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Photo: Prasad Siddhanthi

TWO IN TANDEM Rani Khanam with Latif Bolat

“There are two things we have attempted to highlight here,” she says. “One is the contribution of Islamic culture and thought on Kathak.” Initially, in the Kathak evolved from the kathakars, says the dancer, there was a predominance of bhakti bhav but not much overt grace and delicacy. “I have done a lot of research on this and presented a paper at the Lincoln Centre in New York,” she continues. “When I studied Persian dance, it was thrilling to see how Kathak elements like andaz, chakkar, gat nikaas and the shringarik graces have come from Persian dance.”

The second point of emphasis is the approach of sufiism. “Jalaluddin Rumi did choreographed sufi,” she says. “I have tried to work on the sufi raqs. I have tried to put the song sung by Latif into dance. The dance and music is from the Chisti silsila, of which I am a mureed.”

Rani wants to emphasise that the concept that Islam does not accept dance is erroneous. “Chisti’s guru wrote a composition saying ‘I don’t know why I am dancing, maybe it is You who is making me dance.’ I mean to say that this concept of dance and bhakti is an age-old one in every culture. I don’t accept that Islam mein dance haraam hai.”

Taking compositions by Mohiuddin Chisti, his guru Khwaja Uthman Harooni, besides Amir Khusrau, Rumi and others, she says she has highlighted the two devotional paths: “Either directly to Allah or through the guru.”

Rani felt the need to create some new movements for these compositions, because, she says, sometimes you need to step out of the form to express the inner emotions of the concept. “Sometimes classicism can bind you. You have to observe it and judge where you can improvise within the form and where you actually need to move away.” This is Sufiana Kathak, she avers, not sufi compositions choreographed in Kathak.

You could not, for example, use Dhrupad to express the bhav of a thumri, she says. In the final analysis, art is “the mirror of your own personality.”

DATE: Tuesday, 26 February

TIME: 7 pm

VENUE: LTG Theater, Copernicus Marg,

Mandi House, New Delhi.

FOR PASSES:

9211532494/ 9910868701 (Entry Free)

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