Abhinaya in Bharatanatyam

PAPER 6 DANCE IN INDIA TODAY, DANCE-DRAMAS, CREATIVITY WITHIN THE CLASSICAL FORMS, INDIAN CLASSICAL DANCE IN DIASPORA (USA, UK, EUROPE, AUSTRALIA, ETC.) MODULE 19 THE EARLY FEMALE GURUS AND DANCERS OF BHARATANATYAM From early 1900 A D, some brave girls and their families started a journey, going where earlier it was a great taboo to go. The courage, conviction and love for dance prompted them to venture on a path which at that point had no direction and was beyond worldly gains. Also in such a tumultuous time, to be born to that tradition was really tough. We need to know, understand and get inspired by these women, due to whom millions are not only learning Bharatanatyam, but it has given dignity and purpose to the art. Here we study a few of them. SMT. BALASARASWATI Balasaraswati was born in 1918 and died at 1984. She rose on the solo Bharatanatyam horizon through her sheer genius. She belonged to the devadasi tradition and was extremely proud of it, though she was never initiated into any temple service. The only dancer to be conferred the prestigious Sangitha Kalanidhi title; she reacted sharply to compartmentalizing the dance into sacred and profane water-tight divisions. For Bala, Shringara / �रĂगार was an all- 1 encompassing mood which included all the other moods. In 1975, speaking at the Annual Conference of Tamil Sangam, Bala made the famous statement, "In Bharatanatyam, the shringara we experience is never carnal, never, never!" Bala came from a home where musicians like Dharmapuri Subbarayar / धरमऩुरी, Tiruvottiyur Tyagier, Hayagrivachari / हयाग्रिवाचारी (from Dharwad / धारवाड़), Govindaswamy Pillai, Ariyakkudi Ramanuja lyengar were frequent visitors, who came to meet and listen to Bala's grandmother, the inimitable Dhanammal, the veena player. Apart from her Guru Kandappa Pillai's strict technique and training, Bala's greatness came from an innate ability for interpretative dance of rare artistry, where the shringara evoked was in a class by itself. Rhythm in her dance, while strong, was unobtrusive. Flashy teermanams / तिममनाम and overt virtuosity were forbidden. A Jatiswaram like the one Bala often performed in Poorvikalyani / ऩुवीक쥍याणर set to tala sankeerna nadai, would pose a challenge for any dancer. Bala’s enormous repertoire with varnams and a host of purely interpretative compositions was well-known. As Chandralekha has said, "As the nayika yearning for Subramania, Bala made one weep. Her shringara/bhakti cannot be touched by the non-traditional dancers of the day." She could charm audiences with just a slant of the head, a glance of the eye, a gait of a few steps and gestures with "the most articulate forefinger in the world". Many western critics felt that Bala's interpretative dance was too subtle and rarified for any but Indian connoisseurs to understand and appreciate. Very 2 proud about her upbringing in a strict devadasi family, Bala till the end refused to accommodate changes either in costume or in the prescribed concert format of the margam, which according to her was structured like the great temple where one enters the Gopuram in Alarippu and stage by stage reaches the sanctum sanctorum in the Varnam to merge with the deity in the Tillana finale. She steadfastly refused to fool around with songs in languages she did not thoroughly know, and held on to her faith in the devadasis being the ideal custodians of the dance. Bala never reconciled to the sophistication brought into modern Bharatanatyam. Her kind of genius can rarely pass on to the next generation, and not surprisingly, her artistic subtlety was not replicated even though her style was diligently taught by her student Nandini Ramani who maintains that Bala was a very creative teacher. However, there are others who believe that Bala was a reluctant teacher, even when it came to her own daughter Lakshmi whose formal teaching began late. Disillusioned by the fate of the devadasi in India, Bala chose to do a lot of her teaching in the USA. It began with the Asia Society in New York sponsoring her as artist-in- residence at the Wesleyan University in 1962. Her brothers Viswa, the flautist secured a teaching appointment there, and Ranganathanran / रĂगनाथन, the mridangam / मदृ Ăगम player also migrated to the USA. Now, Bala’s grandson, Aniruddha/अतन셁द्ध, her daughter Lakshmi Knight's son performs Bala's repertoire. Bala received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 1955 and the Padma Bhushan in 1957. When she was presented in Japan for an East/West Conference, thanks to Dr.