From 24th till 30th April, NCPA organized Mudra dance festival at
Experimental Theatre, conceived by Swapnokalpa, the Director for Dance
at NCPA, on the theme of motherhood. On the opening night, Mumbai based
Odissi exponent Jhelum Paranjape presented a programme titled ‘What is
Motherhood?’ With her son Bunkim, who is a fresh voice in Indian music
with a style which centres round pop, drawing equally from Rock, Folk,
Funk and Bollywood, Jhelum succeeded in revealing several layers of
relationship between mother and son through classical Odissi style, at
times using free dance form, appropriate to the content of the song and
sentiments.
Read the review in the site
There is no getting away from it. It is not something you can push under
the carpet or hide behind your ghungroos. If you are a woman and a
dancer, then dance is your eldest child, you are married to your body
and you are a mother to movement. That alchemical bond between the
spirit, body and the navel of memory is sacrosanct. Married or
unmarried, divorced, separated or in a social relationship you can term
‘complicated’, there is nothing complex about a woman and her body that
absorbs, morphs and shape-shifts as it grows and the dance grows
alongside it. You are a parent who nurtures and forms the growing bubble of kinetic
clay that takes shape through your limbs and torso. What is it like
being a mother? What is it like to be a mother and a dancer whose body
is singularly stubborn and independent? I always believed that life
would deliver me as a dancer first and all else next. I knew I was good
and that I would always be in the spotlight. But a mother? I had never
planned on being a mother to anything but dance. I did dream of a handsome man sweeping me off my feet. But children? I knew
that being a mother was not going to be easy and that I did not have the
stamina to stay the course of motherhood.
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Adyar Lakshman's many years of study and interaction with Kalakshetra’s artists
provided rich and meaningful experience to Lakshman. Rukmini Devi saw
Lakshman’s talents develop even during the initial years of his
education. Upon his graduation she gave him the opportunity to take part
in Kalakshetra’s world famous dance productions such as Kutrala
Kuruvanji and Kumarasambhavam. He played the role of Janaka in the
Ramayana series Sita Swayamvaram, as Shiva in Usha Parinayam which was a
Bhagavathamela natya natakam from Melattur. Lakshman also trained in
Kathakali under maestros Ambu Panicker and Chandu Panicker. His most
notable appearance in Kathakali was as Sudhama in Kuchela Vrittam. He
danced with Rukmini Devi in kuravanji Kumarasambhavam with her as
Parvathi and he as young brahmin Vatu. Lakshman is one of the privileged
few to have shared the stage with Rukmini Devi when she danced in her
productions.
On leaving Kalakshetra, Lakshman felt there was a necessity to become a
teacher more than a dancer. He taught for more than a decade in
Vyjayantimala Bali's school Natyalaya, where he honed his skills as a
choreographer of merit, assisting in productions like Tiruppavai,
Azhagar Kuravanji, Chandalika and Sanga Tamizh Malai. He founded his own
dance school Bharatha Choodamani Academy of Fine Arts on August 22,
1969. He has trained many dancers including Anita Ratnam, Jayanthi
Subramaniam, Padmini Chari, Kamadev, Bragha Bessell, Roja Kannan, Mavin
Khoo and Ramli Ibrahim to name a few. Trained in close adherence to the
traditional Kalakshetra style, many of his star students have
established their own dance schools in India and abroad.
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So how, when and why did girls come to dance Kuchipudi? This is no
ancient history, as with most things Indian in classical dance history!
This situation happened just over 75 years ago. Thanks to a
politician, no less.
It is well known that from the very beginning Kuchipudi was intended to
be a dance-drama, thus requiring a set of characters. It was not
intended as a soloist’s delight. This does not mean there were no solo
dancers but that they were used as embellishment, an adornment. Being a
dance drama also meant that an actor was obliged to sing, dance and
speak. The most popular play remained the Bhama Kalapam, even though
many other plays came to be written. The role of Satyabhama
thus remained most coveted. In most plays, it is the female roles that
dominated, like Rukmini in Rukmini Kalyanam, Usha in Usha Parinayam.
Even Krishna remained pathetically marginalised in these plays. Except
Prahlad Charithram, all plays were female centric. As per custom and
tradition, males performed the female role.
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For me, the formal and informal performance history of Bharatanatyam
elicits more fascination than ritual dances. Ritual has its limitations
on the stage. Like the Kauttuvams. Interesting visuals they may be, but
for me they have no soul when taken out of context.
The charm of old Palace repertoire is unbeatable. I recall with utmost
pleasure my interview with Pandanallur Jayalakshmi decades ago. Imagine
if one were to speak to a performer who had danced the Dhanike Todi
ragam varnam in the presence of Sivaji maharaja of Tanjavur! The varnam
was composed in praise of him.... Such was my excitement to hear
Jayalakshmi reminiscing about a rare varnam when I visited her in the
late seventies. She sang the varnam composed exclusively for her by
Meenakshisundaram Pillai. In raga Vachaspathi, it is in praise of her
husband, the Sethupathy or Raja of Ramnad. I have written more about
this meeting in my book. I had also seen pictures of mural paintings of
court dancers of the 18th century in the Ramanathapuram palace taken by
my good friend V.K. Rajamani. They were testimony to an active royal
pastime....dance and music programs attended by the king. It was
not difficult to understand that that kingdom was a seat of music and
dance, second only to Tanjavur. I think such varnams are historically
important and their worth is not diminished simply because modern India
decried royalty and abolished princely states.
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When the work of any dancer is more inclined towards a gender based
repertoire, the dancer is automatically slipping into a comfort zone.
This form of expression although an individual privilege, nevertheless
becomes a very subjective approach, whereas a dancer needs to be
equipped with several layers of consciousness to experiment the endless
artistic possibilities thus helping the dance form to explore the higher
realms of transitions through art.
Natya is considered as a supreme medium of expression and a nata
exhibits this potential through the dramatic element. It is also an
artist’s manodharma that calls for the spontaneous and imaginative
prowess of an artist that creates the magic of rasa. A contemporary
dancer, soloist may need to transform to a protagonist, a heroic
character, a pining heroine or a passive story teller or any character
called for. The dancer has to bring the gender, age or psychological
states of the character into the grasp of his physical demeanour. For
this, a dancer, the soloist needs to depersonalise from “self”. He needs
to strip himself of his identity and become neutral; then take to
submissive yet assertive transformation to present a real and wholesome
artistic experience. Bharata, while explaining the physical attributes
of the masculine and feminine body through the lasya and tandava modes
of expression, mentions that actors can mask these aspects expressed and
explored irrespective of their genders. Hence, the physical presence of
the bearing or bareness of breasts should not interfere while
considering artistic calibre.
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