PAPER 4 Detail Study Of Kathak, Nautch Girls, Nritta, Nritya, Different Gharana-s, Present Status, Institutions, Artists Module 12 Pioneers Of Kathak 1930-1950 Pioneers are those who show the path not attempted before. They lead us to light to the new ways of doing something. These are people with vision to fulfill a mission and they are given divine support by history and circumstances to do so. Thus, pioneers are people, ordinary in appearance but with special abilities and mind backed by hard work. Once a form that was long forgotten and got known and established as Kathak, many stars of other forms, most notably Bharatanatyam and Kathakali did much to learn and promote Kathak and help it reach national acclaim. In this, Bharatanatyam trained Ram Gopal, Kathakali trained Uday Shankar and pioneers in films like Menaka and Sadhona Bose took this form further and can be called pioneers, in addition to the generation that followed their example. It would not be wrong to call Uday Shankar a cult figure of the early part of the 20th century. He was a showman, a creator of magical spectacles and a dancer par excellence. He was not a trained dancer, so his movements flowed from the heart. He 1 created the Indian ballet scene because nothing like it existed before. Originally a painter, on his museum visits to delve into books, Uday got fascinated with pictures of sculptures of Hindu gods and goddesses in varied poses. He began imitating the poses. Although unfamiliar with dance techniques, the images provided inspiration to translate into dance movement. On June 20, 1922 Uday performed dance for the first time. He generated rhythmic movements with swords and daggers and called it Sword Dance. The performance called for congratulations from King George V who watched it at the garden party organized by the League of Mercy. Ballerina Anna Pavlova who was planning to produce mini ballets on Indian themes met Uday Shankar on the suggestion of an Indian official N.C. Sen and the rest is history.1 He dropped painting to concentrate on dance. He choreographed Hindu Wedding based on colorful Rajasthani weddings and Krishna and Radha based on purely decorative movements for Pavlova’s troupe. Uday as Krishna and Pavlova as Radha first presented the item at Covent Garden, London. Uday toured Europe and USA with Pavlova for nine months. In 1924, he performed at British Empire Exhibition in Wimbledon in his first appearance after leaving Pavlova’s troupe. He went to Paris where shows were not forthcoming so he danced items like Sword Dance, Nautch, Hindu Dance and Water Carrier in cabarets and revues. His dance partners were Adelide and Soki, ex-members of Pavlova’s troupe. It was Frenchwoman pianist Simone Barbier (Simkie) who became his dance partner for the next 20 years. In 1930, Uday returned with Alice Bonner - Swiss 2 painter and sculptor - to India, trained a few people and put together his troupe. His solos Shiva, Indra, Gandharva and Baiji had music by Timir Baran. His 1931 tour of France, 1932-33 tour of US and London program in April 1933 were a success, but the group disbanded on return to India.2 In 1938 he toured Europe and US with Zohra Mumtaz and her sister Uzra, Kathakali performer Madhavan, Brojobihari, Sisir Sovan, Nagen De and Ustad Allaudin Khan. During the 7 years of continuous travel, Uday Shankar and his troupe presented 889 shows averaging an astounding one show every three days. Back in India, he opened his dream Uday Shankar Cultural Centre at Almora and married his co-dancer Amala, but the dance centre folded up in 1944 and his close associates and partners Zohra and Simkie left him forever. Between 1945 and 47, he made his famous film K alpana/ in Madras where he stayed till 1955. He became dean of dance at West Bengal State Academy of Dance, Drama and Music, Kolkata, in 1955. He choreographed Tagore’s Samanyashakti in ballet style in 1960 with music by his brother Ravi Shankar. He produced Ramleela, a shadow play he choreographed at Almora. In his second shadow play based on the life of Buddha, he used color slides.3 In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, a number of dancers worked with Uday Shankar as his troupe members. In 1962-63, impresario Sol Hurok again got Uday touring in USA. Back in India, the Uday Shankar Cultural Centre was revived at Kolkata. His daughter 3 Mamta and daughter-in-law Tanusree were initiated into dance at this centre. But he soon distanced himself from the centre and his family and was beset with health problems despite which he planned his celluloid fantasy Shankarscope. 