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Tell me a new one

Photos: Shyam Rajan and Sandeep Saxena

innovative Dancers performing Kiran Segal’s ‘Divya Namaskar’ (below) and Kishore Mosalikanti’s ‘Prayogam’ .

Impresario India’s 11th National Festival of New Choreographies ran to packed houses last weekend. Mediocrity, one felt, needs to be guarded against. New ideas cannot be an excuse for tackiness. If one group needed better dancers, others sor ely needed costume improvement. If one had a great idea, the implementation was hampered by lack of technique. Many would have benefited from presentation advice.

The festival began with Priti Patel’s Anjika troupe in “Yeningtha — The Colours of Spring”. Aesthetics is Anjika’s strength. Prefixed by pung playing culminating in vigorous leaps, the highpoint of the show was the Maharaas, an exquisite element of the Manipuri repertoire. With two of the dancers singing as they danced, the presentation was a traditional one. No quarrels over the quality of the show, but shortening and editing of elements and adding pace variations hardly qualify today as ‘new’ choreography. But the word new is fraught with controversy anyway, especially in the context of classical dance.

Among the juniors, Monisa Nayak (Kathak) and Jaikishore Mosalikanti (Kuchipudi) stood out as vibrant, fresh voices with a deep feel for their chosen mediums. Monisa’s exuberance makes her Kathak a pleasure to watch, and this quality was largely present in her group also. This and neat handling of entries and exits along with a quality music track helped her production “Raga Chitra” shine.

Among other images, the mood of romance depicted with a male and female dancer in the centre and the group dancing around them was effective. As the production picked up momentum, however, excellence of technique lost out to speed.

Mosalikanti introduced musical modes unconventional in Kuchipudi (like the varnam and the arati), as well as elements of Kuchipudi in unexpected ways. Notable was the use of the brass plate (normally reserved for the tarangam) in the varnam. The dancers performed the charanam swaras on the plate. Once seen, this innovative idea seems as if waiting to be tried, with endless potential for rhythmic and choreographic experimentation. Chemical colours made the costume combinations harsh rather than bright. Odissi veteran Kiran Segal’s presentation of Tagore’s poetry, “Divya Namaskar”, was marked by dignity and a playful experimentation. The opening piece set like a mangalacharan and the poem on the flute offered some beautiful choreographic images. Kiran’s solo was quietly communicative.

The last poem on the monsoon was set to a positively pop score, but the young dancers, obviously enjoying it, carried it off.

Kolkata’s Kush Kushari presented “Bighna Vinayaka — The Will Power” in Bharatanatyam and related forms. A mishmash approach — now minimalist, now decorative, now saris, now leotards, now abstract, now calendar art, not to mention the musical scores strung together — ensured that a sophisticated concept (that the power to change is within us, not in idols or rituals) became an overwhelming mass of activity with little impact. The smoke machine, meanwhile, was wholly unnecessary.

The festival’s closing presentation was Jayalakshmi Eshwar’s “Kala Shruthi — Sounds of Time”. Based on the concept of Shiva as the Creator whose damroo has given rise to the syllables of creation, and whose dance exemplifies the rhythms of the universe, the production fielded some energetic dancing. Music (Sudha Raghuraman) and choreography retained a highly classical feel. However, for some dancers, movements like the frontal kicks bordered on the clumsy. Sometimes angavastrams seemed an encumbering factor.

The depiction of the element vayu (air) was interesting, but the loud breathing on the soundtrack seemed unnecessary. Shiva as water with a central dancer surrounded by a circle of dancers with gently waving arms was an effective image, as was Shiva conquering Ganga. The colour scheme of beige, browns, oranges and maroons was soothing. The audio-visual preceding the dancing, doubtless informative, did not go with the aesthetics of the production.

Impresario India’s role should now go beyond booking the auditorium and publicising the festival. Its leading light Bijan Mukherjee might like to put his experience to the service of the arts by facilitating a meeting point between dancers, choreographers, theatre and literary people, musicians, light and sound designers, and so on. By naming these entities separately it is not implied that classical dancers should all embark on adventurous cross-disciplinary journeys. A lot can be done within a medium too.

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