Guru-Shishya parampara
Sonal Mansingh
`Kaaka-snaanam (quick as a crow's bath), Baka-dhyaanam (focused like the prey-catching egret), Shwaana-nidra (like the cat-napping dog, ever-alert), Alpa-ahaari (frugal eater), Griha-tyaagi (relinquishing home) iti vidyaarthi panchalakshanam,' thus did Sonal Mansingh, with her Sanskrit erudition define the qualities of the ideal shishya answering a member of the audience on her views about the Guru/Shishya essence. The occasion at the India International Annexe, was Sehr's curtain-raiser in its "Rasik - Meet the Artist" series, resuming after unavoidable discontinuance.
Gurudom
Evasive, Sonal was more than a match for a polite Pavan Verma, the Director General of ICCR provoking her with questions. Gurudom could not be claimed, it had to be earned and Sonal's reverence for the Guru did not imply a teacher of avuncular geniality. She mentioned her Bharatanatyam Guru V.V. Krishna Rao likening her dance (with her arangetram round the corner) to that of a monkey's antics. She referred to rough treatment from her Odissi guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, whom she always paid obeisance to, even after he had "kicked her" away for walking out of a "marriage with an Oriya". The Guru/Shishya question has a loaded sub-text in Sonal's case, for the less-than-smooth interaction with the guru apart, her long and eventful career shows very few students claiming allegiance to her, for reasons unrevealed.
A "cerebral dancer" - both "participant and observer" in the dance scene, Pavan Verma cited Sonal's many-sided talents opening out windows into complex layers of Indian art, lauding her having a point of view - a rarity. With the impact on dance from the "incipient processes" of both colonialism and globalisation, he asked if classical dance with antiquity and years of refinement had lived up to the challenges of a changing world. Dance never exists in a vacuum and for Sonal from Rukmini Devi to Vallathol to Rabindranath Tagore, the churning in the dance scene was unceasing. Evading answering how she viewed cross-cultural work, Sonal diplomatically acknowledged all individual creative attempts, obliquely hinting that the dharma of what has been designed for solo traditions is sacrificed in the vogue for group presentations.
`A purist'
She unabashedly declared herself a "purist" with "respect, adoration and love for cherished Indian values". She hated the `elitist' label given to dance by unthinking persons looking only at the Delhi scene where babudom (she did not use the term) and insensitive bureaucracy have not given to the dancer the status accorded to the musician. Of dancers who studiously cultivate this damned officialdom, no mention!
Verma's query on why the free performances and poor audiences for dance called for more than the romantic "Look at Sankat mochan ghat in Banaras when dance is presented" reply. The issue needed to be addressed at several levels, like too many dancers, much mediocrity and glamour and performing aspirations overriding the zeal to learn. Is the average middle class still squeamish about art involving the human body? How does music attract audiences dance cannot? Music exists on the individual artiste's ability, unlike dance padded with the glamorous presence, costuming and accompanying music.
Young dancers
Another pertinent question about the future for young dancers deserved more than Sonal's pat reply of youngsters today having far more platforms than the seniors had in their time. The issue of talented youngsters backed by neither influence nor money finding solo spaces very difficult to procure, their appearances restricted to group presentations with performer/gurus still part of the performance scene themselves, was not addressed. Nor the lack of enterprising impresarios promoting Young Dancer festivals because dance with wafer-thin audiences holds little attraction for entreprenours. With education divorced from culture, how does one lure audiences for dance - issues needing more than an informal hour's exchange.
Parrying the provocative question on how she liked administration, Sonal replied that only after really administering would she be able to reply.
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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