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`Dancers shouldn't play to the gallery'

IN SYNCHRONY Madhavi Mudgal and Alarmel Valli Photo VINO JOHN

Good friends have little to say to one another. Madhavi Mudgal and Alarmel Valli first met as youngsters way back in the 1970s, when they both performed at the Sangeet Natak Akademi's Young Dancers' Festival. Valli still remembers her mother praising this "elegant, petite girl who danced with such finesse." Madhavi was then a Kathak student. They have been working together for the last 16 years on "Samanvaya". Meera Mohanty realised that a Take Two between two like-minded people could be fascinating.

Alarmel: Now, what do we have in common? Let's see, we both love pasta, Mediterranean and Italian food...

Madhavi: We both love good food! And then there is "Samanvaya."

Alarmel: I think the most significant thing about this work, is coming together at different levels — artistic and personal.

Madhavi: Without personal equations, you can't do it. You have to respect each other's art and share common aesthetic perceptions.

Alarmel: Ideologically too, we share a lot. Music, for both of us, is the key to our understanding of dance. Also, there are no pretensions, no doing things because it's politically correct or fashionable.

Madhavi: And how much work has gone into it! At times we've worked on one movement for hours. And the costumes! Ordering the saris, matching colours, matching weaves...

Alarmel: You have discerning taste. As for me, when I go to a shop, I have to see a whole lot of saris before I choose.

Madhavi: We have traditional taste. But then, tradition too evolves. It's true of dance too. These classifications into contemporary and modern are Western and I don't think they should apply to us. Bharata said: "These are some rules but you go ahead and make your own." If there are no boundaries, there is freedom. And we are contemporary women. We were not born into the devadasi tradition that we had to dance; we chose it as form of expression.

Alarmel: If you didn't have the talent, I'm sure your father would have stopped you.

Madhavi: Yes, I am sure. There was no dancer in the family, and I didn't sing. I was studying architecture.

Alarmel: I wanted to be a scientist; I was asking questions all the time. Maybe a diplomat, so that I could travel. It was only natural that we became dancers. But, with the kind of training we received, there was no compromising.

Madhavi: And also the work we put in. Remember the first workshop with Guru Kelucharan?

Alarmel: He would start at ten, and go on and on, sometimes till two in the morning. He always reached his creative best late in the night.

Madhavi: When I look back, I think we were lucky to have been able to interact with such great masters. Not just our gurus, but also the great musicians I have grown up around.

Alarmel: True. Whether it was Kelubabu, my guru Chokkalingam Pillai, Subbaraya Pillai or Balasaraswathi... The saddest thing is that talented young people today are not exposed to such greatness. Your perspective changes. Look at M. S. Subbulakshmi. I had the good fortune of not just listening to her, but speaking to her from time to time.

Madhavi: And how simple these people were. We are a little somebody...

Alarmel: ... like a mustard seed. You can never be greater than the dance. "How can you know the dancer from the dance," that is the idea.

Madhavi: But both of us have also been lucky to have parents for whom art has been greater than anything else. And good friends and good husbands.

Alarmel: Yes, Vinay is certainly one of the least chauvinistic men I know. I think I can say the same about Bhaskar. They don't make any demands.

Madhavi: Demands tho chod do, the kind of freedom we have. We are hardly ideal wives. But dance is involvement at so many levels: visual, aesthetic, intellectual, psychological, physical, emotional, but ultimately everything should be working towards the spiritual.

Alarmel: Yes, but I think in today's scenario it's also important to have proper infrastructure. I wish young people, (and there are hordes of them in Chennai and not everyone has the talent and commitment to be a performer) would choose different careers. For instance, they could be presenters, lighting designers, art administrators or art managers... there are so many ways in which you can be involved. For the country to be economically successful, you need creativity, in whichever field it may be. Even industry has accepted this. That's why we are all being invited to give talks about exploring your creative self and what not.

Madhavi: what worries me is not dancers but the level of appreciation. We need a discerning audience.

Alarmel: But dancers also have a responsibility and should not play to the gallery.

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