ISSN 2455-7250 Vol. XVII No. 2 April - June 2017

A Quarterly Journal of Indian Dance

Features: Dance for Camera & ABU International Dance Festival A Quarterly Journal of Indian Dance

Volume: XVII, No. 2 April-June 2017

Sahrdaya Arts Trust Hyderabad RNI No. APENG2001/04294 ISSN 2455-7250 Nartanam, founded by Kuchipudi Kala Founders Kendra, Mumbai, now owned and G. M. Sarma published by Sahrdaya Arts Trust, Hyderabad, is a quarterly which provides M. Nagabhushana Sarma a forum for scholarly dialogue on a broad range of topics concerning Indian Chief Editor dance. Its concerns are theoretical as well Madhavi Puranam as performative. Textual studies, dance criticism, intellectual and interpretative Patron history of Indian dance traditions are its Edward R. Oakley focus. It publishes performance reviews and covers all major events in the field Chief Executive of dance in and notes and comments on dance studies and performances Vikas Nagrare abroad. The opinions expressed in the articles Advisory Board and the reviews are the writers’ own and Anuradha Jonnalagadda (Scholar, Kuchipudi dancer) do not reflect the opinions of the editorial committee. The editors and publishers Avinash Pasricha (Former Photo Editor, SPAN) of Nartanam do their best to verify the C.V. Chandrasekhar ( Guru, Padma Bhushan) information published but do not take Kedar Mishra (Poet, Scholar, Critic) responsibility for the absolute accuracy Kiran Seth (Padma Shri; Founder, SPIC MACAY) of the information. K. K. Gopalakrishnan (Critic, Scholar) Cover Photo: Leela Venkataraman (Critic, Scholar, SNA Awardee) Participants at the Asia-Pacific Mallika Kandali (Sattriya dancer, Scholar) Broadcasting Union International Television Dance Festival Pappu Venugopala Rao (Scholar, Former Associate D G, American Institute; Secretary, Music Academy) Photo Courtesy: Doordarshan and Reginald Massey (Poet, FRSA & Freeman of London) K. K. Gopalakrishnan Sunil Kothari (Scholar, Padma Shri & SNA Awardee) Suresh K. Goel (Former Director General, ICCR) Cover, Design & Layout Shakeel Ahmed

Annual Subscription: In India: Individual: ` 1000 Institutional: ` 2000 Past issues can be obtained from our office Overseas: Individual: US $ 60 Institutional: US $ 80 @ ` 350/- per copy for individuals (All Inclusive of postage) @ ` 500/- per copy for instiutions Note: Students in India can avail of 25% discount on (Inclusive of postage in India; Subject to availabil- individual subscriptions) ity; Please check with the office.)

For all editorial enquiries, sending manuscripts, details of subscriptions, and past issues please visit www.nartanam.in Registered Office: Sahrdaya Arts Trust, 508, Dwarakamai Apartments, Srinagar Colony Post, Hyderabad- 500073 Email: [email protected], [email protected] Phone: 9989314829, 9000020879 website: www.nartanam.in

All articles, photographs and other materials, appearing in Nartanam, whether in whole or in part, in any form are exclusive copyright of Sahrdaya Arts Trust unless otherwise specified, and may not be reproduced in any form or stored in any electronic or retrievable format without prior written consent.

Printed and published by Madhavi Puranam on behalf of Sahrdaya Arts Trust, Hyderabad Printed at Karshak Art Printers, 40-APHB, Vidyanagar, Hyderabad-500044. (Ph:27618261) and published at Hyderabad. Editor: Madhavi Puranam NARTANAM Volume: XVII, No. 2 April-June 2017 CONTENTS Editorial/ 6 Dance in a New Light KAMALINI DUTT / 9 What classical dancers can learn from film dance V. A. K. RANGA RAO / 47 Trials of choreographing for Indian films ILEANA CITARISTI / 51 Photo Feature - Abu Dance Festival/56 On Building a Virtual Cultural Equity ARSHIYA SETHI / 63 On the Platter of ABU International Television Dance Festival MADHAVI PURANAM / 70 ABU International Dance Festival: An Experience VIKAS NAGRARE / 90 Photo Feature - Abu Dance Festival/95 Uparupakas and Nritya-Prabandhas V. RAGHAVAN / 98 A Nachni and her Rasik: a dancing community of Purulia (West Bengal) SVETLANA RYZHAKOVA / 116

