In both performance as well as conversation, Bharatanatyam
dancer Priya Murle depicts dance as an art beyond the body
and uses her talents to establish a connection with her
audience; exactly what the Natya Shastra calls for in the
act of creating pure rasa. As she gears up for the
upcoming season, Priya Murle talks about her perspective
on abhinaya and approach to choreography.
What are some projects you are currently involved in?
Currently, in addition to my solo choreography, I am
working on a few projects for the season. First is
Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy’s new production called
‘Tripaada’ where I am playing Mahabali in the retelling of
Vamana Avataram story. Also, I am working with my
group Parasaha which includes Roja Kannan, N. Srikanth and
Aswathy Srikanth. We are doing a large-scale
production on motherhood, in addition to other small
programs.
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For three days from September 20 till 22, the Kennedy Centre in
Washington DC turned into the Music Academy of Madras for
the lovers of classical Indian dance and music. Never-say-die aficionado
Dr. Sreedhar Potarazu’s Vital Spring Health Care has been collaborating
with The Music Academy for the past seven years for the annual Dance
Festival. He had a dream of mounting Utsav, a celebration of India’s
maestros of music and dance with artistes selected by the Music Academy.
His dream came true when the Academy finalized the various details.
Speaking during the inaugural function, the President of the Academy, N.
Murali said, “The 80 year old institution has been a landmark in the
history of classical Carnatic music and dance. In December ‘Season,’ the
city holds more than 2000 concerts in 25 days. Nowhere in the world are
such concerts held like this in a time frame. The Academy has played an
important role. For the past seven years in collaboration with Dr.
Sreedhar Potarazu, the Academy has started an annual festival of
classical dance. Today in America, both classical Carnatic music and
dance have taken firm roots. Not only the Indian immigrants
settled here but also the second generation and the Americans have shown
great appreciation for these arts. Therefore, it was decided to
organize Utsav in collaboration with Sivam Inc., a local organization
headed by Dr. Sreedhar Potarazu, in Washington DC at a venue like the
Kennedy Centre featuring brilliant musicians and dancers from India. The
resident Indians and Americans shall have a taste of the atmosphere of
‘the season’ with this initiative.”
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Was it possible to experience classical dance in one’s lifetime? This
lament echoed around me repeatedly in the mid 90’s, often by my dance
students’ parents and then others in their thirties or more. They felt
doomed that perhaps this unfulfilled dream would have to be taken into
another lifetime as they had crossed the requisite age bracket. It
rankled me no end - this thought of carrying something over for another
lifetime. It seemed like the beautiful art of classical dancing and
Bharatanatyam was like a far away world or planet that was inaccessible
to them. One began to feel then, was it not possible to build a bridge
somehow, or create a chink space in the door for this ‘marginalized
section’? They did not ask be to be donned in glorious costumes, they
did not ask for a performance platform, they did not seek applause, they
only wanted to ‘experience’ moving in the classical dance way!
‘Nritya Uphaar - The Gift of Dance’ was thus born as a via media, a
workshop first tried out in 1999.
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During the 2nd edition of Samarpana, the Asian Festival of Classical
Dance, produced by Sruti Laya school of Bharatanatyam in Singapore under
the guidance of its director Gayatri Sriram, one at once notices that
it is an international arts platform where, as claimed by the organizers
‘sensibilities, sense and the sublime come alive.’ The
presentation was not limited to classical Bharatanatyam dance form only.
Sruti Laya and event organizer Jyoti Ramesh of Jade Group
along with the sponsors BSI, Orbis, Passion Card, Mudrika Foundation for
Indian Performing Arts, Bengaluru, media partner Tabla, the Tagore
Society of Singapore, and several well wishers, have a large canvas of
performing arts.
The scope of the three-day festival included celebrated Indian
classical Dhrupad singers Gundecha Brothers in collaboration with
Kumudini Lakhia, internationally renowned Kathak exponent, guru
and choreographer with her dance company Kadamb from Ahmedabad,
collaboration of Flamenco Sin Fronteras with guest artist Miguel Angel
Espino and JSLN Company, three segments of Bharatanatyam, Contemporary
(Zaini Tahir and NUS Dance, French ballet academy L’Academie du
Danse, Singapore and a special lecture by V Sriram, the noted
musicologist and cultural historian from India on ‘The Devadasis of
George Town’ and a panel discussion on ‘Dilution of classical arts’ by
experts from various fields. The sumptuous fare was offered on a silver
platter from 27th till 29th September 2013 at the Drama Centre Theatre,
National Library Building, Singapore.
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They say you have to choreograph something close to life, more
importantly close to your own life! As choreographers, we can weave
fantasy around the story, romanticize, be brutally literal, abstract or
whimsical. I chose to look at characters from our mythology to tell my
story… My story of losing, my story of crying, my story of helplessness,
my story of getting up and trying again and my story of not belonging
anywhere. Well, how am I in this situation…. answer… life. The more you
live it, more seasons it gives you!
So I decided to express it through a dance piece. My dance mate Vishwa,
who danced this piece, and I started our quest of finding the Trishanku
in us.
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That Tara Chaudhri, popularly dubbed the Pavlova of the Punjab, died on
Sept 22, 2013, unsung in India, is not surprising. No obit, no news, no
mention. So it is left to me, yours truly, to reconstruct her life and
times. I’m additionally in a very privileged position because our
families also knew each other personally. A direct source of that period
is my mother, Bharatanatyam guru M.K. Saroja, who knew Tara personally,
stayed with her in Lahore in undivided India and had common links due
to Guru Muthukumaran Pillai, whom Ram took to Lahore to teach
Bharatanatyam. Many moons later, Tara came home to us in Delhi in mid
70s when Ram was visiting us and even having left active dance for
years, she looked like a royal star. Once a dancer, always a
dancer.
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Our training in Bharatanatyam almost takes the hand gestures for
granted. Nattuvanars never conducted sessions in theory related to
practice. If I am not mistaken it was Kalakshetra which taught the
Abhinaya Darpana based lessons...." Patakam, Tripatakam,
Ardhapatakam...." chanted in unison as one did the appropriate gestures.
Now all dance schools have these lessons, I think.
But what is the use of these lessons if the dancer can hardly show one
clear HASTHA MUDRA properly on the stage? While the Nrtta Hasthas are as
strong as the Nrtta taught by a teacher, they at least are correct most
of the time. It is the Abhinaya hasthas that are sadly lacking in
life. The prayoga or usage is known to dancers. But what they lack is
clarity in the way the hasthas are held by hand and fingers. For
example, many do not train the fingers properly to bend them, or to
stretch
them.
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(Braving a post injury phase, Pia reminisces on working on Mayuri Upadhya’s solo choreography.)
I performed a solo piece as part of Nritarutya choreographed by Mayuri
Upadhya at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, Mumbai, on the 16th of
September for an intimate audience. The dance was based on the theme of
the ingredients that go into making a perfume and I was the one who was
playing with nature and controlling it and pulling out all the flavour
from around me to blend it into the perfect fragrance.
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