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Birthdays & Anniversaries
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
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South Asian Dance Retreat returns to Columbus
By Fenella Kennedy
The South Asian Dance Retreat (SADR) was organised for the third year at the Ohio State University, Columbus. It was supported by the Barnett Center for Integrated Arts and Enterprise in collaboration with the Department of dance, The Ohio State University, and involved Kala Pradarshini dance school run by senior Bharatanatyam dancer Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala in Chennai. The two-week intensive, led by Parvathi and Odissi dancer Kaustavi Sarkar, brought together Indian classical dance and music from different countries to collaborate, teach, share and grow from each other’s practices.
The class structure consisted of a series of exercises and basic movement patterns aimed toward improving body alignment and coordination. The techniques demanded a strong sense of rhythm, musicality and body awareness. The students learnt excerpts from the established repertoire in Bharatanatyam and Odissi, along with their historical, cultural and socio-political context. The two-week dance intensive culminated through two showcases of the participants and the choreographers.
Kaustavi Sarkar's years of experience as an Odissi dancer were amply displayed in the grace and clarity she brought to teaching and performing. She is also a respected scholar in multiple fields of dance research – this year she received the Hayes Research Award for The Arts in recognition of her interdisciplinary work on Odissi dance, Critical Theory, and Motion Capture Technology.
Her co-organiser, Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala, brought a similar pioneering spirit to the art of Bharatanatyam as a performer, teacher, choreographer and organiser with over three decades experience in Chennai. Parvathi aims to create an intelligent synthesis of classical culture and contemporary resources, collaborating with distinguished musicians and making innovative use of multimedia in performance.
The decision of the university's Dance Department to co-sponsor this year’s retreat was a testament to the efforts of Kaustavi and Parvathi, and allowed for a broader range of classes and instructors than ever before. Students came from all kinds of backgrounds, several countries and experiences, from beginners, to those who had been dancing their whole lives.
What made SADR special was the showcasing of the workshop participants in their own event. Parvathi’s mature and critical teaching techniques were beautifully demonstrated by a spellbinding performance by the students. The performances at the end of the retreat clearly showed how each dancer had been celebrated.
Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala celebrated the patient serenity of Seeta in a luxuriously textured embodiment of love, endurance and dignity; while Kaustavi’s presentation of Draupadi and Radha, with dancer Sriradha Paul, was engaging in its conspiratorial scheming, which culminated in a breathtaking group tillana jugalbandi of Bharatanatyam and Odissi choreographed specifically for the event by Parvathi and Kaustavi. Both of them acknowledged that the teacher’s worth is by the way a student performs, and this showcase received a standing ovation for several minutes, asserting the quality of their work.
While the first part of the showcase was the students of the SADR, the second was to highlight the guru-sishya parampara through Samanvaya, the succession of teachers and disciples in traditional Indian classical dance and the nurturing of the pedagogy of oral transmission practices.
Samanvaya was a tribute that brought together gurus and their sishyas from three different dance legacies of the two different Indian classical dance forms of Bharatanatyam and Odissi. It featured Bharatanatyam gurus Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala (Director of Kalapradharshini, Chennai, India) and Priya Gajaananan (Kalabhavanam, Columbus, Ohio), and Odissi guru Kaustavi Sarkar (Odissi at Ohio State and Kaustavi Movement Company), with sishya Shreyah Mohanselvan (a teenage dance prodigy and high school junior at Columbus Academy, Gahanna, Ohio). It is interesting to note that Shreyah had her Bharatanatyam arangetram in Columbus, Ohio at the age of 12 under the tutelage of Priya Gajaanana; her Odissi manchapravesa in Chennai in August 2015 at the age of 15 under the guidance of Kaustavi Sarkar; and her Bharatanatyam debut in Chennai, under the guidance of Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala. The disciple was truly blessed to have the opportunity to perform with her three gurus and made them proud.
With the deities Siva, Jagannatha and Ganesa gracing the stage, the programme was a visual delight and treat to the audience in the harmonious sequencing of the different items – an invocation to Ganesa in Bharatanatyam and to Durga in Odissi, depiction of the love of Krishna and Radha in Bharatanatyam, and the playful interactions of Radha and her sakhi in Odissi. Last but not least, an exploration of the many interpretations and connotations of rain in the strong Dikkugal ettum in Bharatanatyam, and the melodious and soothing Varsha duet in Odissi left the audience spellbound.
Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala captured perfectly the sentiment behind the event in her speech, “We senior artists would like to pass this art to the new generation. We encourage the younger generation to take on this art with passion.” The performance ended to a resounding standing ovation and concluded the annual South Asian Dance Retreat hosted by the Department of Dance.
