Book Review - From the Corner of Her Eye: The Many Histories of Bharatanatyam - Dr. Ragothaman Yennamalli

A week ago, I came to know that the Delhi-based dancer Justin McCarthy had penned a book on dance history titled From the Corner of Her Eye, published by Juggernaut. He is someone I have always considered a thinking dancer, one who puts a great deal of thought and energy into his choreography, technique, and the larger ethos of dance.

In 2008, I watched a performance by Lokesh Bharadwaj, choreographed by Justin McCarthy, in which Tyagaraja's kriti Endaro Mahanubhavulu was reimagined as a padavarnam and performed with remarkable finesse. The novelty, as one might assume, was not simply in using this particular composition as a padavarnam. Rather, it lay in the imaginative use of space, the structuring of korvais, and the integration of dance elements into a piece steeped in bhakti. So, I was pretty excited to know what's new being written in the book, and at the outset the book didn't disappoint me.

The premise of the book is that it has become increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction in the widely circulated, and often reductive, histories of sadir or chinna melam and the subsequent reinvention of the form as Bharatanatyam. Over the last decade or so, multiple voices have pushed a largely binary view of Bharatanatyam: Rukmini Devi Arundale versus Balasaraswati, Sringara versus Bhakti, a hoary past versus a reinvented dance form, and so on. For some reason, reducing a complex history to such binaries seems to have become the norm rather than the exception. This book has attempted to bring such discussions with the needed nuance. 

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Article - The resonance of nine: Cosmic geometry, subtle anatomy, and the cathartic architecture of Bharatanatyam by Dr. Lata Surendra

This paper investigates the profound metaphysical, mathematical, and physiological architecture of the number nine within Hindu traditions, mapping its manifestations across cosmic symbols, natural elements, and classical arts. By focusing specifically on the structural geometry of the classical dance form Bharatanatyam, this study illuminates how the human frame transforms into a living mandala. It correlates the intricate networks of seventy-two thousand nadis, or vital energy channels symbolized by the ceremonial offering of the betel leaf or tambula, with the numeric digital reduction to nine. Furthermore, the analysis explores how the compression of cosmic forces is mirrored ritualistically in the deployment of the betel nut or supari within the navagraha grid, and scripturally through the planetary, durga, and nagic slokas with systematic textual references. Finally, this work details how a conscious dancer strategically maneuvers these geometric templates, moving from the chaotic action-reaction outbursts of unawakened daily life into a disciplined aesthetic focus. Through the precise kinesthetic activation of the navarasas, or the nine fundamental expressions, the performer initiates a deep neurological catharsis that cleanses the neural pathways of both dancer and spectator. The final resolution into shanta rasa, or absolute peace, represents the ultimate spiritual baseline where all worldly passions are spent, and the macrocosm seamlessly merges with the universe within. 

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Article - Charukesi: The bittersweet ocean of love to pure Krishna consciousness, A perspective on music, movement, and the mind by Bana Shastri Ramanath

In search of meaning
Life is often likened to a journey of highs and lows, roses and thorns, and bittersweet moments. As we age, memories may fade, yet the sensations of pain and pleasure can remain, leaving fossil-like impressions within us. Perhaps this is why older faces sometimes carry fleeting, childlike smiles touched with melancholy, as emotions pass effortlessly and involuntarily across them like images appearing on a screen. Is the mind quietly revisiting a lifetime of triumphs, disappointments, joys, and sorrows? I often wondered about this while watching my parents, both of whom lived to nearly 100.

These reflections returned as I prepared for a dance performance. I searched for a song gentle enough for my injured knees, yet powerful enough to stir my consciousness and convey love, joy, melancholy, and warmth. I also wanted the music to evoke the painless healing I have occasionally experienced during and after my performances. When mind, body, and feelings move in harmony, merging as one with the music, I have experienced that the mind can become so absorbed in the process that pain seems to dissolve, for a time. Those experiences have inspired me to explore and share how music and dance can transform a lifetime of mixed memories into a more peaceful, expansive form of love through artistic expression, a moving meditation. 

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Bharatanatyam constructs built round philosophy of Jyotirlingam - Taalam: column by Leela Venkataraman

The Bharatanatyam program at the Habitat, sadly attracting a very small gathering, presented two finished performers, Mithun Shyam and Nilava Sen. The presentation at Stein auditorium constituted four of the twelve Jyotirlingam sites. Aiding the dancers were a team of capable musicians topped by Sudesh Menon the vocalist, whose melodious singing, includes creativity - for each of the Jyotirlingams was presented through a varnam composition of his own creation, without mangling the format of this musical genre, while adhering to the thematic specifics of each of the holy places. Uma Ganeshan on the violin with Ratul Kumar on the mridangam provided good support. 

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Anita says...November 2026

October moved like a single restless current between three cities. In Kolkata, the pandals rose in astonishing variety, each one a temporary palace of craft where bamboo, cane, cloth, metal and light were shaped into everything from intimate street shrines to towering architectural fantasies - the makers' skill turning devotion into pure spectacle. In Madrid, the staccato of flamenco jostled against the late night pulse of churros and hot chocolate - heat and music spilling from plazas as if the city refused to go indoors. Finally, the Venice Biennale that offered rooms with a quieter intensity, where contemporary art sat in careful conversation with the lagoon's shifting light.

One month, three kinds of looking, and the shared pleasure of watching human hands, minds, bodies and imagination at work.

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Article - When AI can perform, what remains to be cultivated in the artist? by Rohit Viswanath

This essay draws upon the writings of Dr. Padmaja Suresh, Ācārya for Nāṭya Pedagogy at Nāṭyaśāstra Gurukulam, on the philosophical, aesthetic and spiritual dimensions of Nāṭya, and the guidance of Dr. M. B. Athreya, the Gurukulam's Marga Darshak, on human development, institutional responsibility and Dhārmic statecraft. These perspectives inform the essay's engagement with AI, artistic judgement and self-governance.

A movement can be recorded, its geometry analysed, its execution compared against a reference, and a sequence of gestures generated through computational systems. Yet the cultivation of an artist entails a question of a different order. What happens to the person who practises? How are the body, perception, affect, imagination and judgement progressively refined through engagement with an art? And what distinguishes the possession of a repertoire from the cultivated capacity to interpret, embody and bring it to life? 

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Prism - Rang at Rangmanch, The role of colour in Kathak choreography by Ashima Sharma

Colour is an important aesthetic and symbolic element communicating emotional and structural expression in Kathak choreography. It gives narrative communication and visual coherence beyond its decorative function. Colour drives as a semiotic tool that shapes mood, descriptive clarity, character portrayal and spatial design. Embedded in Indian aesthetic traditions and evolved through performance practices, colour influences how the audience perceives dance movements, interprets a character, and experiences a particular rasa. This research article examines the heterogeneous role of colour in Kathak, focusing on costumes, lightings, stage compositions and principles of each Gharana. It also includes works by Kumudini Lakhia and Aditi Mangaldas drawing from classical texts, modern scholarship, and contemporary choreographic case studies. It advocates that the function of colour is not merely as an ornamentation but as a choreographic and semiotic tool that shapes the wholesomeness of a Kathak performance. Through exploration of existing theory of rasa and colour symbolism, cross-cultural examples of choreographies and Gharana-specific costume practices, this study argues that function of colour is as a powerful emotional and narrative structural element in Kathak dance performances.

 

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