SAIMEGHNA DANCE SCHOOL

Kids and parents of Saimeghna Dance School family of Aurora, Colorado had a great time celebrating the anniversary day on Saturday 18th July evening. The day was pleasantly warm and everybody was punctually present at 5:45pm the Parker Main street center, with kids in the dance attire and parents busy with all tasks. The program was started at 6:30pm with a welcome address from Smt Lavanya Yammanur, the founding director of the school, briefly explaining the motto behind starting the school, and various developments of the school over the past eight years. The cultural programs kicked off by Ms.Sriranjani Magge, a carnatic music teacher in the region, with 'Vatapi Ganapatim', the traditional Ganesh prayer by Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar. Audience were so cheered to see the performances by advanced students Meghna, Girija and Kavya for 'Sri Ganapathim'. The senior students of the school Sravani, Sahiti, Sneha and Archita have performed Kuchipudi dance praising the Lord Durga with a great involvement. Another set of students Abhigna, Nikitha, Niharika, Akshita, Vismaya, Dheevana and Rithika's performance for Annamacharya krithi 'Adivo Alladivo' got a great applause from the audience. The students Sanjana, Sanvi and Charita have proved their talent in folk dance for 'Mavaa Bangaari', which then followed by a dance for the Ramadasa krithi 'Garuda Gamana' by Keerthi, Anusha, Ananya and Sanjana clearly showing their bhava for the rhythm. The tarangam 'Neela Megha' composed by Narayana Teertha performed by Srikala Appana is highly talented, especially when she danced on the edge of a plate with a great abhinaya. Another traditional Kuchipudi item 'Tandava Nrityakari' performed by Abhigna, Nikitha, Niharika, Akshita, Vismaya and Dheevana showed a great synchronization among the steps within the group. The dance school has completed more than 8 years, achieved many milestones, and gave many performances. It was a very well presented in a power point presentation by Srikala Appana with snippets of those performances. The audience applauded with claps for the performance to the song Swagatham Krishna' by Ananya, Kyathi and Shalika. The karaoke duet song by Neelima and Sankar for 'Nagamalli' was great. The students Meghna, Sravani, Sneha, Sahiti, Ashritha and Pratyusha showed the clear distinction from Kuchipudi style while performing for the Bharatanatyam item Alarippu with a great ease. The school paid a great tribute to the Saint Annamacharya with solo performances by Meghna for 'Srimannarayana', Kavya for 'Kulukaka Nadavaro'. The classical composition 'Namo Namo Raghavaya' by Saint Thyagaraja rendered by Smt. Rajasri Appana was greatly appreciated, which then was followed by 'Mangalam', which is the highlight of the evening, performed by all the students with their Guru Smt.Lavanya. The stage looked like a rhythmic rainbow with over 30 traditional dancers. Mr.Umashankar Yammanur has thanked all the audience, students, parents and everyone behind the show to make it so successful. It goes without saying that not a single event of Lavanya's goes by without the involverment of one person. This remarkable person is none other than Lavanya's father Dr.P.R.A Babu working remotely into every detail of the show. The school has inaugurated its website www.SaiMeghnaDance.com, designed by DesiShades on this occasion. The show ended with the prize distribution to all the students, and participants of the show, presided by Mr.Sridhar Talanki. The MC's for the show Smt.Sridevi Garimella, Kiran Velpuri and Sreedhar Donthula have delivered excellent commentary during the show, explaining each of the events very ably. The audience turnout was tremendous, which proved again that Colorado needs such dance festivals. The parents have taken a great responsibility to cater the audience a grand dinner, with a touch of social hour at the end of the show.