Discussion on the Last Day

My students have been helping me to prepare for this Conference for most part of the year and the six days have gone by in a flash!And the year is over too!

It was a very important session today, where we looked at how those who fund the arts, whether as patrons or philanthropists or organisers, decide on which artiste is to be supported and promoted. Naturally, all the dancers had many stories to tell about their own frustrations and disappointment with the system. I feel that apart from all the hard work, an element of luck is also necessary and it is easy to get disheartened.

I have been very pleased with the enthusiastic response to this year's Natyakala Conference and am now looking forward to next year!

Wishing all of you a very Happy 2012,

Shantha

Response to the NKC

Here is a link describing what Sophia Wong took away from the conference.

http://silenceproject.org/2010/12/30/proficiency-vs-mastery/

Day Five Kathak

I am very pleased that the feedback so far has been enthusiastic. Yesterday the audience got to see five generations of sampradaaya. Today the audience was treated to the lecture demonstration by a full 20 member troupe! The musicians alone were ten and seated in a double row! It was done in a very professional way, and the disciples chosen were all of an excellent standard.

Jayant Kastuar, himself a Nrityachoodamani, spoke about the history of Kathak from its origins as a story-teller's art to its development as a performing art for the proscenium stage. It was interesting to hear him clarify many misunderstandings about Kathak.

I was very happy to see the way the two gharanas came together in harmony to present their best. We could see the small details that differentiate the two gharanas. In the Lucknow gharana, representing the lineage of Pandit Shambhu Maharaj, Jai Kishan Maharaj and Deepak Maharaj were enjoying themselves playing with the rhythmic sound of the bols and translating that into dance. Their students Gowri Diwakar and Quincy Kendall Charles were very very good. The Jaipur gharana representing the lineage of Kundal Lal Gangani, had Rajendra and Harish Gangani presenting their very strong and forceful pieces. Their students Swati Sinha and Dhirendra Tiwari were great examples of the continuing tradition.

Guru Jai Kishan Maharaj with Quincy Kendell Charles, Gowri Diwakar, Swati Sinha and Dhirendra Tiwari

And so on to the last day!

Please write in with your suggestions and comments for next year's NKC!

Shantha

Day Four reported in the Hindu Online

Day Four Kuchipudi

Undoubtedly, the star of today's show was the five year old Lakshmi Kameshwari, who is the grand daughter of Guru Vempati. She had no fear of the stage and just picked up the steps by watching. She insisted on wearing a long plait, I heard before the show, and when she danced the tarangam on a little plate suited to her size, she was clearly enjoying holding the plait the way the older dancers do!

Rathna Papa Kumar used a very innovative way to show the older adavu saamu before Vempati Garu expanded the basic ideas and created a whole method of teaching Kuchipudi. She asked Keshav Prasad, one of Vempati Sir's oldest students to show the audience the earlier version while simultaneously Srimayi performed the newer version, side  by side. It was a great way to showcase the abhyaasa sampradaya.

I was touched to see the devotion Vempati Garu's students have for him, the way they offered this lecture demonstration as a homage to his ideals of dance and the impact his teaching has had on them. Madhavapeddi Murthy and Mosalikanti Kishore are very senior students of Guru Garu who are keeping his flag flying.

The days seem to have flown by and tomorrow is the last dance demonstration, for their is a group discussion on the 31st. I was very happy with the audience response today, and hope it will be even better tommorrow.

Shantha

Report in the Hindu Online on Day Three

Day Three Kathakali

The session today had a great response from the audience who seemed to enjoy the demonstration. I think students got a good idea of the physically fitness required of a Kathakali dancer. It is always difficult while giving a lecture-demonstration to decide which basic details to skip, for fear of boring a knowledgeable audience. On the other hand, if one goes on to the finer details without covering the basic postures and foundation, there may be many in the audience who would not understand anything. While Sadanam Harikumaran did an excellent job of covering the various exercises of the body, especially for the eyes, in the chuzhippu demonstrated I would have liked to have seen some introduction to the underlying posture and introductory exercises.

As always the power of mudras to communicate broke the performer-audience barrier and the youngsters in the audience loved Harikumaran's depiction of two love-birds. Post tea-break the atmosphere became more informal and people asked their questions then and there, without waiting for the end.

