|
Music Season
MY FESTIVAL -- ANITA RATNAM
Too many dancers, too few slots
I think the audience’s minds have opened up.
I’ve been dancing in the festival even before it became so crazy. I was a teenager then. There were sabhas like the Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha and Mylapore Fine Arts. Of course I never realised that it was prestigious to dance in the Season. I also used to compere for Vyjayantimala who used to dance every December 31 at the Music Academy.
In 1971, M.S.Subbulakshmi wanted my performance to open the Music Academy festival. After many years, the Academy festival was opening with dance, and my mother was thrilled. But I remember fighting with her, because it was exam time, and I didn’t want to be disturbed! I did in the end dance. I also got a hairline fracture in my foot playing tennis. The doctor said to forget about performing, but my mother took me to the Puttur vaidya, who healed it in 15 days.
MS wanted me to do Mohinyattom. So I did half the programme in Bharatanatyam, then changed costume and hairstyle. My sister did a tillana in between. And people waited. There was a sense of araam, then, a relaxed way of taking in the programmes. Definitely there was less dance in the season. I was away 1979-1990. Before that I used to do two-and-a-half hour kutcheris, change costumes. Now even the senior dancers don’t change.
Our biggest problem is, we have too many dancers and not enough slots. May be sabhas can ask the seniors to cut down their programme by a half hour and let aspirants take that slot, which is enough to show your talent.
Also, we don’t just have music and dance now. We have poetry, theatre, Christmas carols, shopping, everything. Corner to corner, there is something. I think the audience’s minds have opened up. Of all the sabhas Krishna Gana Sabha has been the most supportive to me. This year I am dedicating my work to the memory of Sri Yagnaraman.
I don’t design work just for Margazhi, but I enjoy the mornings, meeting people, eating at the canteens. There’s no point complaining about the quantity, the madness, because it is mad. But instead of disliking it as quantity, one can see it as an abundances of riches.
(As told to Anjana Rajan)
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Music Season
|
