Dealing with exaggerated egos and frail talents of our grown -ups, I’m
forever joyous seeing and dealing with young dancers under 13 or 15!
They dance for joy, not mere show and they dance from within, not merely
on stage, for stardom. They smile, cry, emote innocently with
characters they portray, their own personality hardly coming in way of
the depiction.
Grown-ups can be self conscious, full of themselves and rather
predictable. I like the naivety, naturalness and neatness of young
talents who are just happy to dance, whatever the stage. In fact, 20th
anniversary issue of ATTENDANCE, I’m planning just on child talents of
Indian dance under 13. Or to be generous to more, under 18.
Of course, one pitfall is that often parents think their wards are maha
gifted and superstars already after one show. They also chase organizers
(pester is the word!) and bombard them with emails that "my daughter
danced here, there, everywhere, so why not at your festival or forum?" Swaraj is my birthright has an altogether new meaning.
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Navadisha 2016 dance conference was a unique event, the like of which
has not been organized in UK in recent times. The last Navadisha event
was organized by Piali Ray, Director of Sampad, in 2000. After an
interval of 15 years, once again thanks to the dynamic Anita Srivastava,
Director of New Dimension Arts Management and the producer of this
event with co-producer Piali Ray, and Chitra Sundaram, moderator, art
consultant and Bharatanatyam dancer, brain stormed for past two
years and worked out this mind boggling conference enlisting support of
many funding organizations and sponsors and various dance institutions
across UK. They invited dancers, scholars, organizers, academicians, not
only of Indian Diaspora but also as equal partners in the creative
industry of dance, the British organizers, British South Asian dancers,
choreographers, event managers and a host of UK based dancers.
From Canada, Lata Pada of Sampradaya, Hari Krishnan (dancer,
academician, InDance), Nova Bhattacharya (Bharatanatyam and contemporary
dancer, President of the Toronto Arts Council’s Board of Directors);
from Johannesburg in South Africa, Jayesperi Moopen (Bharatanatyam
dancer, artistic director of Tribangi Dance Theatre); from Singapore,
Aravinth Kumarasamy (creative and managing director of Apsara Arts);
from Dubai, Pali Chandra (Kathak dancer, director of Gurukul –Dubai);
from Kolkata Tanusree Shankar (contemporary dancer), Vikram Iyengar
(Kathak / contemporary dancer); from Chennai, Anita Ratnam (contemporary
dancer, writer, managing editor of e-portal Narthaki.com and director
of Arangham Trust); from Hyderabad, dancer/bureaucrat Ananda
Shankar Jayant; from Delhi, dance critic Sunil Kothari; from Mumbai,
Gauri Sharma Tripathi (Kathak dancer, also resident artist South Bank
Centre, London); and from Ahmedabad, Chirag Mehta (Producer, Ice Craft
Creations Pvt Ltd.).
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As an only child, from early years on, my mother was my whole universe.
While my adoring father was busy working for the Government of India, my
mother dedicated her entire existence to bringing me up. And what a
determined upbringing I had.
Despite her abundant love for me, that never deflected her from her
ambition for me. I had to excel in everything! Dance, music, sports and
academics. I was immersed in everything and pushed by her to excel.
There was no scope for any laxity in any. And never a choice if I
could do just one activity and not the others. So she micro-managed my
schedule and accompanied me everywhere.
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Spic Macay’s 4th International Convention (earlier termed the ‘National
Convention’ annually held since 1986) was held at Guwahati, the capital
of Assam, situated on the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra, attracting
thousands of pilgrims to haloed Kamakhya temple, one of the Indian
‘shaktipeethas.’ The choice of venue for the week-long event, IIT
Guwahati with its picturesque campus built round water bodies surrounded
by verdant shrubs and blossoming trees, with kindly weather gods
sending down intermittent showers keeping temperatures from rising to
uncomfortable levels, could hardly have been bettered. Battling doomsday
predictions with the slashed Central government funds for Spic Macay
activities, this event was by far one of the best organised and
attended, thanks to good Samaritans coming to the rescue along with the
phenomenal efforts of a clutch of committed
volunteers.
