Celestial dancer

This a blogpost which seem to have remained in draft form  for some months. I debated whether or not it was dated and relevant and decided to go ahead and publish it without any modification as the person and her work is something everyone needs to know about, if they have not known already! 

Mythili prakash is a celestial dancer as akin to the Urvasi &  Menaka of   Indra's court. It was an amazing few minutes that I spent with Smitha watching this youngster perform. Spellbound, speechless, enthralled....adjectives have no meaning to describe how she came across to us. Even as I write this after 16 hours of the performance in my minds eye she is still there and her perfect movements her dexterity of footwork her precision and perfection in landing back exactly where she started after a swirl, her arrow like body and her sheer energy.....! Amazing that such youngsters do exist to continue this phenomenal art form called bharatanatyam. The story line she had taken was about three forgotten women from the epic Ramayana, namely Kaikeyi, Surpanaka and Sita and she tried to weave a dance drama around them interpreting their lives in the context of modern women. While this interpretation fell flat as the explanation being offered did not fit with the context nor was the research done about the three women clear, the way the programme was rendered made one forgot about the naivete of interpretation of the respective role of each women in the epic or their relevance to the modern context.

The programme held at Habitat Centre auditorium was sponsored by HCL. Me and smitha in fact quite unexpectedly came across this programme and walked in to watch and it turned out to be a lifetime experience. My feeling quite sincerely was like the average bhhakta who spends life time of his savings and undergoes so much of hardship reach Tirupathi koil to have the darshan of the Lord and gets pushed in the queue only to get a minute of His darshan for all his efforts. But that single minute in the jostling crowd would stay etched in his mind for the rest his life and this episode would be narrated endless number of times all this life. This one is in that category, honest! Thanks Mythili for giving such a celestial experience.

It reminds me of an experience I had couple of years earlier when we gave a training session at a school in Dehradhun for the teachers. We had switched on the music and told the teachers to close their eyes and relax for about ten minutes and report back their experience.I didn't realise that the music that played was classical dancae music until one teacher came up to say that she experienced being before the king Indra and dancing before him in all the few minutes the music played. We believed her then and I sincerely believe her now. I can understand her true feeling. Smitha and I were transformed to another world for the few minutes we spent watching Mythili perform, a world beyond possible, a world of sincerity a world of hope, peace and promise. God bless you Mythili.

Here is the open mail/letter that I had sent her this morning.

Dear Ms Mythili
yesterday was one of the most memorable days of our lives quite honestly you happened totally unexpected to us, me and my wife Smitha. You simply entered into the realms of our eternal imagination as the embodiment of limitless possibility with your dexterity and sincerity of your performance on stage. Frankly we didnt know you existed purely  owing to our own limitations of not knowing the artists even though we have a keen appreciation of the art form of classical dance. Nor we had an invitation to your performance. We just chanced by and that too towards fag end of performance and whatever those 20 minutes were, they are etched in our collective memory and speaking for myself these were moments of truth which happen to people barely a few times in their lives. Mythili you are a great dancer, quite sincere to getting perfection and above everything you live for dance as simply as you breathe to live. This I am positive about. I am sure you have a very rich future ahead for contributing to this form. My only request is, it is one thing to build a career out of such a performing art but yet another in contributing to its growth as only sincere and devoted people like you could carry the mantle forward in this generation.. This is best done through research, documentation, dissemination and participation. Mega shows add a lot of value to your career but sincere hard core research and its dissemination keeps you in the mindscape of people even many generations after you have passed. Like the celestial dancers carved in sandstones in Belur Halebad, Konark, Mamallapuram, Aayiramkall mandapam of Trichy, Madurai......who live to this day your work would stay for posterity provided you delve deeper in this artform and make it available to everyone!

In this context getting things right is equally important and I want to place before a few thoughts on the topic you had chosen for yesterday's performance about the three women and their deeds. The three women from the epic Kaikeyi, Surpanaka and Sita have interesting background and they are simply caught in the web of fate, though each were endowed with their own special strength and calling in life. In fact the last one was the most affected of the lot and more dependent on the Male factor than the other two. Sita did not have a life of her own. The context about her is not about people questioning her integrity which is but a minor aspect of her life and even this was done by her own husband anticipating such a query from people and the society which may not actually have happened. But the real issue is she was never free and was always in shackles in all her life. She was a puppet on a string put there by her father to be claimed by any male prince of valour. Rama having conquered her by his strength of bending a bow and not appealing to her heart simply led her around as his handmaiden into all difficulties and she landed herself in trouble just about the only time in this story she is seen to have expressed her desire to possess something namely the magical deer. This time in the hands of the demon king Ravana who perhaps treated her with more dignity by preserving her and constantly beseeching her consent and not wanting to take her against her will--something Rama never worried about as she came as a gift for his show of strength. Sita is the best example of a nameless faceless womenhood which has continued from that time till date.

