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The SINUOUS prima donnas
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Myanmar's dancers in gorgeous red and gold made one forget that such resplendent culture is from the land of the incarcerated Aung Sang Syu Ki.
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Dance pervades Myanmarese festive life deeply.
WHAT DISTINGUISHES the culture of Myanmar from ours or those of other South-East Asian nations? What do we know about its people beyond watching Aung Sang Syu Ki on telecasts or reading Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace or supping on delicious meal-in-a-dish Kauksewe? It was in this spirit of investigation that we set out to watch a performance by dance and music artists from Yangon (once, Rangoon) at the J.S.S. auditorium in Jayanagar, last week, as guests of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
The 20-member troupe — in Bangalore en route from Mysore to New Delhi, Kolkata, and Kulu — opened with an invocatory dance piece to Ko Gyi Kyaw, the premier deity of Myanmar's 37-god pantheon. Five female dancers in gorgeous red-and-gold costumes, trailing white underskirts reminiscent of the Japanese dolls of our childhood, rendered sinuous arm and hand movements to the accompaniment of subtle head articulations. It seemed familiar and unfamiliar at once, calling to mind Bharatanatya, and Odissi in parts, yet devoid of their dexterous footwork.
However, the recorded audio tracks that accompanied the dances throughout proved too loud, depriving the audience of a chance to enjoy the subtleties of the Myanmar harp, its array of bronze gongs, and its circle of 21 drums played by a soloist. Nor were adequate interpretations offered for the lyrics.
A white-clad prima donna followed, adorned with a rose-studded hairdo, paying obeisance to the audience with upper torso undulations, mudras, and subtle, eye-based abhinaya. She evoked royal command performances at the 2000-year-old Burmese royal courts, prior to its recasting as Myanmar.
As the programme progressed, a restive spirit permeated the audience. They had hoped for a perfectly-tuned performance like the ICCR presentation of the ASEAN troupe's dazzling Ramayana or even the cultural insights brought to us by the Royal Bhutanese troupe. A certain monotony that set in was fortunately dispelled by two excerpts from the Ramayana, a la Myanmar. Rama, dressed in an all-round green mask, over shimmering shoulder gear, and a layered, green-gold outfit brocaded at the edges, set out to capture the golden deer for his Sita. The layers of this familiar story were communicated by Sita's eloquent eyes, Lakshmana's dazzling costume, and the lyrical prancing of the gold-horned deer. By contrast, Sita's rejection of Dasagiri's courtship seemed relatively unidimensional, inspite of Ravana's brilliant headgear.
A few other moments were worth a memory: the tantalising rendition of a plaintive tune on the Myanmar harp, the ornate string puppet interlude that called to mind Rajasthani itinerant puppeteers, the high-spirited fusion of choreography and music that distinguished the circular movements and elaborate tableaux by graceful male dancers, the Odissi-like slow transitions by a female group that seemed to bring to life murals in motion or the folk-dance piece that renders a courtship as near-farce. Perhaps, the evening would have worked better if the dance pieces were interspersed with musical interludes. That is how majority in the audience would have liked it. How do the citizens of Myanmar interpret the performance? "Most of our dancing is gentle. We use hand and waist movements more than footwork or mudras," explains Tin Htun Oo, Assistant Director, Fine Arts Department, Ministry of Culture from Yangon, who led the troupe. "It usually reflects the culture of our ancient royal courts."
Did the subtleties of court dance prove a stumbling block during the Mysore Dasara festivities that the troupe participated in? "When we first danced outdoors at the university campus, the slow dances did not really work," says ICCR exchange student, Nyo Nyo, our interpreter for the encounter, who's doing a Ph.D. in Geography at Bangalore University. "So, the director introduced more vigorous dances for the second Mysore performance."
Dance pervades Myanmar festive life deeply, points out Tin Htin Oo, and especially during the Water Festival that ushers in the new-year each April. That is when dancers perform on the roads as spontaneous water-play erupts to beat the heat.
"Even today, over 1,000 students apply to join B.A. courses in dance, singing, instrumental music, and painting at the universities of Yangon and Mandalay," he points out, "though we admit only 200 to each four-year course. And many follow up with an M.A. degree."
Cultural life in Myanmar seems to be alive and well, despite recent media prognostications. That left us wishing that better programming had brought this to the fore in Bangalore. If only it had, we might have been left begging for more.
A.D.
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