I had not visited this blog spot for over three years and somehow I thought I should visit it and update it. I found one draft contribution which I corrected and posted today. Having published something after a gap I thought let me place my random thoughts here and perhaps start publishing regularly in this Bharathanatyam Knowledge section regularly In the interim I did get a chance to visit a number of dancae programs both offline and online and I am much impressed with the grand revival of the art among the youth today which is more than refreshing. The Generation X has taken to art in a big way. I find today far more number of artists today than any of the decades that I saw. And when it comes to Dance and Music there is an amazing variety of dancers of all age groups and nationalities which is overwhelming. The fusion era also seem to be over with the newer disciples showing a propensity to learn and practice Pure Dance forms rather than mix and match without any grammer or structure. Part of the reaons for this, the passing of the previous generation of Dance Gurus who were not open to suggestion or cricism of their way of practicing the ancient art form. Now the kids with exposure to a vast variety of performers thanks to the Net platforms they are questioning the Gurus of the purity of the art which is a good thing Also I find younger Gurus are also ready to work with the youth to teach and also to learn which is also a good thing. The stranglehold of the Sabhas have also ended except for a fancy few. Going forward the Dance studios that are being founded everywhere should focus on collaborative research and experimentation. Already the young artistes and their parents are demanding the learning does not stop at three or four stages of the Margam which comprises of Seven stages or learning. The seven styles of Bharatnatyam are Pushpanjali, Alarippu, Jatiswaram, Shabdam, Varnam, Padam and Tillana. The students would also have to learn Tatta Adavu: Teaches the Bharatanatyam style of leg tapping Kutta: The toes stamp the ground while the heel is raised Tadita: The heel holds the ground while the forefoot stamps it Mardita: The sole rubs the ground Sakhalita: The foot slips on the ground Jaati Adavu: A pattern denoted by a set of syllables, such as Tishra, Chatushra, Khanda, Mishra, and Sankeerna, Beside these, , Natta Adavu, Tatti Meeti adavu, Tirumanam Adavu, Murka Adavu, Jati Adavu and Kuditametta Adavu need to be learnt.

The dancers also have to learn the nuances of bringing forth the 9 emotions or Navarasams, namely love (shringaara), laughter (haasya), kind-heartedness or compassion (karuna), anger (roudra), courage (veera), fear (bhayaanaka), disgust (bheebhatsya), wonder or surprise (adbhutha) and peace or tranquility (shaantha). All the 51 mudras have to be learnt flawlessly We can certainly look forward to a Golden Era of traditional Dance forms going forward.

 Online, inline! 

This post was originally created in 2020 which was not published due to oversignt. Today I saw it after four years and thought it was worth publishing The world of Online is producing some real magic in the world of dance. There are not just dances by individual performers in plenty but also the display  stage is completely changed perhaps for good.  No longer one need to be dependant on the askance of a major sabha to be considered having "arrived" on stage. Your stage is your home. There are no expensive lighting, printed cards, getting busy artiste gurus to be with you and of course the money spent on stage decorations flowers and such other.   All that has now been replaced by some clever  mangement of your  hall, certain basic lighting and of course complete focus on  your actual work.  

No doubt it is very challengeing and not for faint hearted. In fact the  online  foray has also prodced a world of opportunites for not just artists but also some enterpring entreprenurs. We talked about one such host in the last post. There are artistes especially the young ones who do not depend on such platforms also like the duo, child prodigies  Priya Pranesh and Lakshmi Srikutty  https://youtu.be/m4MibrvLCzU

https://youtu.be/-UTTySfNCqc

K P Adhiti https://www.youtube.com/@adhithikp1703

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. 

Bright stars in the sky !

Featuring youth in bharathanatyam pracripr has never been easy, more so now with so many new talents sounding their anklets and charming and increasingly discerning crowd! With mire longevity  of life and learning there are more superannuated Gentry sitting in the audience absorbing every detail. Thankfully the open mindedness to accept talent in other people today is contributing more to the general excitement all around.

Here is one such artiste Shreyasi Gopinath , looking so stunning in her full attire planning to alluring the audience.

This is a lot about two professionals easily the best in their pursuits who can weave sheer magic with their work about whom I have been following only through the published articles , interviews and write ups about them and interacting with them off and on through social media platforms and just once did meet one of them at a social level at home. But the encounter of the great professionals at their work stunned me and Smitha beyond belief and each stood out as stupendous icons of their own by their sheer dexterity of art and professional prowess. It was an evening to remember. 

