Moving stills, screaming silences
Sangeeta Sharma... Seeking stillness in movement, seeking justice in society.
CONTEMPORARY DANCE exponent Sangeeta Sharma gave a solo recital of her choreographic compositions this past week at the LTG auditorium. Sangeeta's work reflects her guru Narendra Sharma's style of functioning, which does not seek to repeat and preserve the dance idiom developed by Sharma's guru Uday Shankar, but rather to further the spirit. The two presentations were representative of the differing approaches that form, as it were, two ends of the choreographic spectrum for most dancers - the purely ornamental exploration, dealing with dance as an abstract aesthetic language, and, at the other end, a production with an overt message of great social import.
Sangeeta began with `Moort, Amoort (Between Stillness and Movement)', based on the premise that if a sculptor seeks to create movement within the inert stone, the dancer, whose instrument is the moving body, seeks stillness within that. In the aesthetic composition were visible all the fine points of Sangeeta's dance: grace and flexibility combined with strength, powerful lines and an eye for juxtaposing dance poses with the still objects in the set. She also made skilful use of a length of cloth twisted into a rope, with cymbals attached to the two ends. While the use of props is commonly seen in Contemporary Dance, her poise in handling its unwieldy length and controlling the coming together of the two cymbals was to be admired.
Music composed and sung by Subhadra Desai on the recorded soundtrack provided a rousing complement. The sound of the tanpura always seems to combine well with incense smoke as it catches the lights, and as Sangeeta wove her movements round the incense holder, the visuals were reminiscent of various moods of sculpture - now devotional, now mysterious, now dynamic. This piece was premiered under the name `Dancing Stones' when Sangeeta performed in Poland at the VI International Biennale of Contemporary Dance in 2004, and not surprisingly, was well received.
Sangeeta's second piece, `Bahati Ganga (The Flowing Streams)' was her intensely felt protest and appeal to society on the issue of female foeticide. Speaking now in the voice of the unborn child, now in that of the mother and now of a society that denigrates its girls, it raised uncomfortable questions on the state of present-day society, though it ended on a hopeful note. The girl child to whom it seems worthless to be born into a world that despises her, decides later that she will indeed take her chances to live a fulfilling life, flowing the mother Ganga.
Dancers like Sangeeta are rare, in that taking a new theme that is intended to create upheaval in the viewers is not a likely route to popularity, and only the rare artiste willingly risks popularity.
Some of the poetic commentary was powerful, the soundtrack sometimes distressing - such as the breath harshly blown into the mike representing the agony of the mother advised to destroy her unborn child. Sangeeta and her fellow dancers Meenakshi Chopra and Shubro Ghosh alternated between abstract representation of the theme through stylised movements, and realistic delineation, such as at the end when they marched through the audience in the style of demonstrators. Perhaps this mixing of approaches weakened the impact of the production. It is to be hoped that Sangeeta, a dedicated and experienced choreographer who does not shy away from hard work, will further develop this piece, as it is vital for the health of the arts, that our productions, whether in the officially `contemporary' or `classical' mould, reflect contemporary concerns of society.
Lights by Gautam Bhattacharya blended well with the two presentations, and perhaps the best compliment to the light designer would be that one nearly forgot his contribution was a separate discipline from the dance.
ANJANA RAJAN
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Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
