In Reply to: Bala
 

Posted by Asha on July 11, 2005 at 09:55:35:

 Asha,

I appreciate your openness to how the traditional dance was practiced. As far as I know, all traditional women from the devadasi, or isai vellalal community were performing musicians as well as dancers. Words were not mouthed, but the music sung in a particular family style of music. Part of what was destroyed when the traditional community went out of the professional arts business was many family-based styles of music that accompanied bharata natyam. Each dancer had a particular musical style. In those days, or in Balasaraswati's family today, you cannot just exchange one musician for another. Without years of training in the family style of music, it was not possible to be a musician in Balasaraswati's, or her daughter Lakshmi's, or her grandson Ani's ensemble.

No one since Sundarammal, Balasaraswati great-grandmother, has sung in a temple, and it was only Kamakshi, born in 1810, was the last family member to regularly dance before the deity. She also was very famous as a dancer and musician in the courts of both Thanjavur and Trivandrum, and eventually she moved to Madras.

Music and dance are one and the same. Neither Balasaraswati's mother or gandmother, or great-grandmother, ever performed dance for an audience, as far as I know. They became among the most famous musicians in South India. But dance would flow out of them.

Balasaraswati was famous for singing and dancing; she claimed, as did Mylapore Gauri Ammal, who taught both Balasaraswati and Rukmini Devi, and many dancer of that generation, that unless the dancer knows music to perform, it is not possible to dance abhinaya. In this way, yes, the dance performed and taught today is very different.

When I say these artists sang at home, they were not going through a performance. Actually rehersal was rare. They might sing a line from a varnam ... in the hands of a master musician and master dancer, a varnam might last as long a three hours. A single line of text and music would be sung over and over with improvised variations while the dancer improvised interpretations of what the poetry suggested. Bala was famous for these performances. One story about Bala was in a concert at the Music Academy in 1970, one end of the drum broke. While they searched for a new drum, Bala insisted that they continue one line of music from the varnam, without drum, for almost an hour until the drum was replaced. The audience responded overwhelmingly after the drum was replaced and she completed the varnam. Imagine an audience that has that patience or interest!

In Balasaraswati's family style, the jathis are always danced while the music, the song, continues at the same time. This was introduced by Bala's teacher. Bala, and her daughter and grandson are able to sing and perform the jathis, or to recite the jathis and dance.

I hope these answers help you to understand a little more. Glad you want to know.