Sadanam Balakrishnan's total involvement in the scene from Ravanodbhavam, where he depicted Kaikasi with baby Ravana, lovingly giving him a massage and admiring his moon-like face, was outstanding. The intensity of his sattvika abhinaya made for total theatre. It showed the beauty and power of bhava to take one to great heights.

I want to stress the importance of the percussion players in the Kathakali performance, a fine example of which we saw today. Sadanam Balakrishnan faced the audience and the musicians stood to one side behind him, unable to see the expressions on his face and yet, the rapport and fine understanding between them was to be heard and relished. I call them the speaking drums of Kathakali, the way they are able to convey and enhance the same emotion being enacted by the dancer.

Looking forward to tommorrow's session,

Shantha

The report on Day Two in the Hindu Online

Day Two Odissi

Today, we had Guru Mayadhar Raut, who is in his 80's, give us a lecture demonstration with the help of his daughter Madhumita. It was another trip down memory lane as Guruji, or Anna as I used to call him, studied at Kalakshetra when I was a young student there. He has an excellent memory of those days and was especially thrilled to see Balagopal, because he has narrated an incident involving Balagopal in his biography: One day Mylapore Gowri Ammal was drowsy and fell asleep in the class. Balagopal, very young and mischievous then, crept up to her and tickled her ear with a feather trying to see if she would wake up!

His three students showed us the various pada chari, pada bheda, bhramari, bhangi and the various mudras taken from many sources: sculptures, shastras, and the local tradition. The base of course is the Abhinaya Chandrika, and post his stay in Kalakshetra, the Abhinaya Darpana. Not many know that Rukmini Devi influenced the revival of Odissi as well through two key people, Guru Mayadhar Raut and Sanjukta Panigrahi who trained at Kalakshetra.

It was very interesting to see the margam that was evolved by the Jayantika Association of gurus. Batu is not often performed now and I was glad to know that Guruji's school emphasises this in their repertoire. The Basanta Pallavi is a classic now, it is that familiar!

When Guruji performed on stage, we forgot that he is eighty years old. A dancer is always young at heart!

Shantha

Here is the report in the Hindu Online about the First Day

Day One Bharata Naatyam

Finally, this day which was a milestone both in the Sabha's history and my own life, arrived. I was very pleased to see the fresh generation of students from my alma mater, Kalakshetra. Leela Samson spoke about how Athai's ideals were the driving force behind her teaching of the arts at Kalakshetra.

All my memories came flooding back when I saw the Shyla prastheshu scene being performed. When the natakam was first performed, I was one of the kinnara-s and I had to dance along with my teacher Sarada! It was a very fast paced sequence, very hard to perform but over in a flash! It reminded me of how Athai cast various dancers based on their natural suitability for a role.

I liked the presentation of how Kalakshetra has grown and expanded in so many ways. New themes are taken up for choreography, music by famous vidwans such as Lalgudi Jayaraman provide an unusual medley of three ragams, more research is being done on various aspects related to dance and the institution is flourishing with so many young dancers! The small excerpts presented from the dance-dramas really showed how much learning there is when one is dancing in a group. That experience alone is priceless and is a brilliant part of the Kalakshetra training.

I only wish that there had been a little more time given to tracing step by step what is now known as the Kalakshetra style. Leela Samson did talk about the Pandanallur Bani being the foundation for the Kalakshetra style, and the fact that many of the items in the core teaching repertoire are all old gems from Pandanallur, but I would have liked to have seen how the adavus were done then at the time Rukmini Devi began learning from   Meenakshisundaram Pillai and how Rukmini Devi worked on them to define and streamline the movements.

One example did come through in the Q&A session and one would have wished for more such examples: How Athai took the very basic tattadavu with one beat and built it up to eight beats with variations. But the basic araimandi itself became emphasised only in Kalakshetra and it would have been interesting, I think, to have had a demonstration of what certain positions used to be like and what they became when Athai worked on them. As C.V. Chandrasekhar said, 'Athai brought precision to every movement. There was no vagueness. Feet, hands, eyes, they all had a particular position in the course of an adavu.'

But all in all, it was a very enjoyable lecture demonstration. I hope more of you will attend tomorrow's session!

                                       Abhyaasa Sampradaaya- The teacher and the students

Shantha