What's your kind of Bharathanatyam?

I have always been amazed at how each person looks for their own thing in Bharathanatyam. While some enjoy vigorous Nritta, others savor Abhinaya. Some succumb to the pleasures of heart racing tempo generated by incessant vocabulary movement strewn around in the choreography, others look for peace and rest that make higher realizations possible. Bharathanatyam isn’t authentic if one doesn’t perform at least a few of the 108 karanas to some, while others detest having to watch it.

Here is a compilation of various views expressed at various forums:-

“People pay money if they really need and really want it.People are willing to pay for cinema if the film is made professionally. People do not pay to go do the cinema to watch amateurish films.People go to restaurants if the food is professionally cooked there. Why some restaurants charge 100 times more for the same dish than others, is up to you to answer.People go to parties because these are not boring, unlike most classical dance programs.But then if some “professional” classical indian dancers start complaining that nobody is willing to pay them, hmmmmm…. Here is the checklist for such dancers:

- look in the mirror: if you do not look beautiful for other people, they will not come to watch your dance

- try to fine a trace of a waistline: if there is none, don’t expect anyone to turn up for your programme

- look at how many karanas out of 108 you can perform: if you cannot bend in any direction, start teaching dance

- look at how fast your jatis are: if any 12-year-old can do it twice faster, it is a sign for you to retire

- look at your expressions at the end of your jatishwaram: if your face looks miserable, so do the rasikas feel

- look at your choreography: if it looks like a bad copy of Bollywood dance, better start a modern dance career ” J. Hemamalini, India

“As Natya Shastra states the qualities required of a female dancer, “Women who have beautiful limbs, are conversant with the sixty-four arts and crafts (kala), are clever, courteous in behaviour, free from female diseases, always bold, free from indolence, inured to hard work, capable of practising various arts and crafts, skilled in dancing and songs, who excel by their beauty, youthfulness, brilliance and other qualities all other women standing by, are known as female dancers (narthaki)” Lila,???

“Dear Hemamalini,
Good points you have raised here.
But most of the points in the checklist are with respect to the initial visual perceptions. A person may have all these and still not give you any rasanubhava. The other day in the Bharathanatyam orkut there was one group talking about the fact that spritual satisfaction/rasa comes from watching slightly mature performers performing abhinaya pieces. Personally for me, rasanubhava arises when watching mature performers, a few of whom might even be just miming the songs out. There was a time when nritta appealed to me -not so much anymore… I can never compare this with how I am moved when watching Sri.Dhanajayan as Nandanar, or Smt.Chitra do Srinivasan Perumai, or When Sri.Kelucharan Mahapatra did his astapathis…
I would love to hear from more people as to whether they like such Abhinaya rich slow pieces without much nritta too… Or am I so alone in this fast track world..In fact the youngsters are so good technically, no doubt about that. But I am sure there are times when you look for much more than techincal perfection and visual excellence, isn’t it? ” Response from Sangeetha, Indonesia (that’s me).

“True sangeeta. i have a perfromance cd of priyadarshini’s varnam and one of anitha’s asthapati and one of sudha’s madurai n krishnan’s margam, in which priya murle has performed a varnam. now, when i compere these three, definately priyadarshini is very ttechnically perfect, the poses are so good, watching it, i just get up and dance- thats the feeling, but when i watch anitha’s asthapati or priya murle’s varnam, iam so engrossed in it- the rasa anubhava, i abosluetely enjoy it and start feeling the same feelings that r presented. if thats what u mean… ” Mallika from Australia

“You know, there are still crazy people who read such bad books like Abhinayadarpanam and others, where those ancient idiots write that natya has to do with the beauty of the body expression, and you know, those ancient idiots even wrote all those boring lists of the qualities that disqualify one from performing natya!

Shame on Bharata Muni for describing some of those unnecessary 108 karanas! I cannot do many of them!
Let’s forget all those stupid books! Of course, visual perceptions are not necessary to give you rasanubhava. My friend once told me that he once experienced rasanubhava while watching an old lady walking across a road with a walking stick.

Politically well-connected people do not need good nritta or good karanas. They give you rasanubhava just like Smt.Jalayalitha does the Abhinaya rich slow pieces. She is the greatest dancer who gives rasanubhava and some cash to thousands of the AIDMK activists!

Personally, I prefer watching Charlie Chaplin. Everybody says his abhinaya is far better than Kalanidhi Narayanan’s.

