Mallari: A Bharatanatyam Performance

Akila Rao presents an opening piece in Bharatanatyam called Mallari. The piece is a short, 10-minute item and is performed as a welcome to the street procession of the Lord of Dance, Lord Nataraja and his family.
Mallari is a unique piece of music played on nadawaram (wind instrument) the presiding deity of a temple is taken on procession. The deity, decorated with jewels and garlands is brought near the temple tower and nadawaram (wind instrument) artiste plays the music with the accompaniment of thavil (percussion instrument).
The word Mallari literally means to 'wrestle with lord'. Mallari in dance is a passage of syllables set to a certain ragam and talam. It is executed in 3 speeds. It is a particular type of a worship where in the deity is made to sit in a palanquin and taken around in the temple premises.
Smt. Akila Rao is a Bharatanatyam dancer and artistic director of Sri Vidya Dance School, Cupertino, California. She began her Bharatanatyam training at the age of 7 and spent her formative years learning under Guru Pasumarthy Ramalinga Sastry, Hyderabad in the Kalakshetra Bani of Bharatanatyam. Smt. Akila Rao holds a Masters in Architecture degree and has expanded her artistic qualities of art and architecture into the dance form and continues to pursue her learning Bharatanatyam from eminent Gurus of the Kalakshetra Foundation.
About Sri Vidya Dance School: www.srividyadan...
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