Module 18 Creativity in Bharatanatyam
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PAPER 6 DANCE IN INDIA TODAY, DANCE-DRAMAS, CREATIVITY WITHIN THE CLASSICAL FORMS, INDIAN CLASSICAL DANCE IN DIASPORA (USA, UK, EUROPE, AUSTRALIA, ETC.) MODULE 18 CREATIVITY IN BHARATANATYAM What is Creativity? The Oxford dictionary says that creativity is “The use of imagination or original ideas to create something or in other words “inventiveness” of the art form while novel yet conforming to the vocabulary and grammar. In Bharatanatyam, creativity has always been the force, like in other classical dances, that has molded the art form to its current state. Even though, Natyasastra and other literature talk about angabhedas / अꅍगभेद, angarakas / अंगारक, upangas / उऩांग, etc., it was probably in the Thanjavur Maratha period that the adavus / आडवु got codified and systematized. It would be an understatement to say that the first bout of creativity in Bharatanatyam was by Tanjore Quartet brothers. The reason is that they had the imagination of reinventing the dance, which was until then a mixed bag of performances, to a path leading to transcendence. The Margam, as we know it, was indeed a path breaking approach, where the dancer starts from the warm-up like Alarippu, to showing the glimpse of abhinaya in Shabdam, to a full throttled combination 1 of nritta and abhinaya in the Varnam, to a more relaxed Padam or Javali, and finally culminating in the showcase of exuberant dance as in the Tillana. Indeed, the Margam has found rasikas and dancers captivated for centuries. In T. Balasaraswati’s words The Bharatanatyam recital is structured like a Great Temple. We enter through the Gopuram / गोऩुरम (outer hall) of alarippu, cross the Ardhamantapam / अधधमंडऩ (half-way hall) of Jatiswaram, then the Mantapa / मंडऩ (great hall) of Sabdam, and enter the holy precinct of the deity in the Varnam. This is the place, the space that gives the dancer expansive scope to revel in the rhythm, moods and music of the dance. The Varnam is the perpetuity which gives ever- expanding room to the dancer to delight in her self-fulfillment, by providing the fullest scope to her own creativity as well as to the tradition of the art. The Padam follows. In dancing to the Padam one experiences the containment, cool and quiet of entering the sanctum from its external precinct. The expanse and brilliance of the outer corridors disappear in the dark inner sanctum; and the rhythmic virtuosities of the Varnam yield to the soul-stirring music and abhinaya of the Padam. Dancing to the Padam is akin to the juncture when the cascading lights of worship are withdrawn and the drum beats die down to the simple and solemn chanting of scared verses in the closeness of God. Then, the Tillana breaks into movement like the final burning of camphor accompanied by a measure of din and bustle. In conclusion, the devotee takes to his heart the God he has so far glorified outside; 2 and the dancer completes the traditional order by dancing to a simple devotional verse. Unlike the Jivatma-Paramatma / जीवा配मा-ऩरमा配मा analogy, T. Balasaraswati has used creatively how the Margam is applicable even today. In her dance too, she creatively used extempore dance to the sancharis / संचारी, thereby no one performance of her was like the other, each was unique. This is called Manodharmam / मनोधमधम in Carnatic music. Such use of Manodharmam, extempore performance, was part of sadir and this gave ample scope for the dancer to paint her canvas with as many hues as possible, yet remaining in the sthayi bhava / स्थायी भाव of the character. We see this trait in artistry of all greats of the form like Vyjanthimala, M.K.Saroja, Alarmel Valli. Each used sancharis fleetingly. There is little need to literally keep repeating same line and show 3 different sancharis. That’s text book representation. Each line is not merely poetic but profound too. Thus, if one takes say Gopala Krishana Bharati’s Varugulamo / व셁गुऱामो, blindness can mean not looking at ills of world or its negative aspects. It can also mean keeping a blind eye to faults. At another level, in another context it can also be represented as forced physical challenge as Kunti / कंु ती did to support her husband Dhritrashtra / ध्रितराष्ट्र. It was not just the Tanjore Quartet who dabbled with experimenting the art form. The devadasis of later 19th century have been 3 documented with dancing to God save the King to western music. This was in the year 1848, when a certain Mr. Edward, an Englishman who was on the payroll of the Tanjore king, taught them the music. Going further back, Muthuswami Dikshitar (1775-1835) has composed over forty songs based on western melodic tunes. Commonly known as nottuswaram / नो配तुस्वरम in Carnatic music, they are currently used as practice songs and sometimes performed in concerts. A famous example is the