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‘It’s hard to be contained’
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Astad Deboo, who performed with the Pung Cholam dancers of Manipur, believes that modern dance needs classical dance as a base
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GIVE AND TAKE Astad Deboo: ‘I worked with the dancers on their technique. I taught them to slow down their movements’
Stillness is a distinguishing feature of leading dance exponent Astad Deboo’s oeuvre. Over the last 30 years of performing, his signature minimalistic style evolved gradually and he continues to believe in it despite the occasional naysayer.
“People say there is nothing to such slow, minimal movements. They do not realise how difficult it is to channel the energy in this controlled manner, how hard it is to be contained,” he says during a leisurely chat at the Ranga Shankara café. “Some even say ‘Oh, he’s getting on in years that’s why…’” he trails off with a sardonic chuckle.
Deboo recently performed at the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) New Performance Festival. The performance, called “Rhythm Divine”, is a collaboration with the Pung Cholam dancers of Manipur. An energetic, almost acrobatic form of dance that is performed with the Manipuri classical drums (the pungs), Pung Cholam is an essential part of social and devotional ceremonies in Manipur. The form, one would imagine, is in high contrast with Deboo’s particular modern style, the hallmarks of which are discipline, control and an exquisite sense of balance. So how did the collaboration work?
“I worked with them on their technique. I taught them to slow down their movements, to do things in slow motion,” Deboo explains. “Pung Cholam is much more vigorous. They always dance with their pungs or cymbals so they had to get used to dancing without them. Initially, they were uncomfortable in the sequences where they had to drop the instruments. I would have liked some movements to be even slower.”
Deboo rehearsed with Guru Seityaban’s troupe for one-and-half years in Imphal where the boys live. Six-hour practice sessions had to be broken up to accommodate the vagaries of life and livelihood in these parts. “Sometimes, the boys had to travel to far-off villages to perform at some ceremony there, we had to work around all of that.”
For someone who has spent a lifetime exploring possibilities for innovation and abstraction in dance, Deboo is a firm believer in the necessity of training in classical forms. “You must have technique, a vocabulary of dance. A lot of these people who start so-called modern dance classes are quite bad. What is the foundation? Classical dance provides a vocabulary. You can innovate using this as a foundation.”
And it is the nuances of this vocabulary that draw him time and again to different forms of dance — classical and folk, Indian and western — in an attempt to probe their boundaries, and then stretch them. The other aspect that holds a deep fascination for him is the ritual aspect of dance.
“I am fascinated by the Thaiyyam form and want to do something with it. Again, it is performed in temples. Once I choreographed a sequence which had 40 candles on stage and the dancers in robes. At the end, I started dripping hot wax on myself while performing and then the others lifted me up. It was like some sort of pagan ritual.” “No, I didn’t feel pain. When I’m into my art, I don’t notice much,” he adds with a shrug. “Even when I was a child, I would pour hot wax on my palm and make designs with it. I still do it sometimes!”
Another time, Deboo choreographed a sequence around tarot cards because the dancer involved was interested in tarot reading. This ability to be inspired by a multitude of things — theatre, film, painting, other dance performances — is probably what allows him to constantly renew his passion for something that, he admits, is not always easy.
“Finding platforms and resources is a problem. Corporates are not sensitive. They just give a lakh or two, which barely covers expenses and then extract every bit of their pound of flesh from you. I’ve been doing this for three decades and it is still difficult to get resources.”
But he regains his enthusiasm quickly to talk about future projects. “Now I am working in a production with Danny Young for the Hong Kong Art Festival. I only know I am part of the production; I don’t know what I’ll be doing! I am also planning a new performance for the 2009 Deaf Festival with the Clarke School for the Deaf in Chennai,” he says, and then in a reflective tone: “I keep going on. I have a passion.”
ANINDITA SENGUPTA
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