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![]() Rama Vaidyanathan at Shanmukhananda - Sanjukta Wagh e-mail: sanjuktawagh@gmail.com Photo: Suresh Muraleedharan December 7, 2014 ![]() In the contemporary critique of classical traditions one says that classical dancers give away the whole story before the performance by talking about it and leave little to the imagination of the spectator. I found myself thinking the same at one point when Rama spoke beautifully about the nayika in the ninda-stuti, about each line and her interpretation. I thought I had already experienced the poem as she had interpreted it and wondered what else the dance would bring out. But to my amazement, knowing what to expect led me to enjoy each nuanced moment especially when her subtext added to or digressed away from what had been said. Not burdened with trying to interpret the "what" I was connected with the "how" of each living moment in her dance interpretation. And yet there was room for moments of multiple interpretations with three different spectators convinced in their post- performance discussion that what the nayika offered to her sakhi was wine, water and milk respectively. In our traditional ways of seeing and listening, the experience is not so much the individual act of making meaning but a united collective consciousness: the satvika experience where boundaries between the rasika, the artiste, and the space are blurred. I think one must be sensitive to this in our own sometimes eurocentric critique of the Indian performing arts. I came away from the performance feeling blessed and humbled by this great ocean of living knowledge that is Indian classical dance. Sanjukta Wagh is a Kathak dancer based in Mumbai. |
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