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(This article was featured in The New Indian Express dated May 14, 2016)
The Sangeet Natak Akademi, (SNA), the apex body for performing arts,
under the Ministry of Culture, also has as its mandate, the selection
and awarding of senior and young artistes across the fields of
dance, music and theatre in the annual national awards. This year’s SNA
awards, timed in with yearly March – April appraisals, across sectors.
As human beings, many of our goals for success and self actualization
are intrinsically linked with recognition, growth and awards. For a
sportsperson, a medal, a victory, or a ranking, defines achievement. For
bureaucrats, career advancement is determined by annual confidential
reports (ACR), which are enumerated and graded, a transparent evaluation
process, with an individual also being able to access the ACR’s, and
even appeal and seek correction or change in them.
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Usha Raghavan presented INIYA NINAIVUGAL (Sweet Memories) by her
students of Kalasagara UK, a Bharatanatyam celebration of their dance
performance tour of Sri Lanka, last summer. In London, they presented
dance compositions as performed in Sri Lanka, followed by a slide show
presentation of their experiences during the dance tour. The show
concluded with a thematic dance performance on the five major Shiva
temples in Sri Lanka known as ‘Panchalinkeswaram.’ Usha Raghavan shares
information about her production.
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Titled Muscle Memory, Dr. Anita Ratnam’s workshop during Natya Vriksha’s
two day World Dance Day celebrations on Sunday the 1st May in the
morning at India International Centre’s auditorium saw the young dancers
crowding the stage and also the Delhi audience on a Sunday morning,
which was quite heartening. Two days earlier in Pune she had conducted
workshop with Pune based dancers and had won critical acclaim.
The dancers were not only from Natya Vriksha but also from other dance
academies, all ready to take the workshop. Since it was on the stage,
Anita suggested that some groups work in the aisles facing the stage.
Dressed in pink top and comfortable black dhoti like costume, Anita
warmed up all with her explanation of what is muscle memory - the day to
day action, the observation of routine gestures, and the way we stand,
and how dance practice retains memory through muscles. Where the
standing posture is wrong, what happens to the back, to half seated
position ardha mandali, to entire body and posture were explained with
demonstration. The participants started warming up and followed what
Anita suggested.
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World Dance Day celebrations in the capital, have taken on unique
dimensions. In the case of Kathak professional Shovana Narayan, the last
three years have linked dance productions of her institution Asawari to
themes pertinent to life as lived today. After a mind-tickling
intellectual discussion with top names from different disciplines
contributing their individual points of view, the Kathak artistic
statement comes as a finale – contextualising as it were, the entire
performance, giving the presentation an immediacy and relevance.
The two day event entitled ‘Vividh-Mat’ (varied opinions), in other
words ‘Bhinna ruchi’ as the Sanskrit text would say about subjective
individual preferences in life, the objective of the exercise was to
look at inner man transcending differing perceptions - the first
evening’s topic “Dharma-Adharma” ruminating on the ever relevant
question of right and wrong act. Inevitably, this subject spurs quotes
from the Mahabharata action and the Gita. Is the Indian, over the years
becoming more religious, was a query. Said Dr. Pushpesh Pant, noted
Indian academic, combining the unlikely disciplines of food critic (his
book India: the cookbook was named by The New York Times as one
of the best cookbooks of the year) and historian, the definition of
Dharma as “Dharayati iti dharma” shows the word having little to do with
Hinduism. Dharma is a ‘vyavasaya’. Describing the religious identity as
something one cannot however shake away no matter what, he preferred to
think of Dharma/Adharma in terms of Just and Unjust – as a code of
conduct without straying into religious sanctions of right and wrong –
which invariably create fissures among people.
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The book ‘An Indian Analysis of Aesthetics: The Dance, the Dancer and
The Spectator’ is a scholarly attempt and inspirational insight into the
world of aesthetics primarily in the traditional Indian classical
context. The author has placed philosophy, psychology, for that matter
emotions and sensations lying therein and perception of beauty of other
civilizations and countries alongside at the beginning (Chapter 2) of
the seven chapters with a rich bibliography and an explicable glossary
at the end. This makes for comfortable reading of the otherwise heavy
subject. The preface is the appropriate foreground to manifest the
critical mind of the author and the treatment of the subject
subsequently and so it goes to show that the author is necessarily and
knowingly both the writer and the reader. This is articulated in Chapter
1 “Enquiry”- the proof of the question is in the answer.
