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| Pulse - Spring 2005 |
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Spring issue 2005 |
| "I had been learning dance for years but it was only in my teens that I was expected to faithfully recite tongue-twisting Sanskrit verses, naming and describing positions and movements of body parts. I also began to imagine that a text might exist whence the verses came to my teacher, and that it might be a slim book, at best. Then, my mother handed me an epiphany in the form of a fat, fabric-bound, hard cover book: it was the Natyasastra, translated into English twenty years earlier by Manmohan Ghosh. The Natyasastra’s antiquity, the unexpected expanse of subject matter that it considered relevant to performance, as well as its detail of classification and categorisation, were mind-blowing then, and remain astonishing today. Importantly, it was the first among a long lineage of texts recovered, transliterated and translated into several languages, and brought to the attention of a nationalist post-colonial India. Through them, I discovered that the dance was not just a mystical, organic Hindu practice – a cultural, quasi-religious public activity with a fragmented and reconstructed social history. That too, but it had been, all along, through all the veils of mythology and invocations to deities and traditions, an artistic, and potentially private, undertaking in total theatre. The texts recognised the role of training and technique, and the competence of professional actors, dancers and other performers; the texts admitted self-doubt and discussion." |
Chitra Sundaram
Editor |
| Cover Feature |
| Reading dance - a tale of the texts |
Canada-based Professor Emerita Mandakranta Bose examines the two millennia-old sub continental textual tradition that surrounds, underlies and engages with the art of dance and dramatic performance. These interlinked ‘manuals’ were, she writes, a self-conscious record of actual performance in dance and drama. Also, useful thumbnails of the important texts.
The performance arts of India have a textual tradition, which is unique in the world - and not just in terms of its antiquity. The Sanskrit texts, which discuss dance, constitute an extensive literature and a specific discourse with its own system of classification, analysis and validation. Mandakranta Bose takes us through the development of this Sanskrit dance scholarship through centuries arguing that, contrary to popular belief, these scholars were not lawgivers or theorists in isolation but also record keepers and interlocutors in the actual practice of dance. She points out that the history lesson the textual tradition holds for us is that time and time again, “yesterday’s tributary current is today’s mainstream. |
| Other Features |
| The hot chariot of the Sun god |
Odissi has been sizzling for some time and not just because of the love lyrics of its traditional songs. Rife with ideological policing of the ‘correct’ school, there have been plenty of goings-on behind doe-eyed twinkles and painted toes that have marginalised other, equally authentic and innovative styles, writes dance scholar Dr. Alessandra Lopez y Royo.
Tracing modern history and examining the work of the lesser known masters, particularly that of Guru Surendranath Jena,
Alessandra Lopez y Royo shows us that odissi is a site of contestation and identity construction, complete with transgression and transformation, and a lot of expedience. Though the cocktail flares up especially in discourses of ‘classicism’ and authenticity, both in the Indian/Oriyan and diasporic contexts, there are actually several, significant alternative odissi-s beyond Kelubabu’s style, and Guru Surendranath’s is a significant one among them. |
| Challenging the Euro-American read on dance |
| A pioneering new suite of courses with a particular pedagogy sets about challenging the ‘local’ or ‘national’ approach to the academic study of south asian dances. It is high time we moved to a Comparative Studies mode, whether in India or abroad, writes Dr. Avanthi Meduri, convenor of an interdisciplinary MA South Asian Dance Studies module at Roehampton University, which does precisely that. |
| Surrounded by film |
| Almost forever, ‘filmi’ music and dance have been rippling through young hearts and bodies - in India and abroad; yet it was also understood for what it was: popular entertainment. But, for new generations of the subcontinent’s diaspora and their friends, is Bollywood dance with classical traces replacing kathak and bharatanatyam as the premier art form of Indian culture? Richard Turner finds out, enjoying yet another popular evening of Indian dance in a suburban community. |
| Profile - Gauri Sharma Tripathi |
| They dance to her beat |
| Gauri Sharma Tripathi’s measured, minimalist elegance in movement is punctuated by razor-sharp freezes; but far from being a lone, beautiful stylist, her interpretation has caught the dedicated attention of a whole bunch of young women who want an integrated bit of both worlds, the one they know here and the one their parents speak of. Bithika Chatterjee finds out how ‘Gauri’ does it. |
| Technique |
| The nattu adavu |
| Following the exposition of the basic but all-important araimandi stance for bharatanatyam in pulse autumn 2004, Mavin Khoo shares his teaching insights on the nattu adavu, a critical movement unit as it exemplifies the geometry of the form. |
| Training |
| The Lall Diaries |
| With this third and final part, we conclude the serialisation begun in pulse summer 2004 of the compelling personal journal of Anusha Lall, which she kept during a one year Certificate course at the London School of Contemporary Dance. The notes reveal an insightful awareness of process and product, tools and craft of teaching and learning; as well, the reflexive jottings show her viewing herself closely as she adapts, falters, resists, conquers, and makes her own the experience of western Contemporary Dance training, which is unlike any she has known before in bharatanatyam. |
| E-mail from Ahmedabad |
| Peering into Darpana - 29th Vikram Sarabhai International Arts Festival |
| Visiting the institution on the occasion of the 27th Vikram Sarabhai International Festival, Prarthana Purkayastha encounters new work and new rationales for work. |
| Performance Reviews |
- Thumri and Kathak by Bireshwar Gautam - Sushma Mehta (Reviewer)
- Bharatanatyam Repertoire by Mavin Khoo - Leela Venkataraman (Reviewer)
- Flicker by Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company - Shiromi Pinto (Reviewer)
- Women are from Venus by Srishti - Nina Rajarani Dance Creations - Annapoorna Kuppuswamy (Reviewer)
- Red by Sonia Sabri Dance Company - Kush Saini (Reviewer)
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