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PAPER 5 DANCE, POETS AND POETRY, RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY AND INDIAN CLASSICAL DANCE MODULE 34 THE NATIONAL STAGE AND COMING TOGETHER OF DANCES As part of the National movement when the arts helped us build our own identity as a nation, the splendid isolation that many of them had experienced till then. Some of the early institutions like the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Santhas focused on the pursuits of single arts, Music in this case, much as the Gharanas / घराना of music did. There were a few exceptions to the argument of isolation, as in the case the sudden arrival of Bharata Natyam in Vadodara, as part of Tanjore princess Chimnabai’s dowry when she married the Maharaja of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, in 1883. There were however, some cultural institutions that were pushing the artistic renaissance- Tagore’s Visva Bharati at Shantiniketan, built in 1921 out of the purse he received as part of the Nobel Prize. Visva Bharati was built as a reaction of the western education that Tagore encountered when he was studying in England. Tagore offered and alternative model in the vision and life of Shantiniketan. A close relationship with nature and the arts was its mainstay. Tagore was a painter, poet and a musician when he came to dance. It was in a way his last engagement with an artistic discipline. Thus he had a mature, open minded and sagacious approach to it. He had already written extensively on it- Chitrangada, Natir Puja, etc. by the time he began the practice of dance. He recognised that it was a very creative way of getting women involved in a public role. Thus for him the spirit was more important that the rules and regulations of any style, as 1 the spirit freed while rules and regulations shackled. That is why the Visva Bharati dancing style does not clearly prescribe to any form, accounting for why the dance of Shantiniketan has a free flowing feel to it. Other institutions that were affecting a renaissance in the arts were Kerala Kalamandalam built in 1930 with the poet Vallathol and Manakkulam Mukund Raja as co-founders and Rukmini Devi’s Kalakshetra built in 1936 that were encouraging the arts to come close in a creatively salubrious environment. For instance, in 1940, Kathakali Asan T.K. Chandu Panikkar joined Kalakshetra and taught many including V.P. Dhananjayan. Since then in the ballets produced by Kalakshetra, one of the flavours is Kathakali. Similarly, in Shantiniketan it was Manipuri Dance that found a new location and left an indelible mark on the dance cultures associated with Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Interestingly, in the initial years, the Manipuri teachers of Shantiniketan came via the Tripura route and not directly from Manipur. Apart from Manipuri, Shantiniketan hosted Kathakali and Mohiniattam from Kerala. As a result of his overseas travels, Tagore was also acquainted with Kandyan, Javanese and Balinese dances, elements of which he was able to incorporate in the Shantiniketan dancing style. The Ceylonese dance was formally taught at Shantiniketan. After travelling the world and having tasted international fame with his Uday Shankar Troupe of Hindu dancers that did a hard to pinpoint to any one known dance style, it was in 1938, that he finally made India his base, and established the 'Uday Shankar India Cultural Centre', at the Himalayan Village of Simtola, 3 km from Amlora, in what is now Uttarakhand. Here he invited Sankaran Namboodri for Kathakali, Kandappa Pillai for Bharata Natyam, Amobi Singh for Manipuri and Allauddin Khan, his brother’s Guru, known for his catholic approach to teaching, for music. A large assemblage of 2 performers was drawn to this sylvan setting where the best masters came together to create possibly India’s first multi style training center. The center had some commonalities with Tagore Visva Bharati in the closeness to nature and a non-restrictive creative environment. The Uday Shankar Centre, however, closed after four years in 1942, due to a paucity of funds. But its place in history cannot be ignored for it was the first time that different dance forms were living and working so close together. The work that thus emerged was described as a renaissance of sorts and helped free the Indian cultural mind to some extent. It would appear that it was for the churning that was happening at the Uday Shankar Centre at Simtola, that these lines were written: Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action (Taken from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “Where the mind is without fear”) So liberating was the environment in Simtola, that despite the heartbreak of having to leave it, in 1948, Uday Shankar made his magnum opus film- ‘Kalpana” at Chennai’s Gemini Studio, using a dance language that was unique and which many described as being reflective of India, as it captured the diversity of many dance forms in a creative manner. Even as the new nation was being created, this 3 creative language of dance that he was using seemed reflective of the process. Inspired by the idea of a multi-arts center, some of the centers that came up in post independent India took on a multiple arts profile, and became associated with the revival of those arts that were seeing poorer days or were even languishing. Though they picked up such arts in an opportunist manner in the sense when they were provided grants or when a practitioner was available to lead the department, their work soon bore the impress of the many streams of dance. Many of these centers were located in Delhi that was fast becoming the cultural capital of the country. The case of Sriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra is an example. Set up originally in 1947 as Jhankar, it became a formal school in 1952. Under the guidance of Sumitra Charatram it attracted the finest talent. Among those who were associated with the Kendra in the initial years were Pt Shambhu Maharaj and Pt. Birju Maharaj for Kathak, who created some significant work to the music of the Dagar brothers who were also there. Soon the Kendra was to add on a Kathakali, and Mayurbhanj Chhau section. The Kendra takes the credit for uplifting Kathak when it was going through a bad phase, before the Kathak Kendra was established by the government of India. It was also able to give Mayurbhanj Chhau a fresh lease of life and with these diverse inputs ended up creating a series of dance dramas/ ballets that showcased them. The first such major experiment that the Kendra created was Ramlila that is now an institution as it gets performed annually. The first production took place in 1957. The script was written by Hindi poet, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, with lights designed by Tapas Sen and Inder Razdan. Uday Shankar’s colleague dancer Narendra Sharma was a principal dancer along with his wife Jayanti Sharma. None other than 4 the Prime Minister of India, inaugurated it. Subsequent to the success of the Ramlila, SBKK created a whole range of memorable ballets using the language of Mayurbhanj Chhau in a creative manner. Soon the Ramlila too began to bear the impress of the various departments of dance styles that the Kendra opened. Dance energy and kinetics are contagious after all! In the early years of the nation the arts, particularly dance was used as a tool for diplomacy. Around the same time before visiting dignitaries at Rashtrapati Bhawan a tradition began of showcasing the arts of India, particularly the classical arts of India. Thus ten to fifteen minute pieces were presented by different artistes. Some of the artistes themselves performed more than one dance in an evening as they had taken training for a few items in many styles. Shanta Rao, Indrani Rahman, Vyjayanthimala Bali, Yamini Krishnamurthy come to mind. These dancers would perform at least two if not more styles in every performance. Indrani would dance Bharatnatyam for the first part, and then Odissi for the second. Shanta Rao would do Kathakali and then Mohiniattam, Yamini Krishnamurthy had learnt Bharatnatyam, Odissi and Kuchipudi. These pioneers of dance did yeoman service to popularize the many dance forms of India, when very few modern educated women were dancing publicly. Slowly the critical mass of dancers, dance forms and dance repertoire grew enough to create a robust dance scene in India that was aware of the many dance forms that existed and that had begun valorizing dance a big change from the days that saw it suffering a stigma. The annual Republic Day Parade showcases India's Defense Capability, Cultural and Social Heritage. This is a rare case of a Ministry of Defence managed endeavor includes so much culture, albeit all moving at the pace of military boots and to military precision. With dancing troupes coming from states, from NCC 5 battalions and from local schools, with fascinatingly imaginative state floats often carrying dancers as signifiers of culture, and the accompanying Republic day folk dance festival with almost a thousand dancers each evening herded in expertly by the baton of a show choreographer, one encounters the Union of India. For years this event has sensitized Indians to the diversity of India’s cultural scape. However, the parade has played an intrusive and transformative role in the dances that it carries along.