Mangaluru: A Bharatanatyam performance coupled with the message from the Gospel made for a perfect Easter Sunday even as a student of the Gaana Nritya Academy brought the testaments to life through her scintillating performance.

It was a unique full-fledged performance on the Bible depicted through the ancient Indian dance form. Ruth Prithika, the dancer, said the output is the efforts put in by her teacher Vidyashree Radhakrishna, her parents Dr Roshan Maben and Dr E V S Maben and her own practise since November, and that she would leave no stone unturned to take this concept on to bigger platforms.

The two-hour performance titled ‘Kristha Patha’ gave the essence of the entire Bible right from the Book of Genesis to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in all five compositions of the dance form. “It is Easter and what better way to spread the word of God than using my talent,” said Ruth Prithika, a third-year computer science engineering student.

While the concept is brand new, the makers ensured that the performance adhered to the traditional framework of Bharatnatyam. “There was no change in style. We only imbibed the concept,” Ruth said.

According to Ruth, it was her father who conceptualized the idea and penned the lyrics. Her music teacher gave the lyrics a poetic form, got the music recorded from internationally-recognized artistes in Bengaluru, and choreographed the performance.

“I love challenges. This performance, created using the narration in the holy testaments, shows the vastness of Indian classic dance forms. The basic idea of classical dance forms is storytelling. It isn’t restricted to any religion,” Vidyashree Radhakrishna, who believes Bharatnatyam is in itself a language.

Vidyashree said the biggest challenge was that unlike depicting Shiva and Krishna, whose mudras are mentioned in Bharatanatyam, she had to create mudras and costumes suiting Jesus. “We had to start from scratch. We were able to do it, and I am glad people appreciated it.”