"When the whole world says "MOVE"
You plant your feet firmly like a tree
And say
"NO. YOU MOVE."
Lines from the film CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
These thoughts come to you from a month of watching, absorbing and
reflecting on a variety of performances, venues, cities and people I
have met and interacted with.
I started this editorial on the flight to Colombo, continued it in
Singapore and completed it in Kuala Lumpur. In all three
cities/countries, I was starkly reminded of the fascinating history and
achievements of the Tamil communities. Their long struggle under
colonial rule through generations of oppression and marginalisation
forced them to find cultural moorings for their own psyche. The answer
for many lay in music and dance. It was not just in the building of
temples and shrines, but in their steadfast loyalty to the Tamizh tongue
via the cultural conduit of Bharatanatyam, ritual hymns and of course,
movies that buoyed the millions of diaspora immigrants through their
dark and brutal early years. Today, dance and music lives on in the
homes and lives of the Tamil people around the world, the Sri Lankan
Tamils being among the most faithful and active.
However, it was not Bharatanatyam that I watched in the month of August.
In fact, there was not a single performance of BN that I attended,
although festivals and premieres were occurring almost every single day
somewhere on the planet and in my home town of Madras/Chennai.
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In the sudden death of Dinanath Pathy on Monday 29th August 2016, Odisha
has lost one of its committed cultural figures, and one who wore
several hats connected with visual and performing arts. A
contemporary painter, scholar and art historian who authored several
books, he was also a publisher of quality art journals with special
accent on dance, like Angarag. Dinanath worked in several
capacities for many art institutions. He was Curator Art and
Crafts at the Odisha State Museum, Principal of the B.K. College of Art
and Crafts, Bhubaneswar, Secretary of the National Academy of Art, New
Delhi, and lately he had been working as Director of the Alice Boner
Institute at Varanasi. His fine mind with an art awareness stemming from
painstaking research into art History and Art Ethnology connected with
Odisha, encompassed subjects pertaining to all art forms.
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Rarely, one hears of dreaming dance or dancer’s dream or a dream dance production. Normally, in the dance world of India, mediocrity prevails and nightmares
is what is the leitmotif - of survival, succeeding, even seduction by
routine of awards and tours, honours and glories, institutional grants
and grouses against govt. patronage systems. Dance comes last,
especially in metro India. So, what of smart cities? (polite word for
non-metros but no less important, tier two cities). Like Pune,
inaugurated by the PM as the first one such one, just last month.
Pune is different. Self-sufficient, insular and bindaas. Unemotional.
Practical. Almost unmindful of the rest of the world. But dreaming and
making dreams come true. I ask senior Kathakaar Shama Bhate, now guru,
also daughter-in-law of the late much loved Guru Rohini Bhate, what made
her do that complicated production on Mahabharata last year, which
involved six to seven star dancers drawn from different forms and states
and countries. Ramli Ibrahim from Malaysia did minimal Orissi; Vaibhav
Arekar from Mumbai showcased excellent Bharatanatyam; Gopika Varma from
Chennai illustrated the beauty and charm of Mohiniattam and Vyjayanthi
Kashi from Karnataka did filmy, over the top Kuchipudi. Add local
talents of Kathak, Shama Bhate’s own Nad-Roop group, from which Ameera
Patankar and Avani showed merit. To get dates of these stars of styles
from all over for next show itself is herculean, so how does such a big
production, recover costs? She answered simply: “We had one show after
the premier in Pune and may have one in Bangalore. But it was my dream to do such a production so I did it!” Simple and straightforward answer, deep and meaningful, just like her.
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Secretly, I was a great fan of my mum and secretly think my passion and
artistic DNA must have come from her. She was a housewife par-excellence. She was a great cook; a great cake-maker (the house in which I am presently staying was built from the sale of her cakes and kuihs
- Malay traditional sweet-cakes); a natural horticulturalist who tended
our exceptionally lush begonia and orchid garden (whatever she planted,
grew); and last but not least it was she who cultivated my love and
compassion for animals.
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Performing artists are always focused on ensuring their best performance
every time, all the time. This often entails long hours of practice and
compromised sleep patterns. A good night’s sleep is essential for a
good day and a brief reality check on your sleep wellness would go a
long way.
• Do you feel your sleep is adequate?
• Do you wake up feeling fresh?
• Do you feel fatigued or sleepy during the day?
• Is your sleep pattern fragmented? (i.e do you wake up several times at night?)
• Are you told that you snore?
If you answered yes to any of the above it would be best to discuss your issues with a specialist.
How much sleep is good enough?
Medical research confirms that average sleep time in early 1900s was
approximately 8-9 hours, in mid 20th century around 7-7.5 hours and
reduced to only 6-6.5 hours in the 21st century!
View the article in the site
Aarya Nande opened her recital with traditional Mangalacharan set to
raga Mangal Gurjari and Lalita, to tala ektali and jati. The
invocation dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Narasimha had the
hallmark of Guru Deba Prasad Das’s usage of Sabdaswarapata. This
tradition of Sabdaswarapata, like the Kavits in Kathak, lend an aural
texture with epithets and mnemonic syllables. The divinity addressed is
visualized in its benign and ferocious forms. Aarya succeeded in
creating that impact.
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