kitathaka tharikita thom...
I cannot begin to describe the feeling that swells in me when I hear these sounds. The beauty of dance transcends all cultures, languages, beliefs, and barriers. The inner transformation that a dancer undergoes when painting the fabric of space is so ethereal... Dance teaches you so many things when you are dancing for yourself. It brings such inner peace like nothing else (at least for me) which is the most important thing of all. Everything else such as getting applauded by thousands of people or being flashed across the front pages of a newspaper is immaterial if you are a true dancer. Yes, the appreciation helps, but is just a side effect and never a part of the equation that contains dance, self-realization, joy and peace. In a statistician's terms, you can call appreciation a covariate and it remains just that. I do not restrict this discussion only to Bharatanatyam or Kathak but to all dance forms (although on a personal level, I do believe that classical and folk dances from Bharatanatyam to ballet, and karagam to chhau are way above non-classical dance forms such as bollywood or informal dance forms such as salsa).
While the latter dance forms, in most, instances, serve as a visual treat to the onlookers, the former dance forms uplift the psyche of the dancer and the audience. Although this is a personal view, I believe it would be hard for anyone with average reasoning to contradict the fact that dancing salsa to Ricky Martin or bollywood to "You are my Sonia" cannot compare to dancing the ballet to Mozart or Bharatanatyam/Kathak to a Thillana/Tarana or kavadi to an "Arohara". There is a deeper meaning in the latter. It might not cater to the masses. They can take it or leave it. If they do not want to be taught the art of fine taste, why trouble them. These are probably the people who call Dan Brown a great author and cannot appreciate Tolkein or Wodehouse. Nonetheless, since I have tried some of these dance forms, there is a common quality to all of them and that is dancing for self. Setting this topic for another time, I will continue to talk about dance, in general.
The topic I had in mind when I started this blog, is the difference between dancing for one's self and dancing for others. I started out as a Bharatanatyam dancer and so did not care much for the appreciation of others because that is not what you are taught to do. As a student of classical dance, you are required to learn the do's and dont's of classical dance and apply it to bring out the bhava (or the essence) of the music that you are performing to. So that is what you concentrate on which means, you forget that there is an audience present. Yes, you can see them but that almost feels like a dream. You don’t care who or how many people are sitting there when you go on the stage. The applause almost merges with the background and almost never reaches your ears because you are too ecstatic to care about it (unlike what they show in Indian movies where the dancer literally stops to receive the applause in the middle of the dance). Isn’t that the condition under which one would bring out the most of the emotions in the dance?, when one is immersed in the performance, the lyrics and the music that one is least bothered about anything else?
In the Indian dance arena, unfortunately, the naive audience of today has not been provided with enough examples of good dancing that he/she can appreciate good from not so good to absolute crap. In the present times, the audience are carried away by name, fame, and other distractions such as the looks of the dancer (more about looks of a dancer later, but it is certainly a topic worth talking about). Let’s start with Bharatnatyam. If you ask anyone about a good Bharatanatyam dancer, due to lack of better knowledge, they would pick Shobana, mainly because they have seen her dance in Movies and the Vande Mataram Album. The two video links below showcase her dancing talent.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0hbHEf7TRMA
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TT7EhwHjmuc
But understand that this was the result of several takes (that were probably not more than a minute each). Now, let’s see how much she has gotten away with being known nationally just because she is a movie actress. Watch the video in the link below:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Lr0Jrhj7Eq4
This is a tired Shobana, out of breath, performing very simple steps (or adavus) that are not even difficult. It just contains hand movements and overdone neck movements (attamis.. BTW woman, you might want to go easy on that) and yet her elbows are sagging (which is a big NO in Bharatanatyam) and there is absolutely no aramandi. This not just a single instance, she continues to give bharatanatyam shows on Broadway and tours the
Natya Shastra says, "Yatho bhavam thatho rasaaha" meaning that the audience appreciation follows the bhavam or the essence that you portray. Looking at these dancers, one is left to wonder is "yatho naamam thatho rasaaha" or is "yatho rasaaha thatho natyam" because? Would such dancers even dance if it were not for the naive audience who gape at them and have already decided that the show would be a good one because the dancer is famous?
