By: Shweta Dubey

Each year Atlanta’s premier dance and music academy Geet-Rung School of Dance and Music showcases its annual program that coincides with Mother’s Day. True to tradition, Geet-Rung presented yet another spectacular dance show ‘Naari’- A tribute to woman on May 10th at Gwinnett Performing Arts Center. As always the event was dedicated to the worthy cause of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. All proceeds were to be donated to St. Jude to help find cures for childhood cancer, with the noble intent that no child is denied treatment. It is worth recalling that Geet-Rung hosted a Musical evening ‘Shaam-E- Sangeet’ on December 7th, 2014 to support Ekal Vidyalaya of Atlanta and create a remarkable record by raising hundred Ekal schools to support education for children in remote rural parts of India.

Divya Srivastava, founder and director of Geet-Rung commendably put together the dance show ‘Naari’ celebrating all aspects of a woman through different choreographic modes - kathak, folk, fusion and Bollywood. ‘Naari’ jisme Radha hai, Sita hai, Mohini hai, Laxmi hai, Parvati hai, Durga hai, duniya ki har Shakti hai. Naari is the source of all creation and bearer of all humans. Emcees Aqsa Farooqui and Sunny Sachdeva welcomed the audience, kept them informed and engrossed throughout the show.
The evening started with the invocation song ‘Om Namah Shivayh’ performed gracefully by Divya herself accompanied by advanced level students. Then followed a series of other dances by students of various age groups and levels that portrayed the love of Radha and all ‘brijbalas’ for Krishna, longing and a ceaseless wait of Meera for Krishna, Laxmi as Goddess of wealth or ‘Grahlaxmi’ as Goddess of the home. Next few choreographies in this segment portrayed the modern woman. With changing time the woman has taken on countless other roles in the fast-paced, ever challenging technical world.

Further explaining that ‘Naari’ completes a full circle from ‘creation’ to ‘creator’, to be loved, respected, and commended for her gentleness, compassion, strength and motherhood. Much appreciated were ‘Tarana’, ‘Liquid dance’ and the fusion piece with the mesmerizing incorporation of Ballet along with Kathak in the first half of ‘Naari’ segment. Narration by Rachna Gupta ably linked the entire presentation. Stunning backdrops by LavanyaPalaparthy further enhanced the presentation.

Then was the time for several other students of all ages starting from four year olds to come up on stage and display their talent and expose what they have achieved year long. The diverse age student groups remarkably captured the cheerfulness and exuberance of the Indian culture through the kaleidoscope of hit Bollywood dances. Audience was left spellbound with back to back outstanding performances by students on the medley of the songs paying tribute to Bollywood divas.

Then the stage became vibrant, students in varying formations, in masks, full of energy, bought the house down with the finale ‘hoton me aisibaat’. The sequences in this dance were intimidating, as they needed to reflect the gamut of moods, and finesse and vividly express the mystery and tense expression of the song.
Deftly executed by Divya and her skilled students, with numerous spins in the end, characteristic feature of Kathak dance, left the audience cheering, excited and full of thundering applause.
 
The Ekal representative Ajay Upadhyaya presented a slide presentation explaining the mission and aim of ‘Ekal’. He thanked Divya and Pankaj for their continued support to EkalVidyalaya and sharing their talent to help raise funds for such non-profit organizations.
Divya Srivastava significantly commented ‘I want all my students to understand the importance of the community service and how they can use their talent to help others in need. This not only teaches them noble values of life but also endows them with self-confidence, motivation and leadership skills’.
The glimpses of past Geet-Rung events were also shown during the program to keep the new audience informed on the erstwhile performances.




After the grand finale, Divya extended her thanks to student’s parents for their unstinted cooperation and support and to countless volunteers who had put in hard work behind stage to make the program a fabulous success. According to her with each year’s recital the student’s caliber is pushed to next higher level as she challenges them to perfect more complex choreographies and achieve the set goal by the time of the stage performance. She also wished happy Mother’s Day to all the women. Trophies were awarded to all the students, other participants and volunteers. Student of the year medals were awarded to Pooja Sharma, Kareena Kumar, Samiksha Gaherwar, and Shivangi Panda for highest scores earned in the Kathak exam levels. Certificates were awarded to the top 5 Fundraising students namely Devika Sharma, Manika Bhatia, Aafreen Anjum, Milee Patel and Aria Upadhyaya. Divya was very proud of them and named them ‘five little Angels’ bringing light in the dark life of children fighting for their survival.

She acknowledged the Manager at Geet-Rung, Shweta Dubey for her constant help round the year and outstanding support during the recital. Stage Light was creatively taken care by Shweta Shetty. Backstage management was in the competent hands of Anar Sharma, Varsha Ariyakula and Shreya Dubey. Photography was by Lavanya Palaparthy. Sound and Visual were by Pankaj Bhargava, Divya’s equally talented husband and Atlanta’s noted singer.
This year’s show boasts to be one of the best since inception. According to one of the student’s parent, Divya’s creativity knows no bound. Slow or fast, Kathak or fusion, Divya can enliven any kind of composition. According to others, there was no time to blink and every moment of it was immensely enjoyable and could not be missed. Overall, a magnificent show for a noble cause!
For more information on the school please visit the website www.geetrung.com