PERFORMANCE REVIEWS Delhi Diary / 128 SPIC MACAY’s tryst with India’s cultural heritage / 141 LEELA VENKATARAMAN

BOOK REVIEWS 1. BUNCH OF JAVALIS / 2011/ Pappu Venugopala Rao 2. FRAGRANCE OF PADAMS / 2015/ Pappu Venugopala Rao V. A. K. RANGA RAO / 145 6 Nartanam

EDITORIAL

On 5 July 2017 Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the IV International SPIC MACAY Convention in Delhi. He, most aptly, spoke very highly of Kiran Seth and his single minded devotion in sensitizing the youth of the country to its classical arts for 40 years. An incomparable crusade. Classical arts should be an integral part of holistic education and a movement like SPIC MACAY should have been steered by the government itself through its ministry and institutions. Kiran Seth is a unique individual and we at Nartanam are fortunate to have him as our sage adviser. The strength of SPIC MACAY is its model of taking great arts and artists to the young in the intimate atmosphere of their schools and colleges. Its backbone is the network of volunteers who run this amazing movement. However, its Achilles’ heel is the volunteers’ deep-rooted feeling that they are the guardians of Indian culture and most others are ignoramuses. This tragic sense of ego often underlies their behaviour. “Selfless service” degenerates to "possessiveness” and this does not permit new blood to sprout and bloom. This inhibits growth in volunteerism which the movement desperately needs at this hour. This is an example of the “Vagaries of Human Nature,” as Bertrand Russell would have put it. The second Achilles’ heel is the unnecessary deviation from SPIC MACAY’s core strength of immaculate small modules to big, not so well organized, international conventions. Having said so, I do not wish to undermine SPIC MACAY for it is the only movement in India that has the potential to integrate culture into the country’s education system. This is precisely why it is important to ponder on the following: Artists, spectators and volunteers who are closely associated with great art surely must experience some elevation in their personas and reach a higher state where trivialities of ego like “mine’, “done by me”, “I am the saint who will lead you to light” etc. are shed. For me watching Kalyanasougandhikam in Kathakali or Bhamakalapam in Kuchipudi is enough to cleanse me of any vestiges of vanity and ego, which of course have the special quality of raising their ugly head every now and then. Even the invocation before the Kuchipudi recital, Amba Paraku, is adequate to Nartanam 7 energize my being with positive energy and ideals. The effect stays for a while before it wears off and all I have to do is to revisit great performances. It keeps me under check. Now moving on to other concerns, plagiarism is a great danger in dance writing. We at Nartanam have faced it from time to time and have discovered to our utter disbelief that it is taken very lightly by some writers who palm it off as a mere oversight in not referencing or quoting others’ writing. It’s high time that plagiarism is treated as a most serious wrong-doing. It is, in fact, criminal theft of intellectual property. The revered scholar Bharat Gupt informs us that the government has appointed a nine-member committee under space scientist Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan’s leadership to prepare the final draft for the New Education Policy (NEP). The panel has been asked to begin work immediately. However, incredulously, the panel does not possess a single Sanskrit expert, artist, musician or philosopher thus excluding Arts and Humanities in toto. Today, when almost everyone of the reigning regime in the country professes to delve deep into our ancient past at the drop of a hat, the NEP is all set to ignore and bypass this country's immense contribution to world culture. This will only harm the NEP. The Indian Council for Historical Research held its first ever conference on the History of Dance, in May 2017 in . This suggests that History of Dance has never been considered an important enough subject for historical research. Incredible! No wonder we at Nartanam come across conflicting dates of birth for a particular maestro upon which the immediate family and even his/ her disciples or contemporaries cannot shed much light. Reliable records are impossible to obtain. Often the bio data of awardees are incomplete and very sketchy and one wonders on what basis the awards were discussed and evaluated. Oral history, fables, tales and conjectures abound in so-called Indian dance history. Nartanam had to initiate its first ever legal proceedings in the sixteen years of its existence against a government institution, the Kuchipudi Natyaramam in Andhra Pradesh for unduly pending dues to Nartanam and many Kuchipudi artists. It is interesting to note that an ambitious institution/project like the Kuchipudi Natyaramam has no executive committee or a general council and its constitution and operations are not clear while its chairman seems to be unanswerable to any authority above him. Incidentally, the Natyaramam aspires to be a Mecca of arts like the Kalamandalam and the Kalakshetra. 8 Nartanam

