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Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

Being experimental is her norm Danseuse Anita Ratnam.

Currently in the midst of the frenetic Chennai Season, with hundreds of performances taking place daily across the city, she says with a laugh, “I’ve been dancing in the festival since before it became so crazy. I was a teenager then.” There were just a handful of cultural organisations then, she notes. Triplicane, a Chennai neighbourhood where she often performed, “was like the heart of Brahmin town”. Bharatanatyam was so much a part of life that the Season did not hold any special glamour. “I remember not realising it was prestigious to dance in the Season.”

In 1971, when M.S. Subbulakshmi — no less — wanted her to dance Mohiniattam and Bharatanatyam at the opening of the Music Academy’s December festival, the young Anita was irritated by this disturbance at the time of her exams. But arguments with her mother and a hairline fracture in her foot acquired during a tennis match could not stop her from performing at the prestigious event.

Presenting more than one dance style in a programme, with breaks for costume and hairstyle changes, was the norm then. “Now even the senior dancers don’t change. They just continue with the same, wet costume,” she notes. The audience watched with a certain “araam,” a relaxed approach. “I remember how patient people were.” They would even bring tiffin carriers to keep them going during the long morning seminar sessions.

The “explosion”, she says, started from the mid-1970s: More cultural organisations, innumerable dance aspirants, packed schedules, and a more commercial approach to the Season, where it was important to be ‘seen’.

Moving away from India for a decade, Anita lived in the U.S. where she worked in television among other pursuits, and grew with her dance. Returning to Chennai in 1990, she found the dance scene had changed too. “I used to do two-and-a-half hour performances. The programme duration has come down by at least half. My new production, ‘Faces…blessed unrest’, is 60 minutes.”

But if shorter programmes are the norm, dancers should proceed on the “less is more” principle, she feels. “If people are expecting a programme of one-and-a-half hours, we should stop in an hour and 15 minutes.” She adds, “Mature dancers should stop dancing a tillana,” explaining that deeply felt bhava from a padam should be left to savour, rather than going back to the “kudichi kudichi” (jumping around) of the tillana, which suits youngsters.

Speaking of youngsters, “Our biggest problem is, we have too many dancers and not enough slots. I was thinking of suggesting to sabhas to ask the senior people to cut down their programme by a half-hour and let talented dancers perform before them in that slot, which is enough to show your talent.”

Besides, culture is not merely music and dance now, she points out. “We have poetry, theatre, Christmas carols shopping, everything. Corner to corner, there is something. I think the audience’s minds have opened up. They are willing to appreciate new things if well done. Also to appreciate traditional things, if well done.”

Not everyone is open-minded. An organiser told her that he could not offer her a stage for “Faces…”, since it has “Christian” music. The music composition for “Faces…” is by pianist Anil Srinivasan. “Taking culture and making it a religious tool — it irritates me,” she says, emphasising, “Of all the sabhas, Krishna Gana Sabha (where “Faces…” premieres this Friday) has been the most supportive to me. This year I am dedicating my work to the memory of (its late secretary) Shri Yagnaraman. He was very open-minded.”

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