September 1, 2014
Jambo! A Swahili word for “Hello!”
Touching down from a magical ten days
in Kenya and Tanzania, where connectivity was limited,
animals were in abundance and sunsets were like paintings,
I find it hard to wrench myself away from the African
dream and revert to the here and now of urban life and the
rhythm of the arts. After all, I had just witnessed the
greatest show on earth - the annual migration of more than
a million wildebeests across the Mara River!
 
    
    
    
Markets, sunrise, sunsets, animals, birds, water
crossings, tents, camps, lodges and amazing coffee
everywhere...Many moods and moments from my Tanzania and
Kenya vacation.. Africa diaries 2014
While boarding the evening flight out
of India came the distressing news about the demise of my
guru Adyar K Lakshman. Ailing for many months and a shadow
of his once vibrant self, Lakshman Sir closed his eyes
amidst an outpouring of sadness across the world from his
many ‘sishyas’ and admirers. Among the early global gurus,
he came into my life in 1965 when I had just completed my
‘arangetram’ under guru Rajee Narayan. Along with him came
the magnificent musician Madurai Sethuraman, percussion
wizard Trichur P.Ramanathan and musical genius Madurai N
Krishnan. Those days of 3 hour classes at our rented home
on Boag Road after a long day at school were an integral
part of my growing years. As his principal muse, I was the
physical medium for more than 30 new classical
choreographic pieces that have now become popular in the
BN repertoire across the world. There are many stories and
incidents of his talent and humour but for this edition I
share the memories as expressed by his colleagues and
prominent students, Chandrabhanu and Ramli Ibrahim. His
choreography and contribution to the modern ‘bhakti
margam’ of Bharatanatyam is singular and should be
preserved and propagated.
August was the month during which the Sangeet Natak
Akademi saw the completion of the five year term for its
executive committee members. I was honoured to be a part
of this important cultural body and found the many key
decisions taken during the tenure of Chairperson Leela
Samson to be a critical lesson as to how we must find ways
to engage with the government and official bodies for the
arts. Apart from the many senior and emerging artistes who
were honoured for their contributions, the SNA has been so
vital for many revivals and preservations of several rare
art forms. Here’s wishing the new incoming committee the
very best for the next five years in which the role of the
performing arts will become even more crucial for India’s
image within and outside our borders.
For all the activity and hoopla
surrounding our live arts, we are still to create a forum
to redress wrongs and unethical behaviour by our artistes.
NRI gurus are implicit in these insidious webs that do
little to raise the stature of professionalism in the
arts. A recent case was a Chennai based male Bharatanatyam
dancer who was contracted to choreograph and perform in a
production that was slated for a Chennai show at the Music
Academy. The performer/guru was from the USA. A few days
before the event, the dancer cited back pain and pulled
out of the show, leaving the artistic director scrambling
for a replacement. A day later, cheerful pictures of the
same dancer were posted on Facebook from another country!
These actions seem deceitful and when contacted by our
reporter, the NRI artiste preferred to fume in silence
rather than “call out” the unethical behaviour of the BN
dancer. Her reason was that she was “just returning to
dance and did not want to cause controversy!” The dancer
chose to hide behind the pallus of one of his many
‘akkas’, who in turn chose to argue his case. In
this scenario, both are at fault. One for flagrant abuse
of trust and the other for choosing to remain silent. The
larger question still looms. How can we call attention to
such actions when our legal systems and the very idea of
contracts still seem uneasy for many performing artistes?
All other areas of activity- sports, cinema, business and
media have governing bodies to redress complaints. Here,
we just talk amongst ourselves and post on social media,
venting and fuming but getting nowhere!
In August, PADME my contemporary dance project had its
premiere in Bangalore. After many months of hand holding
and intense training, the seven handpicked dancers gave
their all in a house full show at the elegant NGMA
auditorium in the heart of the garden city. In the seats
were my colleagues and young artistes, eager to see the
result of many weeks of training and rehearsals.
Choreographer Kalpana Raghuraman and a team of
professionals in Costume, PR, Lighting, Photography and
Communications ensured that the evening provided the
dancers and the audience a crisp showcase of modern India
on the move. Pianist Anil Srinivasan set the mood with his
evocative section titled FLOAT which was followed by
PADME. The dancers were excited and thrilled with the
first response and the images on this edition will show
you all a glimpse of the journey that classical dancers
CAN MAKE WITHOUT FEAR. For the many who called in doubt
and suspicion and who spoke to the team about “corrupting”
or “spoiling” their classical dance styles, PADME emerged
as a testament that an open mind and hard work can result
in a fresh look at dance, the body’s response to open
mindedness steered by empathy and intelligence. The bond
between the team was heartening to watch, as was the
leadership qualities displayed by some dancers who took on
management and other areas without complaining.
