Art of identity
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The international conference on Choreographing Traditions focused on dance arts in transition.
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A fusion of Kathak and Bharatanatyam
Like the concentric circles on the logo of the United Nations, representing ever-widening spaces that an individual functions in - from family, community and nation to the international arena - dance traditions in the world today negotiate plurality of performance spaces, far from the sheltered privacy of the home region. Urgencies of the market-driven age make people think in terms of `global identity'.
Even the ubiquitous McDonald hamburger in this country had to suitably change its stuffing for the Indian palate. Dance traditions reaching out to audiences with varied cultural suppositions and art expectations face new tensions and challenges.
With Diasporas sporting many dancers striving to find a niche for our dances in alien cultural surroundings, the whole idea of cultural authenticity is acquiring new dimensions. Dances reasserting cultural values based on the `rasa' aesthetic, find little of the initiated spectator or `rasika' among the mixed audiences they perform for.
Natya Dance Theatre of Chicago in its 13th Anniversary Season with "Dance India", mounted an international Conference ,Choreographing Traditions, focusing on opportunities and challenges for dance traditions in transition, with panel discussions substantiated by evening performances. Re-contextualising dance traditions is not a new phenomenon, for even the journey from temple to proscenium posed challenges with changed performance space, audiences, practitioners and artistic intentions.
"Rukmini Devi-bashing"
So what was new? A Canada-based Bharatanatyam dancer maintained that his inspiration drew on the "sensuality of the devadasi" rather than the "sanitised" "neo-classicism of the present. During a later panel discussion between Kumudini Lakhia and Leela Samson, the latter in a refined rebuttal wondered on what basis denominations were given. While "Rukmini Devi bashing" had become the mode, she herself never tried to defend a great revolutionary who needed no defence. For Leela, aesthetic constructs like the alarippu and the artistically designed, crisp teermanams of old were treasures.
Endless variety
Whether it was dusting old items taken off the shelf presented in new packages, newness attempted through fusion, or taking off from a traditional dance background to post-modernism, the performances offered endless variety. Glimpses of Margi and Desi dances of South India, conceived and competently introduced by V.R. Devika of the Aseema Trust, Chennai, comprised a package of Theruk-koottu/Silambam/Kalaripayattu/ Tapattam/Ottanthullal, plus what turned out to be an apology for Kudiyattam. The Bharatanatyam abhinaya number by Sangeeta Iswaran, despite her versatility struck an alien note in this package.
Notwithstanding her Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Western music background, Rajika Puri's Flamenco Natyam, did not live up to its description. Spanda's `Aakash', designed by Leela Samson, linking the human form with the Universe using the Rig Vedic shloka on Purusha sacrifice and the emergence of the Cosmic elements, was meditative in simplicity.
Individual creativity
Priyadarshini Govind's Bharatanatyam solo comprising `Devi', the ragamalika Dandayudhapani varnam and the exquisitely communicative javali showed how much space the margam provides for individual creativity. Parul Shah, the Kumudini Lakhia-trained Kathak dancer in `Chasing Shadows' evocatively married the classical form to modern treatment.
`Owning Shadows', a post modern duet presented by Beth Despres and Hiroshi K. Miyamoto, revealed mixed influences, its choreographer Hari Krishna, a Bharatanatyam dancer with Western sensibilities drawn from theatre, dance and scholarship. In the fusion endeavours by Natya Dance Theatre, the Kathak/Bharatanatyam Ardhanarisvara in ragamalika stuti and the Kumudakriya kriti, danced by Krithika Rajagopalan and Prashant Shah showed fine spacing and understanding between the dancers.
In the Rasa series, Shringara was communicative and so was Hasya, group movement interactions providing humour. Shantam was the weak link, losing its way in the over-stretched treatment at building up a Raudra contrast. Patchy and disjointed, `Red Earth and Pouring Rain' by Anita Ratnam and Krithika as a tribute to A.K. Ramanujam, never quite took off.
Imaginatively conceived was Hema Rajagopalan's innovative group number based on chari-s and adavu-s, woven round the theme of Adam and Eve and Satan.
Ultimately, it is for the individual dancer to decide where to place himself between global realities and cultural identity.
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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