Santatam Pahimam Sangita Shyamale / सꅍततम ऩा हिमम संगीत श्यामऱे , a song on Goddess Saraswati, has the melody of the British Song God save the King. 2 Rukmini Devi Arundale brought her own creativity into Bharatanatyam, where she took classical literatures and choreographed them into dance. This was novel at that point of time, also new ideas were employed in her dance dramas that were aesthetically pleasing, yet remained within the framework of Bharatanatyam grammar. For example, Kalaidasa’s Kumarasambhavam, the Ramayana Series, Kutrala Kuravanji, Jayadeva’s Geet Govindam and many more. Thus what she employed for group works could be totally different from solo representation. This also changed choreography and stage use. Imagine a stage with 20 dancers and one stage with just one dancer enacting and emoting 20 characters or patras? There is also a palpable shift in energy physically and literally. Take 40 dancing feet versus two. Not just dance dramas, but also in compositions for solo 4 performances Rukmini Devi Arundale’s creativity can be seen, for example in the adavu patterns and teermanams.3 Since then, nattuvanars and dancers have employed their creative juices to make their performance stand apart from others. Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai introduced the trend of striking a pose after a teermanam or in a suitable place. His star disciple, Kumari Kamala or Kamala Lakshminarayanan, was known to hold a karana pose or a seemingly difficult pose for longer duration. Soon, this trend caught up and now striking a pose in the middle of a performance has become quite common. This was also a necessity for film shoots those days where a pose had to be held long as it was single camera shoot and black and white films were imported and thus very expensive. This was not the era of reshoots and digital mixing up final product! This was era of a Europe at War in mid 40s, when Tamil films employing Bharatanatyam was at its peak and thus film material was expensive and dance marginalized in overall scheme of things. Among the pioneers, Uday Shankar is known for creative introduction of social themes in dance instead of mythology. Although he claimed to have learnt no one classical form in particular, his meeting with Bala in Madras in 1940s and later his filming of Kalpana the landmark film, made him use more and more Bharatanatyam dancers and dancers. In fact, it was in this film that Travancore sisters – Lalita, Ragini and Padmini – were discovered in a 5 big way and they joined the film industry after this. It was Bharatanatyam’s creative usage that dominated the film in several sequences. Here was the ultimate dance and music mixing! Bengali musicians dancing Bharatanatyam to quasi folk music and dance! This was something totally unknown in Indian dance. His works Rhythm of Life, Labour and Machinery, Snake Charmer, Snanum, Lady and the Thief and others described social issues of the society and mundane events in dance. 4 With changing times, dancers and audiences were becoming disenchanted with the themes of nayika pining of the lord, suffering from pangs of separation, etc. To break this mould, dancers took two divergent paths. The first was using contemporary themes and subjects that have no basis on mythology. The second was to look at the nayika based themes in a fresh perspective. In the first category, Mrinalini Sarabhai has been a pioneer to choreograph contemporary social issues with the use of Bharatanatyam vocabulary. Her works such as Manushya / मनुष्ट्य that describes the different stages of man going through his life, Memory-A ragged fragment of Eternity dealt with the topic of increasing suicide rates of women in India. Mrinalini Sarabhai remains a pioneer and has striven to maintain newness in form without sacrificing content or context. Her daughter Mallika is variously gifted and learnt both Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam and her dance company can undertake all types of works. Unlike Uday Shankar, Mrinalini Sarabhai used the 6 vocabulary of Kathakali and Bharatanatyam as the core and worked around a new texture for discussing social issues. Uday Shankar saw all these forms and used them selectively, in that; he created his own dance language, thus hailed as a pioneer. He also used Kathak extensively since in his team were leading dancers like Zohra Mumtaz Segal and Simkie. Uday Shankar found Bharatanatyam useful for southern themes and Kathak for rest of India. Kathakali joined in seamlessly in his various productions. In fact, it is said that after watching Manushya the former prime-minister Jawaharlal Nehru changed his views about Kathakali to a fine art form. Mrinalini Sarabhai is also credited with choreographing new themes with sollukattus alone. The force and tone used for reciting the sollukattus became the dialogue between the dancers.