Congratulations to the entire team and here’s looking
forward to more shows and chances of watching PADME as it
prepares to be performed in many unusual spaces in India.
Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures and look out for
announcements of shows in your city!
September is the month that MEGHADOOTAM the ensemble dance
production tours the USA. The much hyped and fairly
disappointing premiere now tours 15 cities organised by
the AIM FOR SEVA organisation of Swami Dayanand Saraswati.
These days news of any shows are instant with twitter and
instagram being the favoured medium for conversation.
Thumbs up or thumbs down are instantaneous and already
expectations are either up or down for shows like these.
The ultimate goal for the social service organisation is
to fund the ambitious growth plans for 125 villages across
India and 7000 children in the two villages of Manjakudi
and Semmangudi in Tamilnadu. These completely funded tours
are a boon for producers.
The growing importance of this portal is making us feel
more and more responsible about what we carry as content.
Already many students and researchers are looking at our
exhaustive archive of articles and reviews for papers and
material for various theses. Our content editor Lalitha
Venkat spoke about the many travails and humourous
incidents that have shaped this site over the past 15
years at a dance criticism conference hosted by the dance
department of the University of Pune last month. The
personal and immediate nature of a web portal makes for
many personal and unusual moments that traditional print
media cannot touch. The response to her talk and the
impressive reach of this site is always a reminder about
what I started as a hunch in the year 2000. Once again, to
all our faithful readers and visitors – Thank you!
I cannot but make a metaphor
connecting the amazing river crossing in Tanzania I
watched to the current climate of the performing arts in
India. All across the banks of the winding Mara river,
thousands of wildebeests line up, bunched together as they
ponder the seething waters and the gauntlet thrown by the
hungry crocodiles. They know the danger but an age old
rhythm prevails as they jump in and begin the perilous
journey. Many make it across but some are carried away in
the melee and others are picked off by the huge reptiles.
Once across the river, the big cats await – starved for
many months and waiting to feed their newborn cubs. Either
way, every day is a test of survival and endurance. Much
like the performing arts. Seething waters, powerful
undercurrents, snapping jaws, a cauldron of savage
intrigue where the greed of the powerful few who want to
feed off the vulnerable and innocent. The inevitable pull
of performance adrenalin is what keeps many of us going
despite the heavy odds. Only a few make it and for the
many who are carried away by the tide of fate or who are
dashed upon the rocks of misfortune, the dance continues.
The effort is never ending and the results ephemeral.
All of us have heard about E BOLA virus by now… but I am
hearing jokes about Kaun Bola, Kisne Bola, Kyun Bola, Tu
Bola, Main Bola and Usne Bola!
As I concluded this message, news has reached us about the
sudden passing of Guru Maya Rao at a Bangalore hospital
just before midnight on August 31st. A huge vacuum has
been created in the world of dance and Kathak. Gracious,
elegant with a keen mind that welcomed change and the
inevitable power of youth, I was ever so grateful to spend
a week at her home in Malleswaram and share morning cups
of tea and Nipattu biscuits with her. Her lifelong
ambition to create a Kathak history showcase just
concluded and a book on her life was to be released later
this month in Chennai. I send my condolences to her
daughter Madhu, who is like a sister to me, and the rest
of the Natya Stem Dance Kampni that she nourished and
nurtured for so many decades. She was to choreograph a
solo on me later this year and we were in discussions
about how her approach can be transferred onto a
Bharatanatyam trained body. Maya-ji will be sorely missed,
her presence and magnanimity a rare quality amongst
performers and creative minds. A true daughter of India
and a jewel of Karnataka.
Welcome to the Fall season and to new premieres and new
openings. Enter into the cooler season and new adventures.
Go out and watch dance and the live arts. They need your
warmth… the warmth of seeing eyes and the alchemy of your
spirit reaching out to the bodies that twist and arch and
twirl and leap for your enjoyment. Relish, cherish,
celebrate and support dance and music. The RASA is
entwined in this wondrous mesh!
Dr Anita R Ratnam
Chennai/ Delhi/ Bombay
Twitter: @aratnam
Facebook: Anita R Ratnam
Instagram: @anitaratnam
Blog: THE A LIST / anita-ratnam.blogspot.in
|
