Mohiniyattam Cholkettu by Mythili and Group

Mohiniyattam Cholkettu by Mythili and Group

Authentic History of Mohiniyattam

One of the most well-researched histories of the dance written by Justine Lemos has been published in a book edited by me, Scripting Dance in Contemporary India (Lexington, 2016) available for preview on:

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=8aE8CwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Lemos investigates the common perceptions and half-truths associated with the history of the dance, and reveals evidence gathered from archives, weaving an authentic factual historical narrative of the dance.

Fashion and Classical Indian Dance

While the two seem to belong to different planets in the present day, they complemented each other rather well in the Spectrum organized by NIFT last week. It was a concept initiated by NatyaSwara, directed by Mr Anna Rao and Mr. Hariharan, and embraced by Mr. Rajaram, the director of NIFT, Hyderabad. The result was a range of fashion inspired by the traditional costumes of classical Indian dance. The audiences were treated to radical and exotic costumes, interspersed with performances by artists associated with the project : Dr. Himabindu. Sindhuja, Mitha Vinay and I.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWeMcpVUp-o

Aesthetics and Acrobatics in Classical Indian Dance

Despite the phonological similarities, aesthetics and acrobatics are quite different things even in the layperson’s understanding. While every dance form has its own aesthetic, and while there may be variations in each practitioner’s notion and implementation of that aesthetic, there is, nevertheless, a common framework and shared language of dance aesthetics that makes writing about, reviewing and commenting on a performance possible. The aesthetics of any form articulated in classical Indian dance in terms of the dancer’s sense of taal, abhinaya, ability to do sancaris, anga shuddhi, or bhava provides a collective frame of reference.

While aesthetics pertains to ideas such as beauty, taste, refinement in articulation, the form, and expressivity and emotion, in other words, all things virtual that  are conveyed through the body and transcend it,  acrobatics bring attention back to the body and its skills as a medium. While every artist is expected to be an acrobat of sorts with the medium, the question I wish to ask is, are performances to be evaluated on the basis of acrobatics? While a number of artists have beautifully blended the two, so that a reviewer is not given an opportunity to say, ‘Ah, here is a gimmick for audience applause!’ others are not equally successful in integrating the two. In the former case, acrobatics are woven into the movement vocabulary in an organic way and nothing seems out of place, or a hodgepodge. Artists who integrate yoga into the classical dance vocabulary inevitably make changes in the traditional costume to accommodate the stretching of the form’s movement boundaries.

Having had the opportunity to witness a performance by a young, globetrotting and award-studded kuchipudi dancer, my response was a sense of unease – unease with the way, the performer beautifully dressed in traditional costume, kept breaking into legs and feet up yoga poses, to the thumping applause of an uninitiated public, but could not keep up in footwork with the mridangam and natuvangam rendering in the recording. I was also appalled by the arrangement of the piece, in which even the neck and eye-movements, the attami, was re-packaged as another instance of acrobatics, that merely seemed to give the dance an opportunity to proclaim, ‘Look at what I can do with my eyes and neck!’

This is perhaps just one instance, of what packaging classical dance for a wide public, often by inexperienced dancers can result in. Publics uninitiated into the aesthetic of classical dance and habituated to the heart-thumping and heart-racing music and dance in popular media, may be ‘bored,’ watching even the best of artists perform. It is for every artist to decide on the loyalties and prioritise the variables of tradition, aesthetics and audience appeasement. In my view, these need not even be mutually exclusive. It is a challenge to every performer to integrate each of the elements in an uncompromising way as our great maestros do. The key, as I understand it, is to first engage the audience’s interest and bring them to a level of sensitive reception. A great performer need not do a back-bend or a feet-up asana to capture the audience’s attention, her stillness, or mere glance can be powerful, can speak volumes and win over the audience.  

A Deluge (of Emotions)

To know torment, pain, more pain, and then some more,

Desperation, the last gasp for breath and then the numbing nothing,

Spent, in body and desire, nothing remains.

The torment, no more an assailant, but sunk and coursing within your veins

It begins taking root, through serpentine stirrings, so quiet, you won’t realize

Just a glance reflected, the image of a smile, the warmth of gestures

That never stopped, but grew incessantly.

Inciting, with every cell on fire

Sometimes, the washing down in cold rain

A homecoming after several lives of wandering, it seems and is, for sure.

The world was never so beautiful and tortuous before you.

There is so much beauty; my silenced questions now tremble with joy to hear answers.

 I‘d rather die now than live to see days that are blank, days where I hear only noise, or even my echoes.