Au contraire, I will show you a good dancer who has maintained her standards after being awarded the PadmaSri (which doesnt mean much nowadays because even Aamir and Shahrukh have been awarded those but nonetheless), has been called the dance goddess by the Guardian, and is undisputedly one of the best Bharatanatyam dancers of today.
Behold the goddess:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CuJqFGYA_HU
All these awards have not made her lax. Instead, she still continues to reign the dance arena with her strict standards, adhering to the laws of the dance and yet bringing fresh ideas by experimenting. Another fine example is Alarmel Valli who has been awarded the padmasri, padmabhushan, and the Chevalier des Arts at des Lettres by the French Govt. There are many more who dance for the true meaning of dance for the true joy of dance and for the true feeling that dance provides i.e., Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra, Pdt. Birju Maharaj,... even this list is endless.
But can the naive viewer differentiate between these two sects of dancers? Not many can। Instead they get carried away by the name and the looks। I agree, Shobana is an extremely beautiful woman, but that does not make her a good dancer. Big, beautiful eyes do not equal great dance. So for the naive viewer, the next time, you make a statement about a dancer, please make sure know what you are talking about (I have had people who have argued with me for hours saying that some of the aforementioned careless dancers are good). And to those careless dancers, try to realize that you are mutilating the art form just for materialistic things like money/fame. You owe it to the art that you once respected!
I will continue my ramblings in the next blog by turning to the (in)famous Bollywood, Tamil and Telugu Cinema where people cant differentiate between shaking your hips and dancing.
2 comments:
I wanted to refer you to wikipedia and describes 3 kinds of natya:
1. Agama Narthanam - for the gods (and one's soul) - this is when devadasis danced unwitnessed by anyone in mandappams
2. for the cultural elites
3. for the uncultured crowd ("They can take it or leave it. If they do not want to be taught the art of fine taste, why trouble them.")
Shobana is liked by this kind of audience.
However, my dear, I wanted to say that, while the looks of the dancer do not matter for Agama Narthanam, Abhinayadarpaman and Natya Shastra DO define the criteria for a dancer who dances publicly.
The Guardian may call even Saddam Hussain a dancing God. Who cares?
When I first saw a Bharatanatyam performance, it looked odd but I liked it. I did not know what was good about it.
After watching a few more, I became interested.
After watching a dozen more, I became intrigued.
After watching a hundred more, I started to appreciate the nuances, and I got a vague idea of what is a good Bharatanatyam.
After watching 300 recitals, I understood what is a talented dancer and what is good Bharatanatyam.
After watching 800, now in 90% of cases I leave the auditorium 30 seconds after starting to watch the varnam or the thillana because my mind can no longer tolerate the bad and even the mediocre.
So, what can you expect from people who have watched 20-30 recitals?
You cannot compare Alarmel Valli with Malavika. Alarmel tries to bring out the depth of her soul, while Malavika (not so much as Shobana, of course) wants to entertain the rasikas by artsy moves.
I do agree with several ideas you presented although I do not agree that Malavika is just an entertainer. In spite of all her status, she maintains her standard. I have so far never witnessed any performance of hers where she has failed in aramandi, postures, or gone easy on the adavus. Instead, she tries to blend in some spects of Odissi into Bharatanatyam. So yes, it is an experimentation of sorts (also what Shobana tries to do, by blending in some styles). The difference between Malavika and Shobana is that while the former maintains the standards of any form she takes up, the latter fails to do so.
In other words, imagine 2 writers who are trying to portray the same story. They both can experiment and present the material however they want but the basic grammar of the language has to remain the same. One has to abide by the laws of the language. Loss of standard in dance is equivalent to making up a story in literature with no nouns, pronouns, verbs, prepositions or conjunctions in it.
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