4 Uday Shankar brought radical changes in theme, using mortal, flesh and blood characters in everyday situations and their compelling labour problems. Labour and Machinery was an ode to industrial workers of the world struggling for their rights. Rhythm of Life was another unusual production of the Almora centre. His film Kalpana projected his idea of nationalism, conveyed through India’s immense artistic heritage. Shankascope was a spectacle that transported the viewer into magical realms. Uday dared to be different even in the use of musical instruments for his dance. For the first time, he used over 150 Indian musical instruments of various types and innumerable percussion instruments. There were quite a few firsts in the arena of stagecraft and lighting. Each dance abounded in experimental light play in a manner that demonstrated genius. Quite a few stage devices that became stock-in-trade for later-day stage personalities were actually introduced by Uday Shankar. Today, Uday Shankar is talked about with reverence in terms of his creative choreography and path-breaking achievements.5 In Kathak, when we think of pioneers, the name Ram Gopal comes to mind. He created travelling dance companies the likes of which the world, especially Europe, had not seen although he gave credit for his inspiration to the other light of his times, 4 Uday Shankar, whose example had preceded Ram’s by a decade. Painters sketched him, sculptors chiselled little figurines of him in movement, the press across the world raved about his performances. They hailed him as “India’s answer to Nijinsky” in the earlier part of the 20th century. From London to New York, Hollywood to Japan, Ram Gopal was one of the earliest to put India on the world dance map. To Indian classical dancers from the flower-power generation of the ’70s, he was someone who achieved unimaginable heights for an Indian dancer. Ram Gopal was born in 1912 in Bangalore to a Rajput lawyer father and a Burmese mother. Despite parental opposition, he took up dance as a profession after he saw the palace dancers at the famous Mysore Dussehra celebrations as a child. Seeing his enthusiasm for dance, he was greatly patronised by the prince of Mysore. By the end of his teens, Ram was already the most sought-after dancer in the Mysore State. He went ahead to take lessons in Kathak from Guru Sohan Lal of the Jaipur gharana, who was settled in Bangalore. Alongside, he began visiting Kerala and training in Kathakali from Guru Kunju Kurup at Kalamandalam. He and Mrinalini Swaminathan (Sarabhai) took lessons in Bharatanatyam under legendary guru Meenakshisundaram Pillai. He took elements from each of these dance forms and created his own unique style, which became extremely popular with the western audiences as "Oriental Dance."6 Seeing one of his successful performances, the famous Russian 5 dancer La Meri, who was touring south India, invited him to join her entourage in 1936. What would have otherwise been an exciting tour ended with an abrupt halt in Japan. La Meri could not digest the rave reviews and popularity Ram received and decided to dump him midway through the tour. Ram struggled his way back to Bangalore. Establishing his own dance company, he began experimenting with choreography. Several dancers like Tara Choudhry, Shevanti and Javanese dancer Retna Mohini joined his dance company. South India’s biggest music orchestra, The Saraswati Orchestra, with over 25 members, headed by M.S. Natarajan, provided music to Ram Gopal’s dance productions in those years. Invitations came from far and wide. His first dance tours to Europe began soon after. In London, Glasgow, Ireland and elsewhere, Ram stunned his audiences. Such was the importance given to him in London that he was invited to perform at the inauguration of the Indian section at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1947. In 1955, Ram was the first Indian dancer to perform at the South Bank Center. Kathak dancer Kumudini Lakhia was a part of this historic tour. In the mid-1950s, Ram had a brief stint in Hollywood. He played minor roles in movies like The Purple Plain and William Dieterle's Elephant Walk for which he also choreographed the dance sequences. He eventually settled down in London.7 The latter part of 1947 and beginning of 1948 saw Gopal dancing extensively in London and touring the UK. His 4-week season at London’s Prince’s Theatre was sold out every night. Gopal tailored his programs to western audiences by 6 introducing and explaining each dance before its performance. Some of his popular dances were setting Sun and Garuda plus many Bharatanatyam items. He brought dancers trained in Manipuri from India who performed Rangapuja (blessing the stage) and Surya Puja (offering to the sun). All items were short, varied with solos, some duets and group choreography. Gopal cherished a vision of east-west collaboration in dance since the days of his first successful performances in 1939 in Britain.