An Evening with Ananga the Peruvian Bharathanatyam icon!

 

This programme  aired today was one of the best that I heard in recent times, owing to the honesty and forthrightness of a young artist who could be called truly international. Ananga Manjari Malatesta is a rare Bharathanatyam Dancer from the Perurvian culture with an Italian background. A thoroughly spiritual practicing Hindu, Ananga  came out as being one of the most sensitive global cultural ambassador of Indian Dance form which she has dexterously blended with the native Peruvian dance  forms with the help of her mother who herself is a an artiste par excellence. That Ananga had Ballet background and is conscious of maintaining her form  externally and also her heart internally through spiritual  realisation, has been a great help.

For the first time I also heard someone explaining without  mixing up the dogmas and the usual religious underpinnings as to the practical difficulty in reaching out to her students coming from a different, mostly Christian cultures. "Krishna is completely part of dance expressions in India where one could relate to the  divinity easily, it becomes difficult in cultures like Christianity where the relationship between the  followers and the divine is not based on  love", she says and goes on to explain how she manages to bridge the cultural chasm.     Mother Mary is the Devi equivalent  and  the Dasa and Dasi  way of expressing obeisance  to God almighty  in Indian cultures could be explained by relating to the Christian pursuit of the Divine, he explains.  

In much the same way the dance expressions like Adavu for instance  cannot be taught as a free flow but needs to be nuanced with numbers and words which the students could easily relate to.  The biggest advantage according to her that the Peruvian culture also has the same cultural underpinnings such as the worship of Earth, water, Sun and Nature aspects that are core to the Indian culture as well as the dance form. 

Being an artist with a global footprint and having Gurus drawn from different cultures though being a student of the Indian danseuse Janaki Ramachandran, Ananga could relate to the challenges the artists face both in India and in her own country. "For me Dance makes us a human", she puts it simply. 

In Pandemic times the biggest challenge for the artists to keep themselves motivated which Ananga also lists as her biggest challenge.  And at the same time, both the interviewer Kavya Iyer  choregrapher and dance heritage enthusiast besides being an accomplished dancer and agree that the close down also has given space to reflect deep within and hone the art form. Ananga for one says she is experimenting with Thattadavu big time.  Online of course also is a challenge that needs to be understood  and platforms such as Artscomeonline  and the its curator Shivani Jatar who also is a major Kathak dance icon in Indian dance and culture  are doing a great job in bringing together the artists and infusing new life and direction to  the world of Dance. 

New stars shining bright

Online is the new stage!

After a long gap I came to write something in my blog which incidentally was started  some 13 years ago  with a massive support of readership  running to 12,000 at one stage (remember online  platforms and social media were not as popular as now in 2007 when I started this blog dedicated to Bharathanatyam knowledge.

A decade and more later and  after a massive upsurge in  number of professional artists coming into the picture and the many of the old time favourite dancers gracefully exiting, the scene is completely transformed in favour of the dance, which is what I ultimately think is the best thing that happened to traditional art. 

The Corvid 19 pandemic  has brought a completely new dimension to the change in the dance scene with the platform shifting completely online. And how! 

As far as I can see and observe, the first drove of entrepreneurs  moving into the online space has come from the  music and dance fields, worldover and India having a rich tradition of  dance and vocal culture is not lagging behind. 

Many of the top  artists themselves have content rich  pages in their name, not to mention hashtags in Instagram, facebook and other choice social media.  Also there has been a sharp increase in  number of neutral platforms,  for dance performances and event management. There are dedicated sites for the photographers, music support, choreography and of course dancers themselves. Most of these are promoted by professional artists and sometimes also from outsiders sensing an opportunity. I will attempt to list some of the prominent platforms in the next post of mine. 

I want to mention two artists  today now that I have begun to write this post.  One of whom I just watched live  at @thelasya , Shereyesi Gopainath  

The artist describes herself   " I am a young Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher based out of Delhi. Bharatanatyam enthralled me as a child and by the age of seven I started formal training under the guidance of Padma Shri Guru Saroja Vaidyanathan. By the time I was fifteen, I was selected to undergo formal training at the renowned Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai. Six years of learning under renowned gurus and a post diploma under my belt, I moved back to New Delhi. Guru Jamuna Krishnan has been my guide and mentor in Delhi ever since. Currently I am establishing myself as a professional Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher. I have performed across geographies, India and abroad. And to teach is the path I have chosen to keep alive the rich and diverse tradition & cultural heritage of India."

Shreyesi's performance today was flawless and was elegant in its simplicity, considering there was no professional stage, nor was there any make up artiste to help out.  Her performance was quite riveting  throughout  and one didn't realise that it was on online mode and in the laptop one was watching her show. 

Her performance seem ti have been well choreographed and even the camera angle (static  camera)  and the space for her dance were all clearly marked, something many online performers need to notice and make adjustments so that you don't see brooms lying casually, a hand and a leg and sometimes even the head getting cut off   as they go out of the camera range.  More of this later

Online dancing is intimidating at first and  most artists  who have not used their you tube channels effectively would find it even more challenging and professional agencies do help in this sphere. I really do not know at this stage what is the business model but it should be good considering that there are sponsors and google adshare  revenue. 

Going forward it would be helpful for artists to not just have their own webpage or facebook page but also a you tube channel which is  in public domain which definitely gets noticed. The world of dance  and music also has its own   stranglehold by entrenched  vested interests and I strongly believe that online advent may  checkmate these  leeches  from  exploiting the budding artists. 

The second  artist I want to mention, whom I watched for the first time today and was completely floored  by her performance and grace. I am talking about Harinie Jeevitha.  In a long time I had not seen such  elegance and ease of performance on stage.  Completely smitten by the young artist i spent the next two hours researching her  and even came across a very beautiful documentary on Harinie Jeevitha   (something rare to happen to any artists of her  youth, considering the way  the world of dances operate)  and also an interview that brought out the intellectual in her and the grace of a self contented artist (once again very rare in the world of classical dance). Harinie was grace personified in the interview with the interviewer becoming clueless as to what to ask the dancer next. 

I am definitely sure that I would be writing more about this particular artist who also received  the praise of  her  Guru Dr Sheela Unnikrishnan of Sridevi Nrithayala,  who in no un-mistaken terms mentioned her as the protege who may continue to run the Nrithalaya which she nurtured and built over 35 years.  This possibly is the best ever endorsement any artist could have received at such an young age. 

There is a beautiful hasta alarippu video that she had posted  which is a must to see for any beginner and also a professional.  It is amazing to say the least.