Sunday, 29 May 2022

Bolly Natyam; Solo Satyam - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar


Only a culturally rich and quaint university town in a royal setting like Baroda could have a Bolly Natyam school or class. Gujus are the ultimate mix-n-match folks, with enthu genes. Much like the Punj of Delhi (that’s v. v. different than real Punjabis of Punjab), Gujus of especially happening twin cities Baroda/Ahmedabad dance to their own tune. Going in circles comes naturally to these garba-DNA folks but making a success shop of anything they touch is also an important attribute.

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Friday, 27 May 2022

Book Review - Attendance 2021-22: From here to eternity through dance - Dr. S D Desai

The human body is in bondage to its limitations, manifest in its instincts and desires, and its mortality. What makes human existence fascinatingly unique on the earth is that it also has a longing to be free from the bondage and be one with the Supreme it feels it is part of. The jeevatma, it is at times said, seeks to be one with the Param Atma or the individual spirit yearns to merge with the pure universal spirit, the source of ananda or complete bliss. The dimension of yearning of this bipolar human existence is relevant particularly to the domain of arts, which at their best turn to the pursuit of the Ultimate. The process is as much a part of mysticism as the Ultimate is!


Dance, like any other art, is a medium to get to the desired destination. It is however considered by most dancers, like practitioners of other arts, today as a means of entertainment, material gain and fame. Ashish Mohan Khokar and the guest editor Ranee Kumar have chosen in Attendance 2021-22 to get contributions - some of them by writers unfamiliar to the year book's regular readers - on a complex theme of Dance and Mysticism an average viewer/reader is likely to find esoteric. The variety of approaches to the subject makes each article an absorbing read and reaffirms significance of Attendance, always springing a surprise by way of its theme besides being richly illustrated and with a sense of aesthetics.

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Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Book Review - Reclaiming historic contribution of Kathak paviour - Leela Venkataraman

Non-Gharanedaar Pt Mohanrao Kallianpurkar: The Paviour of Kathak
Authors: Shama Bhate, Arshiya Sethi, Shilpa Bhide
Price: Rs.495
Published by: Sterling
Pages: 200

The book rightly calls Mohanrao the 'Kathak Paviour' - his combined academic and practical (
sastra / prayog) knowledge enabling the kind of research to pave the Kathak pathway so to speak, by establishing the links between practice and theory as mentioned in the old texts. This also enabled him to devise a curriculum for teaching and with it a performance format - with a clear sequence of items paving the way for a more structured approach to performance, while keeping in mind the spaces a form like Kathak needs for improvisations, the soul of the dance. What was left till now to the arbitrariness of individual gurus, with this crucial ground work, helped standardise teaching also. 

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Friday, 20 May 2022

Profile - Kalakshetra Vilasini - Shashtyabdapoorthy in teaching Bharatanatyam - RLV Suma Raj Menon

A large number of Bharatanatyam artistes and teachers in Kerala are grateful to the veteran Bharatanatyam natyacharya Kalakshetra Vilasini who has successfully completed sixty years of her meritorious service in the field of teaching Kalakshetra style of Bharatanatyam in Kerala. Every artiste and teacher, including this writer, who benefited under her tutelage will also be paying respect to Prof. Joseph Mundassery, the Honourable Minister for Education in the first Kerala Government, for the visionary decision in commencing separate course for Bharatanatyam under the Government Department and to Appan Thampuran, the then Director of Education, for the enthusiastic follow up action in carrying out the decision of the Government. The service story of Vilasini Teacher starts from this point.

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Wednesday, 18 May 2022

Interview - An imaginary interview with Guru Gopinath - Part 11 - Tapati Chowdhurie


Besides being a dancer, teacher and founder of a popular dance form, you have several publications to your credit.

The practical and the theoretical aspects of Indian classical dance; Nritta-Nritya-Natya has been published in six books namely Abhinayankaram; Classical Dance Poses of India; Kathakali dance; Abhinayaprakashika; Natana Kairali; Rhythm and Dance.

