FANTASTIC would be an understatement. To a layman like me with only partial understanding of the nuances of classical dance and music, it was Divine... You transformed yourself from the material to the spiritual right under our eyes with an intensity of devotion that brought tears to my eyes and gave me goose bumps. I can well imagine the depth of feeling with which you would have put together the creation.

May the grace of the one Above descend through your devotion and your art into your life. May you and Jayant always be wrapped in the wellness of His protection, forever. This I wish most deeply and lovingly for you.

Take care, Ananda and God Bless. - Sheela Ramakrishnan

Dear Ananda, it was one of the best I have ever watched, enjoyed performance. You mesmerised us. I enjoyed thoroughly for I could see the ex-pressions on your pretty face very closely and was totally connected with the concept, performance and what grace!You are blessed Ananda, all my best wishes and keep moving up.

Love and best wishes. - Viji

As usual, your performance was par excellence…! I could actually see alamelu manga…alarulu kuriyaga aadinade ....I was waiting for the kalamularu krithi for a long time (ever since you talked about it in the class) and it was the highlight of the performance. The clarity of the various emotions was superb… - Sujata Maringanti

Your performance was mesmerizing. no adequate words to express my feelings. - Sharadha

Awesome, performance yesterday. Like your continued engagement with Annamayya. Congrats. -Vinod Pavurala

Namaste Akka, I want to say something, but have no words. Want to praise but don't know how. You have taken us to the real world of love, romance, friendship and bhakti. The choreography was great. I am blessed to be your student. Love you akka. -Neeraja

Stellar performance. Really the best I have seen ever. Hands down applause to one of the finest dancers. You are the greatest!! - Vaidehi

Hi Ananda, fantastic performance. Requires, tremendous energy, to dance nonstop, for one hour, with precision and expression throughout. Well done. - Dr P Raghuram

Wow mam. Out of the world. You proved to be you in the last item. Fantastic. Eagerly awaiting for the next one. - Rajkiran Sattiraju

Brisk 'nritta', scintillating 'abhinaya' and posture-perfect marked the presentation indeed! congrats ananda. - K Padmavathi