An entire season in a few hours
- Dr. Annapoorna Kuppuswamy
e-mail: a.kuppuswamy@ucl.ac.uk
Pics: Vivekanandan
December 30, 2013
Gurus Ramli Ibrahim, Herambanathan, Dr Sunil Kothari, VP Dhananjayan,
Narasimhachari,
CV Chandrasekar, A Janardhanan with L Sabaratnem and
Anita Ratnam |
On the morning of day two of the Purush conference, one was still on a
high from scintillating classical and contemporary performances of the
previous evening. With the music still ringing in my ears, walking past
the roadside vegetable market in the heart of Mylapore quickly
acknowledging Kapaleeswarar on my way to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, my
footsteps quickened not wanting to miss any part of the proceedings. As I
walked in, I was greeted by a rare sight, a galaxy of male
Bharathanatyam gurus, dressed in impeccable white dhothis and jubbas
with understated zari angavastrams, milling around were their senior
disciples. It was soon time to start proceedings. Anita swiftly managed
to gather everyone in and invited all the gurus on stage. A short
audio-visual presentation with photographs and video clips of gurus
Udupi Laxminarayan, K Kalyanasundaram, Herambanathan, CV Chandrasekar,
VP Dhananjayan, Janardhanan, CK Balagopal, Narasimhachari, Ramli
Ibrahim, Adyar K Lakshman and Dr Sunil Kothari was shown kicking off the
proceedings. It was unfortunate that Guru Adyar K Lakshman could not
attend the ceremony due to ill health and Roja Kannan filled his rather
large shoes. Kartik Fine Arts and Arangham honoured the gurus by
presenting a kadhi angavastram and a chin mudra statuette, specially
designed to reflect the knowledge, years of dedicated service and their
contribution to the field of dance. Lakshmi Vishwanathan made a lovely
speech recollecting anecdotes and personal experiences with all the
gurus.
After a quick coffee break, the second session commenced. Ashish Khokar,
presented a compilation from the Khokar Archives, called Male Moves, a
film exploring the male dancer in the last century. Rarely seen clips of
Uday Shankar, Ram Gopal in his famous Garuda dance and Ted Shawn’s
dancing Nataraja enthralled the audience. Khokar was nudging people to
think about archiving dance in the broader context as social
anthropology and not just dance history. With ever increasing number of
dancers and explosion of social media, archiving in the current day is a
very different ball game. What was obvious from the films was the lack
of screen friendliness of Indian classical forms when compared with its
contemporary counterparts that are more often than not tailored for the
camera and hence amenable to better archival of their original impact.
Lakshmi Vishwanathan
| 
Guru
Herambanathan & vocalist
|
Shanmugha Sundaram
| 
P Praveen Kumar
|
The final session of the morning was a triple bill of Vazhuvoor,
Thanjavur and Kalakshetra Bharatanatyam demonstrations by eminent gurus.
The tantalising presentations raised many questions in one’s mind about
the origin, evolution and the music used by various schools but the
lack of time meant we had to file it all away for later. The Vazhuvoor
demonstration started off with Dr. BM Sundaram talking about how dance
was integral to life even before it became a performance art. Warriors’
dancing in the battlefield when victorious was held up as a clear
example of men dancing outside of the performance context. Dancer
Shanmuga Sundaram gave a graceful and endearing performance of Mandooka
shabdam from the traditional repertoire. Guru Herambanathan of the
Thanjavur style, rarely seen outside Thanjavur, and still practising the
art form in Thanjavur, went on to demonstrate with his son Hariharan
performing a traditional item. The panel presentations concluded with
Prof Chandrasekar’s short presentation on Kalakshetra style with Parveen
Kumar elegantly demonstrating the rather angular and crisp style of
Bharatanatyam. One didn’t have much thinking space with so many
presentations and topics being covered ranging from archiving to
technique.
Emerging from the world of dance into the pleasant midday December sun
reminded me about how hungry I was. A quick lunch at Karpagambal mess
opposite to BVB and some shopping for dance essentials at Shanthi was
accomplished before heading back for the evening’s performances.
Contemporary is not my cup of tea but Navtej Johar’s contemporary
Bharatanatyam was anything but disengaging. A paper skirt, plate full of
bark dust, a broom, slow deliberate movements punctuated by fast paced
footwork, compelling use of lights describing Sita’s ordeal before
heading into the forest was a performance that drew the audience into
the narrative. Love it or loathe it but never be indifferent to it, is I
think, the idea behind a lot of the contemporary work.
Sudeep Kumar & Navtej Singh Johar
| 
A. Lakshmanaswamy ; Photo: Nikhita Kapoor
|
Suresh Kaliyath
| 
Sinam Basu
Singh
|
Anuj Mishra ; Photo: Nikhita Kapoor | 
Mrutyumjaya Sarma ; Photo: Nikhita Kapoor |
The classical mixed bill started off with the exuberant traditional
theatre art of Ottanthullal by Kalamandalam Suresh Kaliyath where the
story of Bhima and Hanuman was the theme. The interactive nature of the
piece with some comic elements drew a few laughs and it was gladdening
to see some of the traditional art forms being presented at a major
festival in the heart of the Chennai season. This was followed by
another rare performance of Manipuri by Sinam Basu Singh. The fluid
elegant moves with no discernible beginning or end gave it an almost
surreal quality. Light on his feet, Sinam beautifully depicted the ten
avatars of Vishnu with such clarity that it is a real shame we do not
get to see more of such excellent Manipuri in Chennai. Sinam gave way to
yet another strong self-assured brilliant Kathak dancer Anuj Misra.
With ultra-precise rhythm and incredible command of space, Anuj created
the illusion of dancing in a Mughal court with simply a flick of the
hand and a turn of the head. Gati, demonstrating various rhythmic
patterns from different gharanas was the highlight of his performance.
The final part of the mixed bill was presented by a rising star of
Kuchupudi, Pasumarthi Mruthyumjaya Sarma who again enthralled audiences
with his Shivashtakam. After having seen such varied art forms and the
allure of watching Therukoothu Draupadi Vasthiraparanam by Purisai
Doraiswamy Kannappa Thambiran Paramparai Therukoothu Manram in the
outdoor at Nageswara Rao Park, I had to miss A. Lakshman’s Bharatanatyam
for the evening. Thanks to the Mylapore traffic I missed quite a bit of
the Therukoothu. Duryodhana reciting the names of all his brothers with
the narrator reiterating and agreeing with each name in a
characteristic vocal approval transported me to my hometown where many
street plays do get staged.
Thudumbattam |
Therukoothu |
The day was nearing to an end and the passage of time had quickened,
never to come back. It really was a marathon day and thinking back, the
morning’s award ceremony felt like it had taken place quite a few days
ago. The conference had certainly managed to condense an entire season
into just a few hours.
Dr. Annapoorna Kuppuswamy, The Stroke Association Senior Research
Fellow, Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders,
UK
|
