Bhavana Reddy, daughter/disciple of Raja Reddy at Natya Tarangini Institute of Kuchipudi Dance in Delhi, has been selected for Ustad Bismillah Khan Puraskar in the Kuchipudi dance category this year by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, in appreciation of her work so far in the form and the promise she holds out.
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In the variegated schema of life, there is seldom any certainty which qualities one is going to encounter over the entire range of urban society and its deep entrails. Can there be a wide enough canvas to draw one’s urgent attention to the prevailing ills and can there be a flicker of light that may just per chance lurk at the end of the tunnel of darkness? The veteran playwright Manoj Mitra can wield an acerbic pen if he chooses and still retain his sympathy unerringly with the underdog. In his pen-portrait on the melting pot of the rampant ills in the emerging middle class of Bengal’s metropolis, he uncannily lists them as the old parents’ solitude with the generation next emigrating to greener pastures; the rape as an unmitigated evil and its devastating effect on the survivors; the menace of promoters out to grab the available urban property; the vicious nexus of the political and the business class; the oppression of women belonging to the marginalised community; and the one-way push nudging the hapless aged towards the lonely old-age homes. And, yet behold, the downtrodden can unite and rise, literally like a Phoenix, from the ashes!
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Today's aspiring artists in general and dancers in particular are grappling with access to resources that deal with the basics of their respective forms of art, presented in an easily comprehensible manner. While honing performance skills is one dimension of an artist, which is usually aimed at perfecting the grammar of the art form, a thorough understanding of aesthetics, classical literature, art history and the life stories of artists of the past can enrich the content of the art form. A remarkable attempt in this direction has been made by Dr. BN Manorama, a thorough scholar of classical Indian dance and aesthetics with an insightful understanding of the underlying philosophy and aided by practical experience. The work 'Bharata Nāṭyabodhini' released on 12th August 2018 in Bangalore can act as a stepping stone in a dancer's career by laying strong foundation in the fundamentals of the art form.
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At the recently concluded seven day dance festival and seminar,
evocatively titled "Looking Back to Move Forward," organised by Odissi,
Chhau and Manipuri dancer and guru, Sharon Lowen, under the aegis of her
organisation Manasa-Art Without Frontiers, something happened that
impressed me very much, set my mind buzzing and compelled me to write
this piece, the second in the series 'Soch'- a thought.
Young, Vilasini and Bharatanatyam dancer Purva Dhanashree, recipient of
the Bismillah Khan Yuva Puruskar (2008), spoke in a session on
'Transitions and Traditions'. She opened her address by offering her
gratitude and thanksgiving to generations of Devadasis that had
practiced dance before her and nurtured and enriched it since centuries.
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Just when lauding the increasingly healthy audiences for IIC's annual
Monsoon Festival, this year's attendance dipped - thanks to inbuilt
resistance to an all-male dance festival, albeit chosen with care.
Instead of a festival only for male dancers which is aimed at helping
them, but which again looks like ghettoizing male performers into a
separate class, the better idea would be a mixed festival, with one male
and one female dancer each day. A fine Manipuri dancer like Yum Lambam
Bidya Nanda from Imphal (now Kolkata) sadly had to perform to a very
scanty gathering. Imphal trained and now under Hemanth Kumar of
Shantiniketan, working for a PHD, this aesthetically costumed dancer,
right from the opening Dashavatar based on the Gita Govindam ashtapadi,
impressed with his light footed excellent technique, full of grace, in
Tanchep tala and Dashkosh. The physical balance and ability to evoke
emotion through angik or bodily stances while maintaining a serene
countenance, showed the all-round grip over Manipuri dance.
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Come August and Bangalore is all agog with a series of dance festivals. Principal among them are two major ones: Nrityantar’s Naman, a two-day dance festival and other is Nrityagram’s in memory of Protima Bedi’s death anniversary on 18th August. I make it a point to attend both festivals to see what new choreographic works are created by Madhulita Mohapatra of Nrityantar and by Surupa Sen of Nrityagram.On first day 11th August at ADA Rangamandira, from 3pm Madhulita presents the several students studying under her and their parents. She also presents her main dancers who form a core group of hers to showcase their progress and with whom she creates new works. When I arrived at the auditorium it was a pleasant surprise to watch Shankarabharanam pallavi by women in age group of 40 plus learning for past two years.