As to Kaikeyi she being a women of valour and strength herself chose to marry a blind king as his second wife, perhaps out of sympathy or a misplaced sense of possession as after all his life was a gift she gave in the battle field. It was not altogether unexpected for such a woman to nurture a dream of power for herself or her son particularly when Manthara came along to remind her of her chance to exercise her boon. Kaikeyi fits more with the description you gave for surpanaka in the modern context where women in corporate sector who otherwise are very sincere about their work and commitment do not hesitate to go for the kill if it suits them.

Surpaneka is merely a mirror image of manthara and her role is only to instigate her brother to lust and revenge which was quite vile considering that she got insulted by the brothers Rama and Lakshman when she desired the boys for her lust. She is no woman of any virtue and not worthy of being mentioned along with the other two women. Surpenaka is evil as evil can be described and quite a minor player.

The bottomline is simple. In your zeal to contextualise the characters from the epic you should stick to certain realities of the time and now and not interpret in the manner you have done which does not jell at all. Having seen your performance and your sincerity I wished you do a more thorough research and analysis of the stories and episodes you take up before putting these on stage. After all coming from a devotee of the art like you anything you say or do would carry more weight and meaning than perhaps what was written or said from the epics or other stories you take up for enactment. That is your responsibility and your call in life. I hope you appreciate that.

My sincere wishes and blessings to a great artist with tremendous promise and one who is going to not only continue the powerful artform practiced by her grand gurus and her mother but one who would contribute more it and immortalise it using modern tools of knowledge. God bless!

Thothathri Raman
www.seaastandards.org

Mythili Prakash celestial dancer

DHYANAM-Purva Dhanashree!

DHYANAM-Purva Dhanashree! 

 Hey Manusha! I am Devi! I am Mata, I am your mother, I am everything  and yet I am frail and may be no match to the timeless stone images which surround me!  The eyes are closed but are seeking an seeing which a wakeful mind cannot perceive. The stones which have come alive around me and myself as a person, are no different from each other. 

All of us are made of the elements of nature, combined differently, ordained uniquely by our creators. The one, man created has stood the test of time and is withering away ever slowly bearing witness to the centuries of human agony, ecstasy and realisation!And yet as a human I know that I have but a limited window to live and to give, to seek and be sought after, to create and be part of the creation,  like the artists who have long gone but whose  creations have stood the test of time, I would also create, carve something out of the human  consiousness so that when I am gone, my work would stay, it would be carried in the mind and feet of the generations to come, each adding to the learning as I did after learning from Guru, who did likewise.  Each individual adding to the uniqueness of dance, the expressions and the life itself!  

My eyes are shut and yet I am seeing the world that is passing in its own rhythem, creating and destroying everything around it and everyday man is waking up thinking he would live for another 100 years and yet men in their millions have come and gone, each merged with the soil, the rivers, the skies from where they came and each becoming the soil on which new saplings grew, creating a world anew.  No one is dying, no soul is  going back to the creator as creator is no one different than his creation. All are here and would remain in the only world that human knows which can preserve him, the world I salute with my eyes closed as I seek to know the truth, the truth of my existence. 

The reason why I came, the reason why I would go  so that a new generation would walk the same path, move mountains, create a new world, only to become part of the dust that they would leave in their wake.  Dhyanam is not just to discipline my mind and thought process but it is  the unique few minutes when you could visit your soul  and be with it so that you know you dont have to be born again as you would never have gone, you are here and you will always be here. This is the world I came to this is the world that has been given to me, this the world that I would shape  in my unique way, this the world that I will leave to become part of its microcosm so that in every shaft of light, in every drop of water and every gust of cool wind, I know I will be there, again and again!

Inspired by the beautiful young friend and Bharathanatyam  Dancer, Purva Dhanashree

Bharathanatyam, a street dance?

Cazrode Yongsterz has taken Bharathanatyam literally to the streets! May a bit unconventional but it does catch the attention of people and makes them curious to know this form of dance. The dress is colourful and the moves are ethereal and fluid and the dance would fit with any crowd. In fact, the street theatre of  Tamil Nadu  with Kagagattam, Mayillattam, Oyilattam....all have some elements of bharathanatyam including even its trademark attire in these. Dance is an expression of the inner peace and good dance simply flows when the artist decides it should be. The art and artist become one and the universe simply wraps them around and watch them in awe. Street or stage makes no difference.  Great show Cazrode!  