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Sunday, 15 May 2022

Interview - Geeta Chandran: Endance the universe - Aparna Vasudevan

A celebrated artiste and a star performer, Geeta Chandran is synonymous with Bharatanatyam. Today, even as she marks over four decades of engagement with Indian classical dance since her arangetram in 1974, Geeta Chandran has evolved to become a renowned artist who has synthesised the knowledge she received from her stalwart gurus to imprint Bharatanatyam with her personal vision of the dance. In her dance presentations, Geeta Chandran skilfully weaves abstract notions of joy, beauty, values, aspirations, myth and spirituality. Geeta is the artistic director of Natya Vriksha Dance Company known for the high aesthetic quality of its group presentations. In the book Dynamic Women Dancers (women's hall of fame series), Canadian author Anne Dublin listed Geeta Chandran as one of the ten global "all-time great dancers." Here Geeta Chandran speaks about her dance journey.


When did you realise that dance is your calling?
Hailing from a family which was very focused on education, academics was very important for my parents. But they were also connoisseurs of art, so they used to take me to concerts of dance and music right from my young age. Then with academics I started to learn dance at age of 5 and music at 7. I was blessed to have a structured upbringing with academics, dance, music, sports etc. I think all this created a passion in arts. It was much later after I finished my PG in communication, I tried to multitask and then realised that I wanted to get into all aspects of dance, music, theory, rhythm, mythology, poetry, philosophical aspects etc. When I came to realise that I couldn't multitask, I gave up my job. You could say that was my turning point when I decided to take dance as my life.

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Monday, 9 May 2022

Interview - Sangita Chatterjee on working with a Bharatanatyam mentor - Shveta Arora


"When you are alone choreographing something, you want a second eye to see what is not going right," says Sangita Chatterjee on working with a Bharatanatyam mentor. Sangita Chatterjee is a Kathak dancer, choreographer and teacher whom I have been watching with interest for many years. She has learnt Kathak from Guru Vaswati Misra but has developed a distinct dance identity marked by conceptual richness and intellectual exploration in her presentations. She has also organized events through her dance and arts company, Kalpataru Arts.


She recently choreographed and performed a piece for Pratiroop, an online dance event organized by Divya Warier. Pratiroop paired an established dancer in one dance form as a mentee with a guru from another dance form as a mentor, and asked them to come up with a short, fresh piece for digital broadcasting. Sangita was paired with Bharatanatyam guru Rama Vaidyanathan and presented a thought-provoking piece called Manthani. I spoke to her about it afterwards and also discussed performing for the camera as compared with performing for a physical audience.

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Friday, 6 May 2022

Dance Matters or does it? - Dance Matters: Column by Ashish Mohan Khokar

So, when my column title became the title of a seminar content in World Dance Day event just concluded recently (29th April) and 7 star dancers/teachers/festival organisers/gurus decided to address the issue, the hall filled with many more dancers, gurus and enthusiasts (keeping Covid protocols in mind or masks!) clapped for each speaker. Never before have I heard so many claps after each speaker had made a point at any seminar.

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Sunday, 1 May 2022

Anita says...May 2022

 In Madurai

city of temples and poets
Who sang of cities and temples
Every summer
A river dries to a trickle
In the sand
Baring the sand rubs
Straw and women's hair
Clogging the watergates
At the rusty bars
Under the bridges with patches
Of repair all over them
The wet stones glistening like sleepy
Crocodiles, the dry ones
Shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun
The poets only sing of the floods

- An excerpt from A RIVER by A K Ramanujan

Anita Ratnam
It has been a packed month of watching, talking, sharing, writing, rehearsing and performing. With International Dance Day just concluded, I have chosen to focus on the joy and beauty of DANCE this month. Showered with a feast of ideas, expressions and the familiar sweat of rehearsals, it has been 30 days of my body at play. Aaaand… my muscles are aching and rejoicing in tandem.

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