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Manasa-Art Without Frontiers founded by Sharon Lowen, Kamalini Dutt and Naresh Kapuria organized a 3 day festival LOOKING BACK TO MOVE FORWARD from July 25. Part of it was the photographic exhibition, A DANCER LOOKS BACK: SHARON LOWEN'S 45 YEARS IN INDIA. It offers a historical glimpse of the cultural activity of the time.The resurgence and awareness of classical dance traditions of India in the second half of the 20th century brought legendary artists and rare dance genres to public attention. These images captured in Delhi, Kolkata, Imphal, Seraikella, Baripada offer a unique entre into the cultural activity of the 1970's and 80's.
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In the three-day festival of Manasa- Art Without Frontiers 'On looking back to move forward' one of the morning panel discussions pertained to Indian Classical Dance Transnationally. Though the point was not discussed, one realizes that in many countries of the west, Indian dance has a fringe presence particularly in the main festivals and that its high activity is restricted to the Indian diasporic circles, particularly in the States and the U.K. But this is not the situation in all countries and that our dancers are constantly vying with one another to be sent on tours by the ICCR for participation in festivals, is well known. As part of the world cultural community, the discussion featured Rama Vaidyanathan and Arshiya Sethi, and the person who was supposed to be on the panel Riva Ganguly Das, the ICCR DG, was not present. The session had Ambassador Amarendra Khatua as moderator.
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Known for her excellent productions of Panchatantra and Seagull, when Ananda Shankar Jayant announced the premiere of ‘Tales of the Bull and the Tiger,’ one expected something on the line of the two dance choreographic works. But trust Ananda to explore through the two vahanas of Lord Shiva, Goddess Parvati, and the vahanas of their two sons Kartikeya and Subrahmanya, the stories of ‘Him’ and ‘Her’! Come to think of it, it is Shiva and Parvati who appear as gods with a family. To suggest it, naughty Mushika runs, there is sound of vessels falling and someone calls ‘Mushika!’
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The dancer takes the stage. The performance has the rock-solid foundation of a guru’s teachings, knowledge and many years of sadhana. The musician, singer and dancer Dr. S. Vasudevan has been an integral part of many classical performances in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi as a composer and vocalist. He practices and teaches in Delhi, and has been a disciple of Dr. Vyjayanthimala Bali and Jayalakshmi Ishwar. It was after his very moving dance performance at the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s event Sanskriti that I got to talk to him about his views on music in dance. His latest works have been very impressive, for example, the music for Anekanta, dance and music for Dramatic Tales by Vanashree Rao, music for Pavitra Bhat’s Shri Ranga Kshetra and Dakshina Vaidyanathan’s Shri Venkata Kshetra, among the most recent ones.
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See-sawing between dismay and ecstasy while watching the annual Guru Purnima homage Gurave Namah at Stein auditorium, Delhi, by the Guru Kundanlal Gangani Sangeet Akademi to the late Guru of the Jaipur gharana, one wondered at the present state of Kathak.
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Under the aegis of his Debnrutyam Studio, Debasish Pattnaik, a disciple of Durga Charan Ranbir, dividing his time between Rourkela, Moscow and Bangalore, organizes a three- day festival every year in Bangalore titled Rasa Rangini. Durga Charan Ranbir is a disciple of late Guru Deba Prasad Das, whose gharana he maintains faithfully, investing imagination to his choreographic works. So does young Debasish Pattnaik. He has a sizable number of students and it seems that local Odiya community also supports his efforts to popularize Odissi in Bangalore.
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Bhagavata Mela: My Tryst with TraditionBy Indumati RamanIndus Source Books, Mumbai, 2018ISBN: 978-93-85509-08-7, Price 1200 As graphically described by the author at the outset, deep in the interior of Thanjavur district lies a small village, Melattur, redolent with traditions of rituals, dance, music and theatre. The male Brahmin priests of the local temple of Sri Varadaraja Perumal perform classical dance of Bhagavata Mela to pure Carnatic music, enacting various divine stories of Vishnu. The dance's unique feature is that all artistes are male, including the dancers for female roles, keeping alive a 500-year-old heritage carried across generations.
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With white rings on wet umber
With moonlit sand I worship
You who thought burnt bodiless
Stroke ardour's ache: save my body.
I char for his sooty resplendence
Send me to him who grasps
The sphere spitting fire -
I'll follow as liquid shadow.
ANDAL's song to Kamadeva, God of LoveFrom NACHIYAR TIRUMOZHI8th century CETranslation by Priya Sarukkai ChabriaI open with a heartfelt round of gratitude to all those young dancers who wished me on Guru Purnima Day. Not being a guru in the traditional sense, I was moved, as I am each year, by the numerous messages and mails that come to me citing my work and words as an inspiration.Thank you all... and may the light continue to burn within each of you!
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