What happens when contemporary Jazz music is blended with classical Bharatanatyam?  One ends up with an enthralled audience, a band of musicians and a dancer, who are beaming with what must be obvious pride at the fruit of their efforts. The dancer - the gifted Ramya Ramnarayan and the musicians - Jazz band Bedam from Amsterdam.

To describe Ramya Ramnarayan in a nutshell, she is a performer, teacher and choreographer all rolled into one.  Having studied Bharathanatyam under the renowned lineage of Guru Swamimalai K Rajaratinam and abhinaya under Padmabushan Kalanidhi Narayan she is the Artistic Director of Nrithyanjali Institute of Dance and also holds the post of adjunct professor in the Dance Department of Rutgers University.

Ramya and her students are regular featur es at the annual music and dance festival in Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore, they have performed at major sabhas in all these cities.  This year Ramya gave Chennai audiences a rare performance - a fusion of contemporary Jazz music with traditional Bharatanatyam.  The Jazz music group - Bedam, blended carnatic and Indian classical rhythm into their compositions for which Ramya presented classical Bharathanatyam.

The performance had renowned vocalist Jahnavi Jayaprakash singing the Ragam, Talam and Pallavi with the Bedam following her.  The band comprised of a flautist, violinist, bass guitarist, keyboard player, saxophonist, trumpet player who were accompanied by local musicians playing the thavil and ganjeera.  After the first part came the crossover piece, in which Ramya joined Jahnavi and the Band for a Thani Avarthanam.  After the Thani Avarthanam, Ramya performed a short Bharathanatyam recital.

Ramya Ramnarayan is no stranger to Chennai, having been born and brought up here before she relocated to United States a little more than a decade ago.  And she is no stranger to fusion experiments either.

Ramya Ramakrishan spoke to Chennaibest at the curtain raiser prior to her performance. 

On her experience working with Bedam she said "I have practiced with Bedam for just two weeks and this is their first performance in India.  This would also be the first time anything like this has been done because while there have been fusion performances by vocalists and musicians this is probably the first fusion performance by a dancer and musician.  The band has had a five-year exposure to Carnatic music at Amsterdam.  They were first introduced to Carnatic music by Jahnavi Jayaprakash and have worked with her. They have a good sense of rhythm and the best thing about them is that they have been able to grasp things quickly".

Speaking about fusion music such as this, she said, "The coming together of different forms such as this makes for an enriching experience for the wisdom.  Also this should be seen against the context of performing an art such as Bharathanatyam in a foreign land such as America.  My performances abroad draw not only Indians but also people from other cultures and countries.  For them it is difficult to understand a dance form from a culture, which is based on religion.  For them to relate to a performance they need to connect to the culture.  I have managed to connect with them through my earlier experiments with blending western classical music and Bharathanatyam.  People have given me the feedback that they have understood what I was trying to portray.  This, when performed without any lyrics is almost like presenting abstract ideas.  In this kind of a scenario the music helps people to connect.  The techniques are the same, it is just that the music makes the audience think and imagine differently".  Ramya spent several hours listening to their compositions so that she can help the audience connect her dance to the music. Ramya brought together in her performance - Bhava (facial expression), Raga (Melody) and Talam (Rhythm), which are nothing but the syllables Bha, Ra and Ta which make up the word Baratha in Bharathanatyam. 

Ramya through her experiment blending Jazz, Western music and Bharatanatyam is making East meet West in a unique fusion.

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