Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Modern dance, ancient roots
|
Memories of her participation in the VI International Biennale of Contemporary Dance held in Poland recently are still fresh in Sangeeta Sharma's mind. She shares the heady experience with ANJANA RAJAN.
|
Sangeeta Sharma...The journey continues.
WE GET so used to hearing about India being a land of tradition, about its classical arts of dance and music and painting attracting awed attention worldwide, that the `modernists' among us tend to feel left out.
The exponents of Indian contemporary dance, also variously referred to as Modern and Creative dance, complain about lack of opportunities. The sponsors are hung up on forms like Bharatanatyam and Kathak, having finally heard of the likes of Yamini Krishnamurti and Birju Maharaj, say the modern dancers. Modern dance is too nebulous a field for potential patrons to figure out whether they should shell out money on a performance or not.
On the other hand, the classicists complain they get treated like museum relics, their dance not finding a corresponding chord among the general public, so sponsors, unable to appreciate a lifetime's devotion to mastering a technical art, prefer the modern stuff, with themes that relate to urban life and are more immediate than the frolicking gopis, dangerous demons and the like.
But as soon as dancers step beyond themselves a bit and see the rest of the world, they find a whole universe of opportunities to share and learn. Something like this experience is what happened to Sangeeta Sharma, Contemporary dancer and lead performer at Bhoomika, her guru Narendra Sharma's dance company, when she went to Poland recently to participate in the VI International Biennale of Contemporary Dance in Poland. Organised by the Polish Dance Theatre, the programme included workshops by dancers from across the world as well as performances.
Among the participants were 250 teachers and 1500 dancers. While Sangeeta Sharma was the only Indian dancer to attend, Yoga teacher Chand Ram of Delhi was also a participant.
Impressed by energy
"They asked me which dance form I was most influenced by. I said, Kathakali and Chhau. So I conducted a 10-day workshop of Indian Contemporary Dance. I also gave three solo performances," recounts Sangeeta. "They did expect softness and mudra-oriented dances, but they were impressed by the energy of my style."
With little exposure to the Indian dance scene, most of the participants in Sangeeta's workshops and her audiences were surprised at the variety and power of the contemporary dance style she learnt from Narendra Sharma, a direct disciple of the legendary Uday Shankar, and which she has developed as her individual style.
"They were especially interested in the spinal curves, mudras and expressions," says Sangeeta, whose expressive facial expressions have been noted as an asset to her dance. "Also, I had not expected such a strong response to the music," exclaims Sangeeta, of the recorded score composed and sung by Hindustani vocalist Subhadra Desai.
Commitment to theatre
The existence of vibrant dance theatre companies in Europe that perform and actively engage in sharing the performing arts of the world through activities like this VI Biennale and others, brings out in relief how laid back India has become in relation to its own arts.
For one, an attitude of compartmentalisation has ensured that few remember our dance forms are living theatre. Then again, despite culture being our strongest exportable commodity, funds are not always easy to come by.
In contrast, points out Sangeeta, "Despite the financial troubles in the economy, the tensions of Poland joining the European Union and the conversion to Euro, etc., they are still committed to theatre."
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
