July 2018 ON Stagevolume 7 • issue 12 VIVIAN LIFF, GEORGE STUART AND THEIR INCREDIBLE GIFT TO THE NCPA CHATURANG KI CHAUPAL Kathak on the Chaupal NONA Winner of four METAs NCPA Chairman Khushroo N. Suntook Executive Director & Council Member Deepak Bajaj Editorial Director Radhakrishnan Nair Editor-in-Chief Oishani Mitra Contents Consulting Editor Ekta Mohta Senior Sub-editor 12 Cynthia Lewis Editorial Co-ordinator Hilda Darukhanawalla Art Director Amit Naik Deputy Art Directors Hemali Limbachiya Tanvi Shah Graphic Designer Vidhi Doshi Advertising Anita Maria Pancras ([email protected]; 66223820) Tulsi Bavishi ([email protected]; 9833116584) Senior Digital Manager Jayesh V. Salvi Published by Deepak Bajaj for The National Centre for the Performing Arts, NCPA Marg, Nariman Point, Mumbai – 400021 Produced by Editorial Office 4th Floor, Todi Building, Mathuradas Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai - 400013 Features Printer Spenta Multimedia, Peninsula Spenta, Mathuradas Mill Compound, N. M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel, 08 Mumbai – 400013 Reflections 14 On the importance of humanities. Kathak on the Chaupal Materials in ON Stage cannot be reproduced in By Anil Dharker It was a casual anecdote from Birju part or whole without the written permission Maharaj over two decades of the publisher. Views and opinions expressed ago that led to the creation of in this magazine are not necessarily those of 10 Chaturang Ki Chaupal. By Library of Voices the publisher. All rights reserved. Shama Bhate If you’re even remotely interested in opera, NCPA Booking Office there are few starting points better than the 2282 4567/6654 8135/6622 3724 Stuart-Liff Collection, housed at the NCPA. www.ncpamumbai.com By Devanshi Shah 18 The Unfettered Song Hymns and songs in Sanskrit and 12 Pali when composed in Hindustani Nona’s Great Run classical ragas can be a bridge to Nona is Malayalam theatre director Jino the wisdom of ancient sages. Joseph’s latest play to sweep the METAs By Dr. Subhadra Desai 22 Letters to the Editor ON The Viennese School Thank you for a most interesting article, ‘The Viennese School’ in your June 2018 issue, covering the period of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. I would like to add information given in the article. There is a ‘cluster-phenomenon’ in the study and research of reincarnation that defies explanation. At infrequent periods in history, several geniuses appear at the same time. Usually they know each other, and their fame lasts through centuries. Then, a century or two later, another cluster of talented men dominates the scene, and like comets, they disappear for another hundred years or so. Shakespeare and Bacon is an unforgettable cluster. Leonardo da Vinci and Verrocchio even worked together. During their lifetime, two great artists, Michelangelo and Raphael vied with each other at exhibitions. Da Vinci and Michelangelo also displayed their works in 1504 at Florence. In the world of music, about 22 two centuries later, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert appeared. A Coming of Age 36 century later, there were Brahms, Liszt and Schumann. In the philosophical Clash of the Titans Since 2010, Con Brio has Rhondda Rips it Up! by the world, we saw Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot (who all believed in been pushing the limits of Welsh National Opera and reincarnation). Western classical music performed Lessons in Love and Violence The same cluster-phenomenon in the 19th century produced a in India, with a focus on local by the Royal Opera House glittering array of poets and philosophers, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, talent. By Florestan Furtado offered two different William Bryant, Henry Longfellow, Oliver Holmes and Walt Whitman. An approaches to opera accident? There is no such thing as accident in nature. Souls repeatedly this season. By Ashutosh return in groups to develop their talents to greater heights. Romantic 26 Khandekar poets who simultaneously illumined English literature (another cluster- Sunday Play phenomenon) like Blake, Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, By earmarking one Sunday Keats and Landor may have formed another cluster of talented people every month for children’s in various fields. So, yes, noble souls do know each other through several theatre, the NCPA has given it a 38 The Dashavatara Tradition births. permanent platform year-round. of the Konkan By Reshma O. Pathare Best Wishes, In the second part of this two-part article, C. T. Khanolkar Ruby Lilaowala 30 talks about the intricacies of a Fall for Paris dashavatara performance Follow us on: Robert Doisneau’s photography facebook.com/NCPAMumbai made you do just that 40 @NCPAMumbai Programme Guide NCPAMumbai All of July’s events at the NCPA 34 youtube.com/user/TheNCPAMumbai1 SOI Across the Country A wind quartet consisting of pinterest.com/ncpamumbai JONES - players from the SOI toured 50 some key academic and cultural What’s Next ROSEN institutions across the country. What to expect in the following We look forward to your feedback and suggestions. Please do drop us an TANYA By Nikhil Sardana months email at [email protected]. PRODUCTION It was a casual anecdote from Birju Maharaj over Kathakon the two decades ago that led to the creation of Chaturang Ki Chaupal. Chaupal By Shama Bhate While creating Chaturang Ki Chaupal, dancers were placed on the chaupal board and then the Kathak was designed KAUSTUBH ATRE ime and space Through centuries, Kathak experimentation. Of course, it would mean creating a dance space. Every culture has described the performing Shama Bhate are two eternal has travelled from the deliberate hindrance for the dance movements first, and platform as a playground and the performance as a entities: the temple space to the court, then finding a smooth solution to that hindrance next. It play. Besides, there is an unwritten rule in music and world revolves to a chauraha (a village was as if I was sacrificing the free space the proscenium dance, which all gurus and buzurgs (elders) insist around them. square), to a kotha (a small stage provided. on: one should be able to play with the rhythm and TNo event in this world, confined place in the house The next vital decision was the choice of music. I was musical notes. In other words, the unfolding has to be therefore, can remain of a prostitute), and finally dealing with an innovative space, so the music had to easy, flowing, natural and effortless. So my innovative untouched by these to the proscenium stage be traditional. I chose chaturangs, which are rich, old space had to be a playful, light-hearted space. After omnipotent forces. It is after Independence. Every and rare compositions consisting all, any dance composition therefore natural that all art stipulated space inevitably of four components – sahitya is nothing but a play of forms mirror human values, changed the character of (literature), tarana (melody), In Chaturang Ki Chaupal, bodylines, movements, sensitivities and ideals in the dance. In the temples, it sargam (musical notes) and stances and shapes in the their expression through was an offering to the gods; naach ke bol (dance syllables). the four mighty ragas given space. these two dimensions. the dance was not meant for I was certain that a chaturang, are using the dancers This choreography is a Dance is an audio-visual spectators. With the result which is considered the essence play with the ragas, their medium of expression. that it was conceived and of a raga and represents the raga like their dice specific characteristics Both time and space danced with only the frontal in totality, would provide me with and their emotions. play an important role in view in mind. The purpose a full scope to explore all aspects Normally, dance leads and the manifestation of this changed as the dance arrived of Kathak in depth and entirety. According to our music follows. Here, the four mighty ragas are using art form. A movement, in the courts of kings. The ancient treatises, every raga has its specific character the dancers like their dice. To prove their own point, by definition, has to be available space for the dance and is ascribed with a certain bhaav or emotion. they playfully challenge and needle each other, make rhythmically balanced again was very small, but the I decided to choose four different chaturangs in four repartee with each other, even share their secrets. and visually aesthetic to placement of the spectators different ragas: Yaman, a pleasant raga; Jaijaiwanti, a But in the end, they go hand-in-hand to create a be defined as a dance changed the character of romantic raga; Adana, a valorous raga; and Bhairavi, an wholesome unified impact, which is calledChaturang movement. In Kathak, the the dance in terms of the all-encompassing raga. Ki Chaupal. exploration of rhythm is look (nazar), the stances, the thorough and deep and is gestures and the inclusion The playground of life Chaturang Ki Chaupal will be staged on 29th July at evident to everyone, as the of spectacles such as whirls There is one other reason for choosing a chaupal as my the Experimental Theatre. dance progresses from one and turns and the quick composition to the other. footwork. The purpose was A scene from In earlier times, Kathak to please the lords. My idea Chaturang Ki Chaupal was a solo dance. As such, for Chaturang Ki Chaupal the visual exploration was came from the next space: limited to a lone figure. Now the chauraha. I am tempted that the dance is presented to narrate an anecdote about in a group, the use of space this concept, which Pandit has acquired another Birju Maharaj narrated to me a important dimension and few years ago. He said, “While meaning. The visuals have Through centuries, I was dancing in a chauraha, become more and more the audience was all around.