An important feature of this issue is the focus on “Dance for Camera.” In this context we present a review of the inaugural Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) International Television dance festival, which took place in Hyderabad. This was mounted by ABU with Prasar Bharati, the Telangana government and Doordarshan as the organizing partners. How is dancing for the camera different from just archiving or recording dance for academic purposes? The way a camera can move, shoot and use lighting makes the foreground and background important spaces where dance can be executed. The way every shot is conceived and the editing which makes the final product, which is the dance viewed on a screen, all are points of interest. Can dance for camera capture something beyond a live performance or even add to it? How is shooting dance for movies different? The human eye has its shortcomings; it can only see in ‘sharp cuts’. The camera, thanks to technology, can zoom in and zoom out putting us at an advantage when viewing a dance presentation. A cameraman can exploit this technical innovation to bring about increased appreciation of the art of dance. However, in order to do so both the dancer/choreographer and the technicians of the camera, lights, sets, etc. and above all the producer and director curating and managing the production need to understand the subject. This issue of Nartanam makes interesting reading on all the above-mentioned areas of discussion with Kamalini Dutt, a veteran of Doordarshan, opening the issue with her article written from decades of study and experience. Another special feature of this issue is the article "Uparupakas and Nritya- Prabandhas" by the great scholar V. Raghavan. It is of great relevance today while debates rage as to what is a classical form and what is owned by which region/state. The article enlightens us with the knowledge of how rich the ancient Indian stage was with numerous forms of performances in its repertoire. The art of dance was a flowing tradition adding new forms and the emergence, and establishment of the desi to even surge beyond the margi completes the picture. Every form in the repertoire is a fragrant flower in the bouquet. Every state or country has a vibrant variety of art forms enriching its culture and all forms are important irrespective of being classical or otherwise. We would like to inform our readers of the “Nartanam Conclave” which is due to take place between 5-8 October, 2017 with a variety of seminars and dance productions as its main features. One may check on our website www.nartanam.in and our Facebook page for updates. We also announce our efforts to bring out the Kindle version of Nartanam very soon. Madhavi Puranam Nartanam 9

Dance in a New Light

KAMALINI DUTT In a recent event at Sangeet Natak Akademi where I talked on "Power of close up facilitated by camera", a member of the audience commented on a clip which showed beautiful netra abhinaya (expression of eyes) of legendary Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair. "Kathakali used to be magical in the traditional torch light where the flames added so much to the evocative mukhabhinayam. The static studio light has robbed that magic from the Kathakali experience," he said. While I agreed with his comment, my thoughts went back to the beginning of the 20th century. Audio recording technology had just arrived in India. The first recording was done by Gramophone Company from London in the year 1902. Gauhar Jaan sang for this recording. The wax records could accommodate only three minutes. The recording equipment was very primitive. The singer had to push her head into a cylinder and sing the whole song at one stretch. Any mistake, the wax disc had to be destroyed and a new attempt was made. Each disc cost more than Rs 300 which was a huge amount at that time.

The microphone changed the way we sing and hear music. In fact, Veena Dhanammal refused to record for AIR as she did not like the sound of her Veena through the mike and the reproduction of the recording. Technology compromises the organic quality of art but due to reasons we all know too well, we have come to terms with technology. However it is constantly improving. Now the audio reproduction is very close to the original. Every microtone is truthfully recorded

KAMALINI DUTT is the former Director of Doordarshan National Archives. She was with Doordarshan for four decades and specialized in making programmes on classical dance and music. A student of Guru Lakshmikantam of Tanjore and Guru Sikkil Ramaswamy Pillai, she has had an active performing career in Bharatanatyam for over two decades. She is also a post graduate in Hindi literature. With her knowledge of dance and her expertise with the technique of camera she has produced memorable dance programmes for Doordarshan. Presently, Kamalini Dutt is training senior students in Bharatanatyam and regularly lectures on arts, aesthetics and media in various institutions. Nartanam 47

What classical dancers can learn from film dance

V. A. K. RANGA RAO The dance seen on the silver screen, even if it has the accoutrements of classical dance, is only a distant cousin of the real thing. There are many reasons. For one thing, if classical dance of any kind is presented as it is on screen, it will stick out like a sore thumb. One example is from Kinare Kinare (l963, Hindi). To save on costs, producer Nyaya Sharma and director Chetan Anand decided to use a bit of recorded sound from a stage performance, and had Ragini, a stellar dancer, mime to it. A disaster it was.