If you look for much more than technical perfection and visual excellence, you will enjoy watching this (mature bharatanatyam dancer?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylmeqm_S_Sk” A.Harish from???

Like this article??? Want to contribute your own??? Visit our parallel blog Bharathanatyam and WWW

Swarnamalya Talks...

Here is a excerpt from Swarnamalya's quote in New Indian Express

BHARATANATYAM needs no introduction to the world today.

For centuries it has been our culture and our identity. Ages ago, there were Rajadasis who performed before royalty, Alankaradasis who danced at social functions like marriages and Devadasis who danced exclusively in temples.

Whether at temples, palaces or houses, each of these dances had its own propitiatory significance. The anti-nautch movement in the earlier part of the 20th century unfortunately killed all three varieties.

However, just as Saraswati, the river of Natya, went underground but continued to be a living entity, so were the secrets of this art also preserved, and it arose from its own ashes to live again.

It was perhaps the art’s good fortune that its revival came when it did giving it the much needed initial momentum.

Today it seems like this art has reached every part of this earth, inspiring the artiste within everyone.

Margazhi for dancers is, indeed, a mad stampede! Are we happy about this? Absolutely.

Yet, as I dream about the flavour and fragrance of the forthcoming festival a small part of my heart aches. The tragedy is that the audiences today are only more familiar with the ‘mass scale Bharatanatyam’ and are unable to recognize a first rate performance.

Even some of these performers are forced to realign their style to the ‘popular level’ by imitating the tricks and mannerisms of the ‘stars’, for that is how one can draw the crowds.

Large doses of these have resulted in our acceptance of mediocrity. The heart bleeds when one sees some of the greatest performers showcasing their brilliance to empty chairs. Trust me, the loss is not theirs.

With infinite number of dancers around we can hardly imagine congregating as a fraternity anywhere in the world at any other time. So when this once-a-year opportunity comes for dancers to gather, communicate, watch, appreciate, learn, debate and discuss dance why don’t they turn up?

Oh, that’s right. Between their own rehearsals and concerts, they have time to only recoup for the next day. Fair enough. But isn’t Margazhi, a gift of Chennai to dancers? We must, apart from showcasing our own creativity, allow ourselves to learn and grow as a community.

Let us not forget our culture in the midst of all this commerce. I don’t condemn the commerce. In fact, on behalf of all dancers let me thank all the corporate connoisseurs for their generous support to this art year after year.

Pursuing dance as a career is so expensive that without the support of these patrons it is almost certain that only a fortunate few would have been able to dance. Let dance be a marketable commodity - but at least let us sell quality.

Yet, I love the season for its variety. Even the air in Chennai during Margazhi is fragrant with music and dance. Let us support the art at its best.

But my dear artistes, there are very many inspiring examples from the past to show us that when your art is simple, straight-forward and sincere, it somehow rises above the rest.

True art cannot be crushed in this stampede. When we can see more of the true art, this stampede will become an organized sacred procession.

Source: New Indian Express dated Dec.3

A Careful List of Do's and Don'ts for Dancers

These are an excerpt from the various opinions expressed in Narthaki discussion forum. I sort views/suggestions to promote interest in Classical Arts. Here are some specifics for Dancers/choreographers/Gurus...

"I assure you that everyone, be it in the USA, Punjab or Australia, would be bored of a slow, badly rehearsed and plainly-choreographed (e.g without many karanas) "classical" performance by the dancers who do not have any of the essential qualities (e.g. Patra Prana Dasha Smrutaha). - Santosh,?

"Maybe serious audience is scattered all around the world. Advice to the useless amateurish dancers posing as "professional": don't put off the rasikas with your poor shows! Dance in your bedroom! Don't complain that nobody wants to watch you, and nobody wants to pay you. The dancer must be really outstanding if she expects someone to drive for 1 hour, buy a ticket, and sit through her 2 hours programme!In India, fewer rasikas attend live programmes because the traffic gets more and more difficult, the people have to stay till 8 pm at work, the children now have to attend their tuitions (7 days a week) and cannot come for the live programmes. Close range? Most rasikas can hardly see even where the dancer's legs are and where her hands are. At a festival in Chidambaram you have to watch the dancer 200 metres away, and at large auditoriums you watch the dancer 50 metres away."- Janeni, India (hot one this is!)