Yes there were other dancers as well each amazingly superior in their own way at the "Looking Back to move forward" dance festival at IIC Delhi. But these two were personally special to us and even otherwise the best that can ever be. Purva Dhanashree could manage to put her her entire over two decades of practice as Vilasini Natyam dancer and researcher in a capsule in just one little over ten minutes song of flowers "puvvalu patta". She simply and with great agility and fluidity became a medium to communicate the ecstasy felt by her soul to us who watched her from below the stage. It was a celebration in time where time stopped, it was artistry that could have no parallel. 

Time that Purva stopped by her dance remained still and even the God who created the world decided to keep his eyes closed for eternity perhaps after having achieved the limit of his creation! 

Dr Vasudevan Sridhar who enacted the creation of this world by the God almighty as narrated by Ravi Subramaniam the contemporary Tamil Poet, could bring out with greatest possible detail as to how God perhaps had gone about his job. With amazing footwork, flexibility and pure poetry of body moments Vasu painted a moving picture of how the world got created one step at a time , one creature, one plant, one tree, one hillock ......each with its own beauty by God almighty and all created in a wink when God opened his eyes saw the vast sky and earth bereft of life. 

Each creation Vasu brought forth by his magical dance moments had its own sense of purpose and place in the world that God created. God went into a idyllic self-fulfilling rejoiceful trance after He created humans who excelled beyond his own expectations. Personally I have never seen anything as close to storytelling in detail as to what Vasu accomplished that evening. 

I may have been partial to my chosen ones whom I respect and I admire most but the work of few of the others featured in the group photograph that we got to see as part of the three day festival put together by Manasa-Art Frontiers in collaboration with IIC once again made me hopeful of the current generation preserving and vastly improving the body of work the great masters have left behind for the posterity. The Mayur Banj Chau by Carolina Prada with her troupe ably highlighted the eternal quest for wealth and power by humans culminating in realising the God within after understanding how all that is material is unreal while God alone is eternal. 

The beautiful Divya Goswami in her Kathak solo brought forth admirably the ecstasy of a girl seeing the beauty of dawn and her sweet desire to wake up her friend also to join her in her magical morning reminded one of Sri Andal's Thiruppavai a celestial song composition urging the girls to wake up and join her in the early morning worship of God almighty in the month of margazhi. Tanya Saxena through Bharathnatyam could with great feelings bring out the pathos and sheer ecstacy all at the same time of the two river Goddesses Padma and Ganga as they flowed through the land which went through vicissitudes of time to become East Bengal first, then East Pakistan and now Bangladesh while sharing the same history and culture of the neighbouring West Bengal (shortly Bangla). 

Tanya had such tremendous energy and great imagination to bring forth the greatly mixed emotions of people who lived in these two tracts of Ganga sharing the same culture over the centuries. Katyayini Gupta through Kroora Hridya Megha song called out to the recalcitrant clouds to pour forth for life to flourish on earth. Her Bharathnatyam rendering of the cruel cloud's antics left one breathless with sheer happiness. God bless the youngster. The background singers and musicians were amazing in their rendering and also their stamina to last through the three hour repertoire! The credit for putting together the show on July 26, should go to the two great stalwarts of dance Sharon Lowen who also had her own photo exhibition of her 45 years of dedication to dance in India and Kamalini Dutt the famous dance historian and archivist who was the founder director of Doordsrshan's archives.

Photos of Purva Dhanashree & Dr Sridhar Vasudevan are from their respective webpages

I have been fascinated by four  dancers each answering different cultures, dance styles, cities and even ages and yet all four have in their own sustained my own interest in classical dance and made me write this blog after quite a gap.
First what is that which is sustaining me who is a perfect stranger to this art form and almost an illiterate when it comes to the techniques and nuances of dance or even music. I know no ragas, nor do I know any thalas and of course I have zero knowledge in bhavas, nritya and timings. I have nothing to offer when it comes to knowledge of dance and yet I have sustained this blog for nearly a decade purely hoping someday to attain the knowledge and depth necessary to turn myself into a critic rather than a casual bystander which is what I am today. I am writing this blog without overtly describing personalities or their rendering.  Aiswarya Ramakrishnan, a young Kuchipudi exponent of considerable depth and tremendous grasp of the techniques of this unique dance form from deep Andhra Pradesh.

Aiswarya Ramakrishnan

This girl is fascinating  as she is so well focused on dance as a career that she literally fought tooth and nail to get there being born into a prosperous middle class family of professionals. Father being a banker wouldnt listen to anything other than writing the bank officers exam and bagging the coveted job like for the life time Fortunately the kids Mom and her father are carnatic vocal singers themselves and Aiswarya herself is an accomplished vocalist.
he one who has fascinated me of late is an amazing dancer  who belong to the modern generation of a mixed race coming from a rich cultural family of considerable standing and reputation.