There are many ingredients in the dance on the screen which don’t exist on stage. Mainly, the lensing which can vary between a close-up and a long-shot; and the placement of the camera, high, low, moving. Even an overhead shot. Editing is another aspect which can divert attention from, or direct attention to, the subject at hand.

Music, vocal and instrumental, is common to both stage and screen. No matter what the intrinsic quality of the song, wrong text and wrong pronunciation are never heard from the screen. On stage, this happens with annoying frequency. All, teachers, dancers, accompanists and the audience, not to talk of the learned critics, should realise the paramount importance of the text, be it sabdam, varnam, padam, keertana, slokam, javali, whatever. An awareness of the exact text, the surface and implied meaning of the lines and correct pronunciation will make any dancer a better performer.

V. A. K. RANGA RAO, a renowned critic and scholar, was mentored by Malladi Ramakrishna and Arudra. Acquainted with dance in childhood through sani Gaddibhuktha Sitaram who served the Sri Venugopala temple and the royals of Bobbili, Ranga Rao was further inspired by Uday Shankar, Baby Kamala, Sitara Devi and Bhagawan. He studied padams, javalis, ashtapadis and is now researching the ten incarnation songs of Annamacharya. Documenting film history, Ranga Rao has a unique collection of 52,000 gramophone records (1904-1973) in 42 national and international languages. Nartanam 51

Trials of choreographing for Indian films

ILEANA CITARISTI

Dance is certainly a wonderful thing to film because it is all action and motion, which is exactly what film should be. If in the West, Merce Cunningham, the father figure of postmodern dance – who as early as the 70’s was experimenting with effects of time and space on the television monitor – is considered the pioneer of choreography staged directly for the camera, in India, even before that, in 1948, Uday Shankar, the father figure of the renaissance of Indian classical dance, released his film Kalpana, with 80 dance sequences entirely directed and choreographed by him.

When films stop being a two-dimensional recording of existing choreographies and become a creative collaboration between movement, rhythm, camera and editing process, the roles of the choreographer and the film director become interchangeable and often the two merge into the same person. The new genre to emerge from this creative collaboration is referred to as "dance video" or "screen choreography" in the West; in India, we find this close collaboration taking place for the production of dance sequences choreographed as inserts of commercial films. Apart from this, there are still very few film directors and still less choreographers to have ventured into the exciting and highly creative venture of shuttling from real space to reel space and vice versa.

ILEANA CITARISTI , an Italian by birth, holds a PhD in Psychoanalysis and Eastern Mythology. Having worked in the traditional and experimental theatre in Europe, Ileana moved to India in 1979. She trained in Odissi under Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and in Chhau under Guru Hari Nayak. A renowned dancer, choreographer, guru, and scholar, Ileana has authored books on martial practices of Odisha, and Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra among others. She has many awards and honours to her credit including the Padma Shri. She lives in Bhubaneswar and teaches at her institute, Art Vision. The article was previously published on http://www.narthaki.com/info/articles/article79.html Nartanam 63

On Building a Virtual Cultural Equity

ARSHIYA SETHI Opportunity doesn’t always knock. Often it enters on tiptoes, with no fanfare or flourish. So it did for me, with respect to the Asia Broadcasting Union International Dance Festival. A three word email from the then CEO of Prasar Bharati, dated 18 September 2015, created the base for an association that was to give me a chance to build a cultural equity, in one area that I had not worked before as an institution builder – the television space. To understand this one needs to go back a little in history.

Prasar Bharati is India’s largest public broadcasting agency. It is an autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament, and comprises the Doordarshan Television Network and All India Radio. In 2014, the DD Bharati Channel of Doordarshan, India’s only 24 hour Channel dedicated to Art and Culture, opened its doors for lateral inclusion of advisors who were domain specialists. In that process, I was selected as the only advisor for dance. Subsequently other aspects were opened to me as well, but initially my work consisted only of curating afresh from Doordarshan’s immense archives, thematic series, that were enriched and value added by commentaries, superimposed explanatory text, and announcements. The work gave me immense joy as I was able to call upon a lifetime of engagement with dance, and use it on a large modern platform to create new viewers for television and a new audience for dance.

