Dance, through the artiste's lens
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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The highlight of "Danzlenz" was the dance-camera lens interconnectivity.
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Aditi Mangaldas
Since Uday Shankar's film "Kalpana" observed dance through the camera lens, the coming together of the two disciplines of Dance and Cinematography has spawned genres like dance on film, film dance and now video dance, in which the cinematographer, imparting his own creativity, can choreograph authoritative simulated experiences, challenging reality. Encompassing fascinating facets of the dance/camera lens interconnectivities and resonances, was a two-day seminar "Danzlenz" at Jamia Millia Islamia, mounted by Kri Foundation.Thanks to Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan for making the public spaces of the university available to the organisers, enterprising students studying mass communication participated in the highly informative deliberations.
Can video dance as a performative expression in its own right, in public spaces (there was constant reference to the opportunities Commonwealth Games 2010 could throw up) stir up a new curiosity for proscenium classical dance often labelled `elitist'? Providing telling glimpses of the technological strides of the West in video dance were Evanne Seibos, dance filmmaker based in New York, and Anna Brady, dancer-filmmaker and curator of the Dance for Camera Festival. Talks substantiated by film clippings, with cult films like "Cost of living" screened in an associated event at the American Center here, provided a vista of the most unfamiliar and unconventional through windows opened by creative cinematographic imagination. Animation, strange locales, manipulated shadows and images, dance in the most unlikely innovative fusions with a variety of familiar objects, created new vibrations with dance seen as movement in the broadest sense. Anna Brady's film has a plastic bag from the trash can fluttering in the breeze, creating its own `dance' similar to the juxtaposed image of the dancing woman. A dancer's tender encounter, in another film, with a giant earth-moving machine, imparts feelings to the latter.
The Indian representation was varied. Starting with "classicist" Kamalini Dutt, chief of the Archives section of Doordarshan, whose films faithfully recapture the performed dance, camera technology is non-intrusive, the submission not compromising on the dynamics of either discipline. Her task called for a combined dance and camera understanding. Excerpts of a Padma Subrahmanyam dance-drama were different from the silence of Chandralekha's "Maha-Kaal" or Narendra Sharma's `Antim-Adhyaya' with the silently carried shrouded biers. Ashish Khokar's witty introduction was followed by screened episodes from "Taal Mel", one of the earliest Doordarshan dance serials made with him as the creative director.
Camera sensitive to tonal ambience captured the poetry of Daksha's Chhau on the seashore and silence of Astad Deboo's "Ritual" within circular space outlined with lighted lamps - different from M.K. Saroja's "Navarasa". Excerpts from Uma Sharma's films for Doordarshan, with glimpses of live abhinaya provided insights into what film could do to highlight abhinaya - a lost art in the large auditorium where nuances are unseen.
Dancer Aditi Mangaldas' exchange with cinematographer Vani Subramaniam on dance-films as promotional material, with projected excerpts, focused on the uneasy dancer/cinematographer relationship when strong-minded practitioners, demanded the freedom for designing the respective art medium. Maya Krishna Rao's work, working together with cameraman Shurajit Sarkar was on a different plane, making camera a critical part of the creative process in throwing up ideas and associations creating the framework for a dance-theatre journey. While the film "Bahudha" by Ranjit Palit was screened, Kathak dancers and co-producers Vikram Iyengar and Debashree Chatterjee danced live in front, creating a uniquely juxtaposed world of reality and virtual reality.
Film on `Tillana'
Ein Lall, in the film on `Tillana' (based on Balamurali's Kadanakutoohalam composition) by Alarmel Valli, pitted the dancer's dark silhouette against the normal image, creating a strange duet, with the silhouette more evocative than the other.
Lall's installation stirred by the Iraq War made a powerful political statement on a two-faced policy - the concluding image of the Statue of Liberty an irony against the cruel scenes of war. Sharon Lowen's rehearsal/performance/lecture video clips showing a young Guru Kelucharan are invaluable.
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