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Jayant Kastuar

Invited by the state-owned Odissi Research Centre to present a lecture-demonstration for artistes and connoisseurs, Kastuar, the key person at India’s apex body for artistes, took pride in introducing himself as “an artiste who completed 50 years of dancing on stage”. In his two-hour interaction with the gathering, Kastuar discussed at length how performing and understanding Kathak is quite different from the rest of the Indian classical dance forms. “Kathak demands involvement and understanding of the taal (rhythm) system. A Kathak artiste does not merely dance, he interprets it,” he explained. Emphasising on due involvement of the audience in the dance recitals, he felt that “a Kathak dancer is like a jeweller who assess the customer’s eyes and the purse as well. Receptive response of the audience is extremely important to provoke a Kathak performer, he pointed out.

Demonstrating to the tune of sarangi set to teen taal and sixteen beats, Kastuar, who was trained under the legendary Pt. Durga Lal of Jeypore gharana, lucidly explained the science of body movements in his chosen dance form. He also narrated the repertoire structure of a Kathak recital starting with the customary vandana, upaj and the thaat (the style of standing). “Wrist movement is a very significant aspect of our recital”, he described with demonstrations. He also dwelt on the variety of chakkars (the circular and spiraling movements).

Kastuar concluded with an exciting experiment much to the cheer of the audience that comprised mostly Odissi dancers and musicians. He invited the centre’s director and noted Odissi music composer Ramahari Das to sing compositions based on Oriya songs describing Radha’s love for Krishna, to which he enacted extempore.

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