ARSHIYA SETHI began her association with All India Radio at the age of 16. She shifted to Doordarshan as a presenter and soon found her niche in dance and music. For many years she presented the National Programme of Dance and Music. Subsequently, she became the dance critic at Times of India, Delhi. She was a part of the team that set up the India Habitat Centre, making it a much sought after cultural centre. She has dealt with many tangible and intangible cultural properties. She has run several festivals, and curated many more. She runs a dance film festival called DanzLenz and has completed her doctorate on Sattriya, the Classical Dance of Assam. From 2014 to 2016, she was an advisor with DD Bharati. 70 Nartanam

On the Platter of ABU International Television Dance Festival

MADHAVI PURANAM At the outset it may be prudent to mention that this is a review-article which provides a report, analysis, and a critique of the first edition of Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) International Television Dance Festival. Ac- cording to Merriam Webster dictionary a 'critique' is an alteration of an archaic word that referred generally to criticism. However, today, critique is a somewhat formal word that typically refers to a careful judgment in which someone gives an opinion about something. The intention of this cri- tique is as constructive as it is ruthless in not mincing words. The writer hopes that it will help put together the best practices in planning and execu- tion of the future editions of the ABU dance festival. The inaugural edition of the ABU International Television Dance Festival on 15 January 2017 was a gala designed to introduce the Asia-Pacific region’s cultural diversity to a world audience through television. This was the first ever International Dance Festival mounted by ABU with Prasar Bharati, the Telangana government and Doordarshan as the organizing partners. The concert was broadcast widely through television. Taking the centre stage were young performers from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, India, Maldives, Philippines, and Uzbekistan. In the coming years the festival is slated to assume the format of a dance reality show for television.

A glitzy stage with over ornate lighting and stage design with half the auditorium reserved for the VIPs, and the staff of Prasar Bharati, Doordarshan and the Government of Telangana, with flower decorations at the entrance, and cut outs of dancers of various styles, it was a festive atmosphere at the Shilpakala Vedika MADHAVI PURANAM is the Chief Editor of Nartanam. A trained Kuchipudi dancer, she has postgraduate degrees in Business Administration, and Performing Arts. Her book, An Indian Analysis of Aesthetics: The Dance, the Dancer and the Spectator with a foreword by Kapila Vatsyayan, was published in 2015 by Abhinav Publications, New Delhi. She is a recipient of the Senior Research Fellowship, and the Tagore Scholarship, awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. She is currently working on a book on Arts Management in India. 90 Nartanam

ABU International Dance Festival: An Experience

VIKAS NAGRARE “We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once,” Friedreich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, philologist, and Latin & Greek scholar once famously said. That’s an unexpected quote from someone who is known for solemn philosophy theories. Dance is indeed a major stress buster and also a medium that portrays the cultural aspects of a particular land. Cultural diversity is a driving force of development, not only in respect of economic growth, but also as a means of leading a more fulfilling, intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual life. In this age of reality shows, there is a plethora of programs which have succeeded to a large extent in bringing the audience to television. There are various dance reality shows that glitter and shimmer with a horde of TV and film stars, grand sets, glittering costumes and celebrity judges. The shows are based on Bollywood, popular, contemporary, hip hop and western dance styles. The emphasis for the TV channels is to enhance their TRP or viewership where every second counts and needs to be monetized. Very few shows or TV channels focus on the traditional styles of dances. Thus, there is a potential to come up with a niche property that solely focuses on the indigenous dance forms, which represent the innate essence of a country. Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) has developed a niche reality show on dance for the public broadcasters in the Asia Pacific Region. The show is

VIKAS NAGRARE is a culture, heritage and tourism entrepreneur and is into events and projects management. He was the key operational coordinator for the grand finale of the Asia-Pacific Broad- casting Union International Dance Festival. He has also coordinated the Naadbhed for SPIC MACAY as its Head, India. He has also served as a Deputy Director, Confederation of Indian Industry. He is currently working on the Nartanam Conclave, and the International Street Art Festival, Hyderabad. He is the Chief Exective of Nartanam. 98 Nartanam

