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`Art is not something to own'
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Alexandre Letellier and Helene Marionneau speak about their search for rhythm and expression in India
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PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.
WORLD CITIZENS Dancer Helene Marionneau and musician Alexandre Letellier, both French, are smitten by Indian performing arts.
People are drawn to India from all corners of the world for a myriad of reasons, but Alexandre Letellier and Helene Marionneau are here on a journey of discovery. Both have been schooled in western classical music, but are here in search of a new rhythm and expression.
Alexandre is from Montpellier in southern France but he considers himself a "world citizen". He has grown up in a number of countries and his first exposure of India was at seven. He studied the double bass and western classical flute in France but later moved to the guitar. And he is into crafting acoustic guitars by himself. But his current passion is the mridanga, which he has been learning for three years from T.A.S. Mani at the Karnataka College of Percussion, Bangalore. Helene's path from Paris to Bangalore is also similar. She was a western contemporary dancer for 10 years and was also schooled in ballet. But soon she realised she was bored and her form of dance lacked expression and freedom. So, she decided to take up Bharatnatya three years ago. She is currently learning with Lalitha Srinivasan.
Both tell ANAND SANKAR that the symbolism in Carnatic music and Bharatnatya is simply amazing.
Alexandre: So Helene, tell me what makes you want to learn something other than contemporary dance?
Helene: I enjoyed practising contemporary dance for its technique and improvisation... but as a spectator, I was bored. I was boring... (Laughter)
Alexandre: You mean bored!
Helene: Yes, Actually the reason I came to India was to live first! And by learning Bharatnatya you not only learn about dance but also rhythm, theatre, Hindu mythology, philosophy... You learn about India.
Alexandre: Well, it was pretty much the same for me as a western musician. From the beginning I have been interested in all aspects of music. For me music is not characterised in just a style. It is more a mosaic of styles and now especially since the world is so connected. Contemporary art cannot be confined in a small stylistic cell. Why India? I have been coming here since I was seven years old. And I really like this country and I wanted to learn the mridanga because it is the rhythmic equivalent of jazz harmony. It's harmony in South Indian rhythm. It has no equal among drums.
Helene: The first time I came to India it was as a tourist. I was discovering everything then. The next time I came it was not so easy. I had to adapt to understand Indian sensibility, especially the abhinaya (expression) in Bharatnatya. I discovered a big treasure here.
Alexandre: Yes, the expressive part of Bharatnatya is lacking completely in contemporary dance. Most of the times the expression on the face is completely blank.
Helene: What is funny is sometimes choreographers from abroad come to perform here and after the performance they ask the audience if they have any questions. And people ask why they have no expressions on their face. In contemporary dance we work on the body expression more than the facial one. Here people are used to faces that are alive.
Alexandre: I appreciate the sacred aspect of Carnatic music. You must have music for when with friends or at a party, but this is sacred. I like attitude of the musicians, stage and everything is symbolic. And you don't have to be Hindu or from any other religion to understand that respect towards the instruments or the audience.
Helene: Like it happened in France, classical music and dance in India are going more and more out of fashion.
Alexandre: Ya, people start to forget their culture...
Helene: And the new generation rejects religion also because the meaning is lost. Some young Indians are surprised that I, a modern European girl, come here and learnt old traditions. (Laughter) For me this is new and this is exactly what I missed in Europe... not religion but spirituality.
Alexandre: An artist must constantly "feed" his art or it disappears. It is not something to own. It is not like a Monet that you say you own. It's like a living thing. As soon as an artist forgets that, the life in his expression vanishes and only the technique is left.
Helene: I trained in ballet for 10 years and as I said before, I was bored. But with Bharatnatya I discovered with abhinaya and interpretations a lot of freedom. Each time I perform an item I feel it is new. I don't know if it is because I came from the ballet tradition. In Bharatnatya for a few years you have to have a frame and after that you can innovate. You can do so much.
On fusion
Helene: We try to share and be together. There are qualities and weaknesses both in the West and the East. We must be ready to exchange. I am interested taking what is best in Indian art and mixing it with the best in European tradition.
Alexandre: It is not my goal to make fusion. I was not raised in a particular region. Okay, I'm French, but I have not been raised in a particular culture. Right from childhood I have been in a lot of places: Africa, India... To me it is not fusion but music of a world citizen. I don't think a lot of things happening in the fusion genre are up to the word "fusion". Take the example of an alloy. You take two metals, fuse them and you get something that has completely different properties from the parent metals. That should be the case with music but most of the times it is just cross-cultural jugalbandi! When fusion really happens a new style is born. Reggae, salsa or even jazz are examples of that. It has not yet happened between Indian and Western music except at a popular level with Bollywood music. The number of western musicians coming to Indian music is increasing very fast. I hope it is a general movement of artists who see that they are all artists everywhere and that it's something beyond and above boundaries.
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