Change in concepts
BHAWANI CHEERATH
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Mohiniyattom exponent Neena Prasad talks about the relevance of the post-colonial identity in Indian classical dance forms.
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NEW PERSPECTIVE: Exploring the Nayika's role.
"The delicate, stereotypical nayika is the established identity of the dancer in Mohiniyattom. But the post-colonial identity is particularly relevant to the dance because it had till then been a part and parcel of the feudal set-up," says danseuse Neena Prasad.
Her words acquire special importance when we know that as a recipient of a Fellowship of a joint project of the Roehampton-Surrey - School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) she is to focus on `Post-Colonial Identity Construction in South Asian Dance Forms.' Traditional dance forms derive strength from the combined energies of the practitioner schooled in the gurukula system, and one who learns the dance as well as assimilates it within the structured format of an academic subject.
Understanding of the art form
Neena, who falls into the latter segment, therefore brings with her a deep understanding of the roots of the form, and yet explores the immense possibilities that emerge when a dancer delves deeper to find new avenues of expression.
"When we understand that the function of dance is to entertain, educate and elevate, we have to also recognise the transition that has occurred in the presence of the nayika. The compositions of Swati Tirunal, for example, reveal that it is the male perception of beauty that is being translated by the dancer." The `male gaze' therefore had a prime place in the total presentation. The dancer was never expected to move beyond the total mood of shringara. "As a Nayika I want to communicate with the audience. In the earlier generations they had no such function, nor could they express themselves," she explains.
The first freedom, according to Neena Prasad, came when they moved away from conventional texts and the dancer began to tap the potential of technique, which remained untouched by many. Mohiniyattom, according to her, remained in the shadows because it had few who could take it beyond the borders of Kerala.
When seasoned dancers trained in the Kalamandalam style tried to express shringara with bhakti it came to be questioned. Over the years change is visible, the freedom to go beyond the conventional idiom is a new freedom enjoyed by the danseuse.
Neena's years at the Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata paved the way for understanding the technicalities of Mohiniyattom. Working on the lasya and tandava in classical dance forms in India she was able to fathom that by its "very nature Mohiniyattom is organic, the energy is not acrobatic but yogic."
A trained Bharatnatyam dancer, how does she react to the criticism that dancers should limit themselves to one dance form?
"I have never believed it is inhibiting to be learn more than one dance form. What one needs is a good guru. The knowledge of one helps you to understand, develop and grow in the other too," she explains.
She, however, adds that for the moment she is looking forward to her forthcoming project in Britain.
"The archival material on the classical dance forms that they have at the SOAS is something we don't possess here. Major works done in the first half of the twentieth century in our country now form part of the archives there, so the access to such material will prove illuminating," she says.
Neena Prasad, who divides time between her dance school, Sougandhika Centre for Mohiniyattom in Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram, now has an opportunity to reinforce her ideas on Mohiniyattom with the research into the post-colonial identity of this dance form.
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