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Welcoming
the contemporary arts:
April 6, 2010 The hinterlands of Northern Kerala have attracted many a connoisseur of art time and again. For the intense Kathakali performances in the evenings, the festive nights of spectacular Theyyam, the meditative and dynamic martial arts of Kalaripayattu at dawn… the neighbourhood temples illuminated with a thousand oil lamps seems to keep aglow those ancient ritualistic art forms for hundreds of years now.
Samudra, a budding dance company with a dozen young dancers trained in the traditional dance, theatre and martial arts of Kerala, now experimenting with contemporary movements and those inspired concepts, set the festival on roll. In fact, Madhu Gopinath and Vakkom Sajeev of Samudra, collaborated with Government of Kerala to actualise this very first modern dance fest in Kozhikode. As a curtain raiser, their performance titled ‘Cosmic Dance of Siva,' a one-and-a-half hour choreography, was befitting. A stage lit with colourful lights and smoke introduces three dancing girls stretching with prayer like movements inspired by the Kalari Namaskaram, followed by dancers gyrating in and out of the stage space in sets of three, two, and four, one and more! Fusion music overlapped by chants was the background score that saw finely trained dancers in meditative and yogic postures in the following sequences: My pick was the Ardhanaarishwara, where Lithin Raj and Lithi, artistically, intensely danced to depict the divine entity of Siva and Shakti. The choreography reaches a crescendo when Madhu and Sajeev in a hearty burst of Ananda Tandava of Nataraja, culminate with the classic sculpturesque stance of Siva standing over a dwarf! Earthy colours for costume against psychedelic lighting effects, made quite a visual feast. The Samudra dancers are undoubtedly, serious about their chosen style of dance - athletic, acrobatic and awesomely entertaining the masses.
Connoisseurs who knew the mother and daughter duo, late Manjusri Chaki Sircar and Ranjabati Sircar, missed more than ever those creative and cogent choreographies of their company, Dancers Guild. What remains of this dancing company from Kolkota is really gloomy. Striving to continue their founders' style called Nava Nritya or Modern Dance, the present set of dancers have a long way to go even to revive their mentors' creations. Their performance at Kozhikode, saw them in bits and pieces titled ‘Usha'- prayers to the Sun, ‘Matrika'- earth mother, ‘Janani' - woman, etc. but none that the audience could take back home to remember.
The four-day
modern dance fest attracted huge crowds, a fact reiterating that this city
by the sea loves art in all its hues - tribal, traditional, classical and
now modern!
Pratima
Sagar is an artist and cultural commentator based in Hyderabad. She was
dance critic for The Hindu for six years, before venturing into publishing.
As, founder director of Bhairava Publications, Pratima Sagar has edited,
designed and published coffee table books and catalogues based on performing
and visual arts, archeology and ancient arts, apart from producing documentary
films on tribal and folk arts of India and Africa. Pratima is presently
pursuing her doctoral program in ‘ethnology of temple sculptors and dancers’
from Folk Culture Department of the Central University, Hyderabad.
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This
realm of living traditions seems to further its love for art when its people
welcomed an annual 'Contemporary Dance Festival' to showcase world dance
and newer choreographic creations. Thanks to the novel initiative by the
Department of Tourism, Culture and Public Relations, Kozhikode, Kerala,
for bringing in contemporary dance companies from across the country in
a four day dance festival by the seashore auditorium.
The
intellectual among the audience were satiated with the performance of the
country's veteran contemporary dancer, Astad Deboo. The second evening
of the dance festival saw Astad in a matte copper hued costume with genteel
beam focusing on his inmost emotions - a bond that he creates with the
cosmos. The Drupad cadences along with the dancer's moves, which
were almost in its stillness… like one sees a flower bloom from its bud,
but miraculously miss the process… or should I symbolise with the mystery
of the dusk traversing into darkness, that is soothingly subdued at dawn!
Here in this offering to the space and body, titled ‘Aahvan,' Astab Deboo
sets the mood for what was in the offing. ‘Stepping out,' a lilting saxophone
in the background score lets the dancer literally step out from the wings
with only parts of his limbs being introduced on the stage space and gradually
ascending as though into another dimension of deep space … he almost seemed
to sensuously blend into the play of light! Milind Srivastava's lighting
design poetically complimented the atmosphere. The finale dance of the
doyen was based on Rabindra Sangeet, ‘Every fragment of dust is breathtaking,'
with music by a Japanese composer. Interestingly, Astad seemed to create
an individualistic bond with every engrossed onlooker… letting each relate,
interpret and fall in love. From a tweet of a little bird on a branch to
the elevating sounds of trumpets cutting across the mountains and invoking
the energies of earth…. like a Sufi, the dancer swivelled and swivelled
with magnetic vigour drawing the viewers into a state of awed tranquillity,
as he stops! Experience this!!
The
finale evening of the dance festival showcased Bharat Sharma's choreography
titled ‘Jatakamala.' This renowned production of Bhoomika had the established
aesthetics of late Narendra Sharma - of using colourful cloth props held
by the dancers to create formations. These agile and savvy dancers did
create the necessary magic on stage while depicting a collage of the Jataka
tales. I was reminded of the Sanchi relief sculpture, the narrative panels-
as though scrolling over the stage space to tell those evocative tales
of Bodhisatva. Dividing of the stage space to render layered narratives
was quite appealing. For instance, young Goutama witnessing the realities
of life - of ageing, disease and death and his transition into a meditative
world to realise many of his earlier lives (known as the Jataka Kathas)…
all happening in the rear end of the stage with dancers illustrating these
in a scroll and gradually letting the whole jungle come alive in a brilliant
dance choreography where groups of dancers transform themselves into leaping
apes and gliding cranes, creeping snakes and crawling crocs as the jungle
book of Jataka tales unfold…