Cultures in a crucible
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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The European Union Cultural Weeks featured some interesting exchanges between performing art traditions of India and the West.
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SPIRITED CONCORD Kalpana Raghuraman in Song of Songs
Transcending culture specific boundaries, art forms from different regions, in the globalised context, look for points of interaction. Rudyard Kipling's "East is East and West is West, Never the twain shall meet" stands disproved. On the occasion of the European Cultural Weeks in India, the Royal Netherlands Embassy and the Delegation of the European Commission, in collaboration with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, presented Song of Songs: The Love and Life of Mirabai, at Sri Sathya Sai auditorium.
Dutch composer Rukus de Groot and Bharatanatyam dancer Kalpana Raghuraman based in the Netherlands attempted a meeting point at several levels - a French poem, "Song of Songs" by Marc Chagall (based on the Biblical Song of Songs much like the Bhakti poets), interpreted through Mirabai's imagination with an Indian dancer performing to Western music.
The French text "Ou est-il mon amour?" (Where is my love?) was structured in the varnam format with pallavi, anupallavi and charanam interspersed with teermanams. Sung by mezzo soprano Marieke Koster, accompanied by evocative flute (grand, standard and base) by Mike Schmid with Arch Lute, piano and cello also supporting.
Kalpana's choreography was a blend of Bharatanatyam-derived and Modern dance movements (wrongly announced Bharatanatyam). Kalpana's body equipoise accommodated Bharatanatyam-like movements like a tatti-mettu and kuditti-mettu, but with a broad plie with fluid level changes and tiptoed walk, omitting the strongly grounded Bharatanatyam feel.
Sense of geometry
Caressing hand movements, one hand often used as the `Other' Meera sought and a strong sense of geometry in covering floor space and in hand moving through space marked the choreography.
Circling, spiralling, at times going in a reverse direction, hands covering face symbolising completion of one idea and movement to another, and mobile mukhaabhinaya communicated the yearning for Krishna, describing his peacock feather-clad person and visualising his childhood days playing ball and sporting with the gopis contrasted with the Viswaroopa Krishna, dreaming of being wed to the Lord, and dramatically in the charanam (with liberated, freewheeling contemporary dance) realising that He is eternally with her - "A chaque pas je te vois". Whether tisram or khandam, the teermanams done to percussion had a strange feel without any obvious tala accents, but these parts acted as punctuation. Wisely, in an East/West endeavour, the dancer wore a costume that was neutral and allowed freedom of movement. An interesting experiment!
Captivating strings
The String Quartet from Poland.
At the India International Centre, sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland was the String Quartet of Anna Boniecka (I violin), Magdalena Stelmaszyk (II violin), Sylvia Mroz (viola) and Dorota Wozniak Mocarska (cello), who charmed the audience with the sophisticated playing and the professional presentation. The first half with the heavy classical pieces really impressed. Starting with Michal Kleofas Oginski's "Pozegnanie Ojczyzny" (Farewell to the Homeland), the quartet went on to Arcangelo Corelli's Twelve Concerti Grossi of which opus 6, number 8 was played.
W.A. Mozart's II Divertimento F major, starting with the warm cello tones, before the violin unobtrusively and smoothly joins in, saw the high point of the recital.
The post intermission presentation, very fluffy and entertaining, turned out to be more in the light mode. One would have expected with such accomplished players some more classical weight in this part too. Beethoven's Finale from the IX Symphony, Bizet's Habanera from the opera Carmen, Brahms' Hungarian Dance number 5, Wieniawski's Dudziarz, Irish Dance and Offenbach's Can Can comprised the second half.
The Carnatic music kirtanam, meant for instrumental music, "Raghu-vamsha-sudhaambudhi" started off rather tamely and picked up by the anupallavi.
The part in drut pace was left out. One admired the spirit of the experiment.
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