"Audiences need variety. There is place for all kinds of dancers. Each dancer makes others happy and we all have a right to try. Payment or no payment.
....there are attempts to bring divinity alive through bharatanatyam where the dance is greater than the dancer... there is a meditative quality to the presentation and the choreography is truly inspired ... The latter in my opinion is beautiful Bharatanatyam but to many - pretty boring. And yes, the audience for that is very few. It is a whole frame of mind and style of living of the patron of art in question. People like - in your face - art more and by showing them that, you can convert and get material success. But very soon, the technique becomes boring and what was once awesome is predictable. Poeple get bored of everything... and they stop paying.. So it is really upto each artist to create a following for herself... She or He should stretch their imagination, put themselves in the audiences shoes and come up with new things to keep"- Megha, USA

"outstanding and popular name doesnt mean popular dancer. so, only people who watch can only decide whether the performer/artist is good or not when they watch- and thats the crux of the problem. I believe, dance is the interpretation of music and lyrics- their mood and meaning. so language should not be a barrier. infact to this point, even the mudras used in dance are quite uncomprehensible for a layman. thats when the dancer has to show her talent.i feel its like playing dumbcheredes. u know the story, but u should express it with such detail that ur audiance should understand it,without u even opening your mouth.Art knows no boundries,no barriers, no language."- Mallika, Australia

"Networking of artists and resource people. No one person can be complete. A good alliance between resource people and artists can help improve the show's content and execution ."- Shyam Srinivasan, Indonesia

"The sad truth is that a majority of the people would prefer a Bollywood number (or anything related to movies) than any classical dance or music. Watching an Indian movie is like watching TV - nothing is required from the audience, whereas classical music or dance, (when done well) are truly inspiring and transport the observer. Here in St.Louis, we had about 70 people show up for a concert by Shashank, whereas I myself heard of at least 5 couples who drove all the way to Chicago (300 miles) to attend some Bollywood night!"- Anu, USA

"Actually, what is "anything classical"? i do not find 50 of the modern bharatanatyam to be "classical". Really classical is the art that is 100% faithful to the ancient scriptures. everything else is bollywood. Indian classical arts are rooted in the hindu spirituality. if the hindu spirituality declines, the interest in the classical arts declines automatically too. "-- Biju,???

" I am sure that if you had once watched a extraordinarily wonderful dancer, his death would have paralyzed your life. Otherwise, with all these mediocre fusions called "classical", who cares?"- Natya,???

"...the people who are capable of appreciating Natya are rare at the end of Kali Yuga because the absolute majority (90%?) of the apparently human beings in our age are in human body for the first time, so how can you expect someone who was just a cat before to come and relish a Bharatanatyam recital without eating,drinking,talking and walking around during the best of performances?Thanks to such pseudo-dancers, 99% Indians now believe that classical dance is boring rubbish."- H.Uma-???

"I think alot of westerns could be rasikas in a broader sense....I also honour the dancer and her experiments, in fact I saw similar done by a famous dancer with composer Bach and heard the explanation: Everything can be done in Bharata Natyam. So I guess this classical fusion migth be in a stage of development and improved choreography could give a more comforting result. On the other hand to me it is an experiment in sa-grama or sadhja yati, as mentioned in the shastra and since music is universal this is not ras bhasa and its within our taste if we like it or not. It could be argued equally that the beautiful indian dance performed to the out-of-tune indian scales is against aestethic values? I think we are trained to like and dislike certain things, but viewed on an absolute plane there are no such distinction " - Raga,not from India

"Performers:
Keep dancing; all of you have your segments. Don’t worry about the lack of audience. We are all working on it. Improve and innovate but sensitively. Have honest feed backs. Peer networking can come in handy here. Gauge your audience cautiously. There are people who want to see a drama (abstract and realistic) and there are others who want to see the Brahma Himself. So you have a vast scope. Remember Art comes before the Artiste.

Teachers or Institutes:
Be patient
Motivate kids - have student concerts, but make them watch professionals too!
Expose them to allied arts and literature
Network with other schools, artistes, organizations: - more the mightier. Easier said than done
Stand by principles
Provide meaningful workshops to induct new rasikas
Send newsletters to students. Create a knowledge base .If you can’t make a good one, use the ones at Nathaki and other authentic sites (But cite the source). Once we have a rasika forum we can start making our own to include more art forms.

Performers and Teachers: Don’t be afraid to ask for your due payment. People may not respect what comes free. But also keep the art in mind and you are its ambassador."- Sangeetha, Indonesia (yeah you guessed that right, it's me!)

Ok, since you have all points of consideration under your belt... all the best dancers/teachers!!!