-Kapila Vatsyayan's insistence, despite 3 impresario Nicolas Nabokov's grave reservations about her being too old, the entire audience erupted into non-stop clapping at the end. SMT. RUKMINI DEVI ARUNDALE RUKMINI DEVI was a disciple of Meenakshisundaram Pillai. Raised in a modern Indian family of the early 20th century, she grew up to become a highly sensitive and intelligent person, who was drawn to the professionalism of the west. She was exposed to Western ideas by her educationist husband Dr. Arundale, though she continued to remain anchored to Indian traditional values. Her mentor and strong influence was theosophist Annie Besant who wanted Indian culture to become central to education in India, desisting strongly the possible westernization of the country. She was born in 1904 and died in 1986. Rukmini Devi was interested in both education and classical dance, in fact, in actually integrating dance with education. By ‘dance’ she also meant inculcating in young minds an appreciation for and an understanding of Indian art and culture. So in 1936 she established the International Academy of Arts, which later became Kalakshetra. She conceptualised Bharatanatyam teaching in a contemporary setting which also integrated the benefits of the guru/shishya tradition. In many ways, therefore, the post-1940s Indian dance story ushering in new trends begins with Rukmini Devi. Earlier, her interactions with ballerina Anna Pavlova had opened her eyes to a new world of dance in the global context. However, her 4 abiding respect for traditional arts and admiration for the dance of the devadasis did not lessen her zeal to try out new ideas. So she made sure that Kalakshetra became home to the best of traditional gurus -- Meenakshisundaram Pillai, Muttukumar Pillai, Chokkalingam Pillai, Gowri Ammal, Saradambal, Ambu Panikkar. With her exposure to classical ballet, Rukmini Devi preferred the well-centered, open bodily stance, with full arm and leg stretches, emphasizing the linear dimensions of the Bharatanatyam technique with the body geometry and the lines it wove in space. Her chief contribution to Bharatanatyam is this conscious attention to movement profile and its extension in group presentations that helped adapt the dance form to presentation on the modern stage. Rukmini Devi understood that music was the crucial component in dance. So she procured the best names in Carnatic music to compose music for her dance dramas -- Tiger Varadachariar, Mysore Vasudevachar, Veena Krishnamachari, Budaloor Krishnamurti Sastrigal, Papanasam Sivan, Kalidasa Neelakantha Iyer. This was at a time when top concert musicians were not generally known for associating themselves with dance. Ariyakkudi Ramanujam was not young when he came to Kalakshetra and Mysore Vasudevachar was in his late eighties when Rukmini Devi approached him, and he was made Principal of Kalakshetra in his nineties! Rukmini Devi's greatest contribution to Bharatanatyam was the amazing dance-drama compositions. She examined the Kuravanji, a post 18th century creation in literature, a part of the performance genre of Tamil Nadu. The Sambhoji Bhupala Kuravanji / स륍भोजर 5 भुऩऱा कु वजं र presented in Tanjore's Brihadeesvara temple, did not impress her as it was dedicated to the king rather than deity. But when she read Thirukuda Rajappa Kavirayar’s Timkutmla Kuravanji / ति륍कु 配मऱा कु वजं र, she got Veena Krishnamachari to set the selected verses to music, designed the costumes herself and made a thunderous impact. This was followed up with Kumara Sambhavam / कु मार सĂभवĂ in 1947, for the Besant Centenary Celebrations. Tiger K. Varadachariar's music was its take-off point, and it won plaudits from all over. Her magnum opus, however, was the Ramayana in six episodes, leaving the dance world wonderstruck at the sheer brilliance of narrating this epic through the undiluted technique of two forms — Bharatanatyam and Kathakali. Valmiki's poetry, the music of Vasudevachar and the dance visualization came together for K. Chandrasekharan, a Sanskrit scholar to remark, "I have been reading the Ramayana diligently for the last so many years of my life, always certain that the different world the poetry takes one to, cannot be equaled by any other form of expression— till I saw Rukmini Devi's dance version. Only she could have created this feeling of poetry and dance being a match for each other." The six Ramayana episodes were Sita Swayamvaram / सरिा वयĂवर, Rama Vanagamanam / राम वनगमन , Paduka Pattabhishekam / 6 ऩादकु ा ऩ配िाभभशेक , Sabari Moksham / सबरी मोऺĂ , Choodamani Pmdanam / चूड़ामणण प्म륍दĂम , Mahapattabhishekam / महाऩ配िाभभशेकम, and were presented over 15 years. Mysore Vasudevachar composed the music for the first episode but when he passed away in 196, his apprentice and grandson Rajaram, (later Director of Kalakshetra), took over the musical responsibility in an almost seamless fashion. Vasudevachar created musical history with melodies composed for the moment in the narrative, with mood build-up taking precedence. In this quest for evoking mood, what was spontaneously composed, if not within strict grammatical adherence to known classical ragas, was given a new name adding melodic modes to the Carnatic repertoire. Thus the raga Chiitabhammari, used to highlight Dasaratha's sense of despair at Kaikeyi's behaviour, and Gangalahiri, used when Rama and Sita were crossing the Ganga, and other new creations were added by the composer.

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