Uparupakas and Nritya-Prabandhas

V. RAGHAVAN A study of this subject, Uparupakas and Nritya-prabandhas, is necessary for the light it could throw on the history and development of many a dance-form prevalent in different parts of the country. The ancient Indian stage was a growing one and at one point in its growth it was considered useful to classify the performances into two kinds, the rupakas and the uparupakas. Broadly speaking, the rupakas are major forms of drama and the uparupakas minor forms of drama in which music and dance predominated and most of which were forms of dance-drama or regular dances. This distinction cannot however be strictly enforced because in the rupaka class, considered to comprise the ten forms – dasa rupaka – not all could be entitled to be characterised as regular or major dramatic types. Barring the two leading types, the heroic nataka and the social prakarana with their derivative product the natika and the farce, prahasana, in one or two Acts, the others were lesser or irregular forms. Except probably in the case of the vyayoga, we have no survivals of early specimens to know what exactly the ancient forms of dima, anka, samavakara and ihamriga were like. The veethi and the bhana, of which latter we have some definite idea from descriptions and old specimens, were not examples of drama proper and could legitimately be classified among the uparupakas. The technical distinction which Natya Sastra works make between rupakas and uparupakas is that while the former present a full rasa with other rasas as

V. RAGHAVAN (1908-1979) was Professor of Sanskrit, Madras University. A renowned scholar, he received numerous awards and honours, including the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit research and a Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship. A great authority on Sanskrit, he published copiously and edited the Journal of the Music Academy, Madras. This article was published in Sangeet Natak Number 76 April- June 1985 and also in Number 2, April 1966. It is being reproduced here with permission from Nandini Ramani, Managing Trustee, Dr. V. Raghavan Centre for Performing Arts. 116 Nartanam

A Nachni and her Rasik: a dancing community of Purulia (West Bengal)

SVETLANA RYZHAKOVA Dance today is undoubtedly a cultural brand of India and “Indianness”. At both arrival and departure halls of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi the very first thing and the last thing one can see today are symbols of dance and music: huge bas-reliefs of hand positions (hasta-mudras), dancers' figures, musical instruments. No Indian official events now – from a tiny local conference to a regional and national government meeting could happen without dance and music programs at the end. Dancers and musicians of all levels hold National awards.

Yet until quite recently, dance and dancers were marginal: only about 70 years ago social status of almost all traditional dancing communities was very low. A peculiar feature of Indian social set-up – prolonged coexistence of the many types of communities, created the condition for reserving skills, crafts and jobs including music, theatre and dance, to the particular group. So as any other job, dance used to be an inherited one, installed in the frame of exchange system (jajmani) between patrons and clients. Musicians and dancers – along with various servants sometimes – were not welcomed in some houses of upper castes families before. At the same time dancing – as well as shaving the head, for instance, and many more manipulations with body – was an important element for some Hindu rituals and festivities.

In a short time period between the 1920-s and 1950-s dance went through transformation, and from predominantly low and dependant character, it got the SVETLANA RYZHAKOVA is a leading research fellow at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow; a member of Indian Anthropological Society, and the European Association of Cultural Anthropologists. She teaches Ethnography of South Asia and History of Indian religion in Russian State University for Humanities. Since 1996, she is learning Kathak from Guru Rajendra Gangani, visiting India for a couple of months every year. From 1998, she is conducting extensive cultural anthropological fieldwork in various parts of India, with the main subject being the local and regional performance traditions. 128 Nartanam

PERFORMANCE REVIEWS

Delhi Diary

Leela Venkataraman

Perhaps to make up for the two lean months of June and July when the holiday season with schools closed sees a lean period for performance activities from June to August, April and May have been frenetic with activity.

The Delhi audience perhaps is one of the most pampered with free performances thrown open to one and all. A place of distances with public transport hazards, with a dancer community afraid of having to face near empty auditoriums not to speak of organisers reluctant to grapple with entertainment tax ordeals have all contributed to a generally held view that dance performances in particular, if ticketed, will have few takers. Not only has this created a feeling of entitlement in audiences, but it has also devalued the art form. While orating from platforms about having to change this state of affairs, very little has actually been done. Under the circumstances one applauds the bold step taken by the Jyotsna Shourie Dance Society, for making its annual Divinity Series festival, mounted this year at Habitat’s Stein Auditorium, a ticketed event. Contrary to all doomsday predictions, each of the three evenings drew a decent crowd, and this despite the opening day featuring an oft seen local Kathak artist Vidha Lal, a Kathak performer with all the razzmatazz. Of the other two artists, this was a repeat performance for Meenakshi Srinivasan, who has been featured in the same festival a couple of years back. A fast rising Bharatanatyam dancer, her presentation comprised Guru Dhandayudapani’s varnam Mohamaginen in Karaharapriya followed by a very sensitive portrayal of Agni Pravesham, with a strong take-off point and evocative support in Hariprasad’s score and singing.

