Described as saakshaatdakshinaamurthi and kantheshaavataarah, Abhinavagupta, the towering Kashmiri genius and great acharya of Saiva darshan,
whose contribution to Indian philosophy and thought in the areas of
theatre, music, dance, and tantra is immeasurable, was a scholar with
immense range. Like Shiva combining in himself the ascetic and the
erotic, or to quote renowned scholar Navjivan Rastogi the prajna –purusa embodying features of Saraswati and Nataraja fused into one,
Abhinavagupta’s intellectual capacities encompassed a
diversity of disciplines from Tantra and renunciatory religious
philosophy and metaphysics to aesthetics, not excluding historiography,
literature and what have you. The three day seminar at IGNCA in this the
thousandth year of Abhinavagupta, with reputed scholars and younger
enthusiasts contributing papers, was an attempt to look at the totality
of this encyclopaedic mind - the first in-depth analysis of this
intellectual giant being the path breaking work in 1935 of Dr. K.C.
Pandey (a scholar from Lucknow, joined later by K. C. Iyer). But for
Abhinavagupta’s commentary Abhinava Bharati, deciphering Bharata’s Natya Sastra Karanas
in depth would have been impossible. The seminar featured several
papers on the acharya as the interpreter of the Trika system with
his versicular commentary Malinivijaya Vartika on the Malinivijayottaratantra and his works like Paratrisika Vivarna,
and his vision of non-dualism where “fullness, harmony and integrality”
are but connotations of a changing universe built on one unified
essence.
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Perhaps the only all pervading truth is that everything has a beginning,
a primordial source that causes Genesis. So it is with art forms, be it
dance, yoga, or any other martial art. The 108 dance forms of Lord
Shiva form the basis for both Yoga and Dance. Moreover, the ultimate
purpose of both Dance and Yoga is the same- Union with the higher self,
with the Supreme, The Divine. For both the Yogi, and the dancer,
limitations of time are dissolved and they go beyond worldliness to
transcend one’s individual self. To speak of Dance and Yoga in separate
terms would thus be a trifle ignorant.
From a performance enhancing perspective, it is important to recognize
that Yoga and Dance are complementary art forms.
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As the year rolled by, what trended most? All over India, all just
wished to perform. No matter what level of training or technique, as
though nothing else mattered! Problem is, where is the opportunity for
all to perform and who is even there in the hall to watch? There are too
many performers and too few platforms. An average show doesn't even get
attendance, leave alone audience. Big festivals have less than
fifty folks sitting in the hall, half of whom are the organisers
themselves! Or family and friends. Then why is everyone so desperate to
dance? Those very established or cultured, are not. A Valli or Malavika perform
only once a year in city outside their own. Next generation of stars
Geeta Chandran, Aditi Mangaldas, Sujata Mohapatra also seem satisfied.
It is the twenty to thirty year olds, those with recent wings who wish
to fly. Nothing wrong in that, just that after a show or two they think
they have seriously arrived in the professional dance circle and then
get airs.
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My mother… my dance… I can’t separate one from the other. I dance
because my mother wanted me to. I am living her dream. As a child,
I resented having to learn dance which ate into my playtime... Little
did I know that this would be the greatest gift that she gave me.
Now, I cannot imagine my life without dance. Bittersweet indeed.
Born and brought up in Srirangam in a conservative family, my mother
could not learn dance formally. But dance was her passion. She got
married early and settled into the role of a wife and a mother before
she was twenty, but her love for dance kept growing. She finally had the
opportunity to learn dance from Guru Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai at the
ripe old age of twenty-one! She performed her arangetram which was a
great accomplishment for those days. Once I had my arangetram, we
performed together as “a mother and daughter team.”
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An art work or piece is a creative unit made by man, in which he
abstracts a special moment from life experience and integrates a whole
meaning to it, by which the spectator is able to experience that moment
as valued by the artist. The art body bears a likeness to that instance
of abstraction as viewed by the artist of the special moment. It
embodies thoughts and values about an aspect of reality as experienced
or intuited by the artist. The concept formed is given concrete shape
through images like pictures, statues etc. This image of art stimulates
the senses of the spectator and makes him aware of the idea implicit in
art work. This image is at a perceptible level, and enables the
spectators to comprehend the importance or experience a heightened sense
of the reality of the presented abstractions. The dominant emotion in
the art presentation pervades through spectators giving them a
pleasurable experience. Since viewing and appraising art work is an act
of perception and not cognition, all art works need to be sensuous to
attract and hold the undivided attention of the spectator. Thus the
importance of the sensuous element i.e. “intrinsic perception of
sensation” as one of art’s most characteristic features has been
acknowledged. Therefore, art piece is a sensuous embodiment i.e. a work
of art is directly available to the senses.
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On November 27, 2016 Kala Bharati organized a meaningful event where
many artists and promoters of the arts in the city gathered for
brainstorming and contributing to an initiative Kala Bharati is
undertaking called Building Bridges. It is a proposition made by Carole
Poirier, MNA, Hochelaga-Maisonneuve in Montreal, under which various
possibilities of twinning Kolkata and Montreal through sharing cultural
exchanges are being explored.
Carole Poirier is the elected member of the official opposition in the
Quebec National Assembly, from the very district in which Dr. Mamata
Niyogi–Nakra and Dr. Harbans Nakra reside and Kala Bharati, the
Bharatanatya center she founded is based.
The evening also gave an opportunity to celebrate a momentous occasion
in Dr. Mamata’s presence on Quebec’s cultural scene. This was a perfect
moment to recognize her receiving the Medal of Honor in March this year,
awarded by the National Assembly of Quebec for “perseverance in sharing
our cultures.”
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Bangalore based Bharatanatyam and contemporary dancer, choreographer and
teacher, Mayuri Upadhya has been credited for the dance recreation of
K. Asif’s classic Hindi film Mughal-e-Azam in the play format. Mayuri
has also choreographed the dance sequences for the poetic rendering of
Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s “Madhushala”. Mayuri reveals her varied
experiences as a dancer, teacher and choreographer and much more
Read the interview in the site
