Dancer’s Thoughts.

Preethi Bharadwaj speaks of her experience while working on the collaboration between The Raghu Dixit Project and Nritarutya for Bacardi NH7 Weekeender.

Preethi

Ever heard or seen of foreigners singing along ‘Lokada Kaalaji’ of Shishunaala Shareef?

Well, that’s the power of Karnataka’s Rockstar Raghupathi Dixit well known as Raghu Dixit by all his fans….He definitely is the Father of Contemporary Folk Music in India….
Nritarutya’s collaboration with The Raghu Dixit Project has always been an interesting and adrenaline rushing journey with Choreographers and Dancers giving their best at what they do creatively….
This particular collaboration with The Raghu Dixit Project was special to both of us and was more for the band since it was the launch of their second album ‘JAG CHANGA’ and for us simply because it was a refreshing journey again after PRAYOG-4…This particular one was for NH7 Weekender’s Bangalore edition on 24th November 2013 a day after PRAYOG-4!!!!
I worked with two distinctly versatile Choreographers, Mayuri and Madhuri for 3 songs from the album…
Coming to Mayuri, she is a perfectionist by birth! A choreographer who is always bound to get as creative as her nerves let her and as far as her brain can travel!
Working on a song like MYSORE SE with her was far too exciting than i had ever thought….we did have our times of getting it left, right and centre from her but then she spun a wheel of unending thrill to this beautiful number glorifying Raghu’s hometown, Mysore…the puppets that adorned our heads were the little ones Mayuri imagined to be as an innocent girl and boy from Mysore…the song being at a faster pace demanded extreme levels of energy bustling through each one of us and yet keeping in mind Raghu’s guitar haha!
Another song for which we worked with Mayuri was JAG CHANGA where she used Lit Turbans (highly fascinating to put them on) oh yeah we did have issues of it creating a mark on our foreheads but who cares, ‘The world’s a beautiful place to be in which is what JAG CHANGA means…
Madhuri is an enthu-cutlet as we all know! Her fine artist skills take her a long way in her thinking process as an individual herself…she is a choreographer who always chooses to be unique not for the sake of it but ends up being uniquely unique in her approach towards choreography and directing her dancers…
The song we worked for with Madhuri was RAIN SONG, a heart-melting romantic song from the album set basically in Raag Jog(which is very dear to Madhuri and her Mermaids…hehe) She incorporated Kathak chakkars and footwork to basically form the piece around the essence of Love and The Rain…The catalyst of this piece was the very beautiful Angaarak designed and got from Mumbai….The band collaborated with Veteran musicians like Mr.Praveen.D.Rao and Mrs.Shruthi Kamath for the pakaawaz and sitar part of the song…
Last but not the least, one of India’s best Contemporary Folk Bands with whom we collaborated with are a bunch of amazing people who love what they do….I would like to personally thank each and everyone of them for their support too when we banged into them while rehearsing and also for being such awesome friends!!
Nritarutya and The Raghu Dixit Project are always inseparable in their artistic and human self!

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