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Being a young dancer in India can be very unsettling. And being a
classical dancer, while we’re at it, is an even more profoundly
disconcerting experience. Why, you ask? Because it feels like speaking a
language that no one understands, and worse, no one seems to want to
understand. This insularity is effected, I think, by a fundamental lack
of curiosity about the arts, particularly the performing arts - and it
accounts for a huge chunk of the issue.
To begin with, the arts are of little meaningful interest to those who
are not directly connected to the field in some way - school/college
students, working professionals, government officials, journalists,
leaders, administrators, institutions and organizations - you name it.
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From the start, it was as if the fairy god mother’s magic wand had been
waved over each session of Natya Vriksha’s two day World Dance Day 2016
celebrations at the IIC, Delhi. Organised and curated by founder
president Geeta Chandran and spouse Rajiv Chandran, this annual
celebration supported by the IIC and the Ministry of Culture, has been,
with each year, expanding its horizons with a holistic perception,
adding to the performance nucleus of the Young Dancers Festival with
other allied interests. This year, woven round the performance side,
were sessions dealing with “Studio Class Demo”, “Tribute to Dance
Doyennes” and Workshop on Muscle Memory as part of the calendar of
events.
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During the two day World Dance Day Festival organized by Geeta and Rajiv
Chandran under the aegis of heir institution Natya Vriksha, one of the
major highlights was Geeta Chandran in a dialogue with the celebrated
dancer Yamini Krishnamurti. It was one of the finest no- holds barred,
frank, brutally honest and historic conversations. Yamini is a private
person, so to draw her out and make her speak was indeed a tough job.
But Yamini was in a very happy frame of mind and peppered her answers
with humour also.
A real diva, she has been an icon and after Balasaraswati and her
contemporaries, other dancers like legendary Mrinalini Sarabhai, Shanta
Rao, Kamala, from the next generation Yamini stands tall. No other
dancer has captivated audiences all over India and abroad for her
recitals of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, as she did. She has also
influenced several young dancers in post-independence era. In fact,
majority of dancers have said publicly that they were inspired to study
Bharatanatyam after having seen Yamini. I saw Yamini for the first time
during the All India Dance Seminar convened by Sangeet Natak Akademi in
April 1958 at Vigyan Bhavan. She had performed jatiswaram for
Elappa Pillai in the morning session. And she stood out for her
brilliant nritta and vivacious performance. She had already made a name
and was creating waves. Like many present there, I as a young, up and
coming scholar and a green horn, was
mesmerized.
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How the awards scene of today has changed! Gone are the days when merit
was, if not the sole, certainly the main criterion. Memories go back to
the sixties, when my father-in-law S.R. Balasubramaniam was conferred a
Padma Shri for his path breaking research on the history of the Cholas
of South India. When the names were first mentioned in the papers, I
remember the sense of amazement in our home that a hard working scholar,
away from the corridors of influence and power, should have been
remembered for his contribution, with such a prestigious award. After
the congratulatory messages followed by the ceremony, one does not
recollect anybody mentioning the award, or tagging it on to the name as a
title in season and out of season. This was unlawful.
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A professional santoor maestro for more than three decades and a
chartered accountant, Pandit Snehal Muzoomdar has several performances
to his credit both in India and abroad. In this interview, Snehal talks
about his experiences as a performer, teacher, music composer for dance
productions and programs, music and dance critic, his second music album
to be released soon.
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"The ghosts of our future are unpredictable and out of control."
- Poet Wendy Rose
Hello Dance World! What’s APP-ening!
The loudest shout I hear is - MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!
May 1st. A day which traditionally celebrates the final thawing of snow
and the advent of flowers, warmer weather and softening hearts, the
ritual MAYPOLE dance (resembling the Pinnal Kolattam of Tamils), the
term is also used for rescue and relief efforts. Judging by the recent
outrage and furor over the national awards given to two Kuchipudi
artistes, it would seem that the classical style from pre-divided Andhra
Pradesh is now in dire danger. Or as one critic put it pithily on his
personal Facebook page, “Kuchipudi is in ICU!”
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