Following my blog! I didnt quite know there is a fair amount of following of my blog and it is going to touch 10,000 views! Amazing. Well, the beautiful dance form is something everyone is now rediscovering for its true worth. The artistes are getting new recognition for their efforts. In my recent visits to the USA, the Orient and within India I find more people are getting interested in traditional art forms. More people are willing to spend money to train their children, take the effort to drive them to the classes and wait patiently outside for hours, go through the pain of getting the Arangerrams done. It is no longer fad, it is serious business.
Move over man!
Also I guess internet has also contributed hugely to this phenomena where people are able to track the best and also follow their favourite artists. Despite all this disconcertingly, the senior artists are still ruling the roost and in the process inadvertently denying the fair chance to the youth. Besides, such art forms as these require lithe young artists who could carry themselves in the stage. The elders should have the magnanimity to vacate the space and encourage the youth to take the centrestage as a show of their true maturity. Sharing of knowledge, researching and uncovering new knowledge nuggets is possible only if the elders turn to be mentors and not remain as competitors.
The ICCR show!
A serious research on some of the key shows that took place with government ICCR assistance in the last one year would easily tell you that 90 per cent of the funds have gone to a handful of senior artists which is pretty unfair. Someone in the profession should file an RTI to find out who has utilised the government funds, who has used the Doordarshan programmes, who has performed in some of the key government supported mega dance shows. A serious rethinking is needed to see that the big names remain big by mentoring and not by competing with the youngsters. This trend is not only in bharathanatyam, but in all art forms where government funding is involved.
Can someone also file an RTI to find out how much money was dished out, who benefited and what follow up action was taken while providing the ICCR scholarships. Here is the link http://www.iccrindia.net/otherschemes.html
Did you know that ICCR has dozens of Fellowships and Chairs abroad in practically every country you can think of. http://www.iccrindia.net/chairslist.html I wonder who used these funds and what follow up was done to pass this knowledge to the young artists in India.
Check this list and you can easily spot everyone who is anyone including the wife of a famous crickter is here. Most of the yesteryear artists who refuse to step down are also there in equal measure. http://www.iccrindia.net/iccr-annualreport-2010-11/Annexure%2011%20(Festivals%20of%20India).pdf
I rest my case!
Having said this, I must also place on record the tremendous contributions made by the senior artists like Padma Subramaniam, Alarmel Valli. Bhavalaya.com has an interesting collection of bios of leading artists of yesteryears and not so yester too! See this ">link

I happened to meet Padmavathi, the former danuese whose background and pictures adorn this blog elsewhere, after a long gap during which period she had "hung" up her Salangai, something very sad and very poignant and a great loss for the world of Kuchupudi. She just couldnt cope with all that happened in her life, her marriage, her daughter, her career first as a lawyer, then as an AirForce Air Traffic Controller, next as a Admin head of CSS, followed by a News Anchor at a popular Telegu channel and now as its head of administration and external legal support official. A great girl that she is and she will do a lot more and perhaps may even come back to Dance and contribute in a much different way than her peers who might still be dancing or set up a dance school.
Here is one artist, a professional and one of the Dance Trios of Chennai who stuck to dance and made a great career with fan following around the world. ICCR seem to have quietly supported many an artist to go abroad and perform, looks like. Shobanaa Bhalchandra of Om Shakthi Dance School is the youngest of the renowned Trio Sisters of Chennai. A seasoned and versatile artist, she is also recognized as a senior Bharathanatyam "Guru". One of the early disciples of the famous dance duo, Dhanajayans, Shobanaa was trained in the popular Kalakshetra style. She went on to complement this with an extensive study of Abhinaya (Expressions) under Padmabushan Kalanidhi Narayanan. In her quest for all-round excellence Shobanaa underwent professional training in Classical Music as well as Nattuvangam. Her dedication to this art form is also evident by the fact that she opted for a career in performing and teaching this dance form, in-spite of having a Masters degree in Business.
Finally, I was watching two different videos of Shobhana today, the versatile actress and dancer who is equally effective in both her roles. I am not sure about the way her life has gone so far, which is quite a sad thing for a artist and performer of her greatness and also coming from a legacy of the Travancore Sisters, Padmini, Rahini and Lalitha, all three of them known for their pure dance prowess. In one video, the artist had put on unusually lot of weight and in another, a more recent one she looked a bit sick and tired with her body slightly emaciated. Whatever private hell she is passing through, she is quite dedicated to her art which one can easily discern, perhaps this is what is getting her going.

I thought let me look at the Bharathanatyam Jewellery and came across quite a massive collection of references, images and videos for the same.