With male Bharatanatyam dancers now competing for a place in the top with the women who till now have dominated the art form, it was wise to have sponsored the Bangalore dancer Parshwanath Upadhye. A dazzling dancer to watch with Nartanam 141 SPIC MACAY’s tryst with India’s cultural heritage

Leela Venkataraman

It was forty eventful years ago that Kiran Seth embarked on his SPIC MACAY movement with a vision of reaching out to youth in every part of the country – exposing each child to the richness of India’s cultural heritage. It is not unknown that constant exposure in young age to the harmonious, artistic and creative side of man in art forms, can sensitise and nurture the more caring instincts thereby softening the aggressive competitive urges which seem to be overwhelmingly bringing out the baser instincts in the young today. And yet this mammoth voluntary effort, now comprising 850 chapters spread all over India, is still plodding without an annual government grant – the minimum that can be done for an endeavour which is really trying to make up for our educational lapse in not being able to include this significant aspect in the curriculum. The Prime Minister in his video conferencing inaugural address to the assembled guests very significantly pointed out, “No country which has forgotten its inheritance has been able to go ahead.” One can only hope that voluntary movement ensuring that this heritage lives on and does not languish, will get the financial succour it needs, to be able to be spread to every corner of the country.

The 5th annual convention of SPIC MACAY mounted in Delhi’s IIT premises, attracting over 1500 students from all parts of the country despite nagging endemic headaches, and the gruelling daily grind starting in the wee hours of the morning at 4am attending the various Yoga classes, rolled on according to a set time table. Since IIT campuses can be availed of only during the summer vacation, soaring temperatures have become an inevitable component of every convention along with power cuts which are not unusual. Not enough accommodation for far too many participants and occupancy spread in guest houses outside the campus created some headaches in the teeth of which over 40 intensives were painstakingly mounted attracting very enthusiastic participants. Covering several disciplines and genres of dance and music (organised in the Lecture Hall premises) a peep into each of these intensives by a visitor yielded a varied experience and occasional pearls of wisdom, with Gurus trying to inform youngsters about the inner truth of certain aspects of their art form.

The music/dance correlation became doubly clear as Guru Munna Lal Shukla of the Lucknow school of Kathak stressed the fluid grace of hand movements travelling through the air which he described as ‘meend’ which is a musical grace. It was interesting to watch Rajendra Gangani from the Jaipur school of Kathak show how in a ‘Kavit’ (dance composition and different from poetic Kavitha or Nartanam 145

BOOK REVIEWS

1. BUNCH OF JAVALIS / 2011/ Pappu Venugopala Rao / pp 228 / Hardbound/ Rs.800:00/ US $45/ Pappus Academic & Cultural Trust/ Chennai (with ACD containing ten Javalis sung) 2. FRAGRANCE OF PADAMS / 2015/ Pappu Venugopala Rao / pp 356 / Hardbound / Rs.999:00 / US $49/ Karnatic Music Book Centre/Chennai (with VCD containing eight padams performed) These two books are the greatest nail their delineation to these aids ever to dancers seeking a deep specifications. knowledge of Telugu songs, through One point to be kept in mind. English. Each book contains short notes Spontaneous vaggeyakaras would not about the composers, transliteration, have felt the need to tie the hero-heroine translation and notation of the songs in into a neat definitions in his song, English and at the end, lyrics in Telugu specifying, he is a vaisika; she is a and Tamil. Also given is technical samanya etc. Inspired as they were by information about the different nayikas real life and leavened with a bit of their and nayakas, their mental states. To a own imagination, they wrote; some beginner, indispensable. For the songs might naturally fall into a experienced dancer, seeking insight into category, to some extent. A javali, being the author’s intent, a helpful guide. of a shorter span, is more likely to The javali book has Bhanudatta’s conform. A padam might have more classifications on nayikas, nayakas and skeins braided together. their associates. This aspect along with For instance, in the padam the kinds of abhinaya is dealt with more "Ninnujooda" (Kshetrayya, page 94) extensively in the book of padams. the hero and heroine are together but Essential for erudite discussions and the song describes her anguish at his academic examinations, perhaps. I do absence. My submission: all these not think many dancers who are doing divisions and classifications can be kept a good job of their javalis and padams in mind to deepen one’s knowledge of will be able to, after their performance, 154 Nartanam