Indian classical dance has found a passionate champion in the Mid-West, and Columbus will look forward to Kaustavi Sarkar and Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala's future collaborations and the return of the SADR next year.
One student commented that the highlight of the retreat had been the chance to experience and compare different forms of Indian classical dance; another praised the “tireless and whole-hearted commitment” of her instructors and peers. Dance Department chair, Susan Hadley, valued the retreat’s connection to the local community: “I would like to see the retreat return in the future, continuing to provide a bridge between town and gown, global and local, music and dance.”
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
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Bharatanatyam in Brussels
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| Students of Nada Brahma |
In the past decade, much of Belgium has woken up to the undeniable presence of India – not only in the political and economic, but also in the cultural scene. Although largely influenced by Bollywood films (big banner releases worldwide also happen in Brussels and Antwerp multiplexes simultaneously), the sheer increase in the number of globetrotting Indians opting to live in this tiny country for short periods of one to three years or more, meant avenues to pursue Indian art and culture were more visibly sought by these expats. Exposure to the “exotic” culture by way of Indian neighbours or increased travel to the Indian subcontinent and easy access to information by Westerners have piqued their interest and involvement in some truly ethnic forms of Indian music and dance. The Europalia festival in 2014, featuring Indian music and dance legends performing all over Belgium also did much to help the cause. While the South Asian dance scene is more pervasive and quite mainstream in neighbouring Netherlands with its large Surinamese population with Indian roots, the Belgian community is discovering the Indian community as not only highly skilled professionals for the labour market, but also with an enriching art and culture heritage.
Today there are at least a bunch of schools for Indian music and dance run by either Indians/ Asians (clicmusic – Sangit School Brussels for Hindustani music; Artlounge9 – for primarily Bollywood based and semiclassical dance) or by Westerners who have taken to the vibrancy of India’s cultural palate (Mayasapera dance company specialising in a variety of classical dance forms of India, and Bollywood fare as well). One such school – Nada Brahma – run by the Belgian guru Eric Rozen specialising in Bharatanatyam recently held its annual dance event Natya Mala in Palais du Midi in Brussels.
Eric Rozen himself has been active on the Belgo dance and music scene for over 20 years. Once he witnessed his first guru Monica Kunz’s Bharatanatyam performance there was no turning back for him he says. She introduced him to her own guru, the Bangalore-based dancer Nirupama of the Nirupama-Rajendra dancing couple fame, from whom he still learns regularly.
Alone and with many of his students, Eric has visited Nirupama’s school to train under the watchful eyes of the accomplished artist for many years in a row. Nirupama also visited Belgium in 2013 on the behest of the dance school to conduct a workshop. Many senior students of the school have given private programmes ranging from conducting beginners workshops to Indian community-organised events including for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Brussels in March 2016.
The choreographies in Natya Mala 2016 were by Eric’s own gurus with minor adaptations done at Brussels. The students of the school are a truly international mix coming from Japan, China, Canada, France, Greece, Italy, Belgium and India, ranging in age from seven to until you can move your limbs in a coordinated fashion for the adavus. Which also means varied competency levels and skills of the participating students.
The programme opened with a pushpanjali in Arabhi, followed by the alarippu, jatiswaram in Kanada, and Natesa Kavuttuvam in Hamsadhwani. The heavy pieces of varnam in Natakurinji and a tillana in Kathanakutoohalam were performed by many senior dancers whose years of experience shone brilliantly. In an effort to confirm to a classic margam, with a specific sequence of dances with increasing difficulty and stamina level showcasing the repertoire of the dancers, the Belgian guru did manage to give space and exposure to every student of the school given their different levels of expertise.
You need to discount the fact that abhinaya relating to many Indian mythological stories is not easy for many Westerners to emote who have not grown up listening to or watching these play out in every corner of India. But what was palpable in all the students was their enthusiasm and effort in learning an intensive, rigorous, traditional, religion-based classical dance form so foreign to them and presenting it to the audience, many of whom had probably never seen a Bharatanatyam performance before. The performance in the next years would benefit from more sponsorships and promotion, more coordinated outfits of the dancers and a real theatrical stage considering that the classicism of this art form is no less than the European Ballet.
Brussels grows an inch with every non-Western performance and is heading to be on par with many other international cities, appealing to a truly cosmopolitan crowd and giving space and nourishment for music and dance expressions from lands far too east and ignored for too long.
JYOTHSNA KRISHNAN
(A student of dance)
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Supporting The Arts
By Chitra Srikrishna
It was billed as an informal panel discussion. When rasikas get together, conversations can easily go down one of several well-trod paths - depending on the people present. Many deteriorate to barely disguised gossip sessions, some griping about what ails Carnatic music and a few into constructive exploration of what positive change can be wrought. To be fair, I have been particularly fortunate in having attended many a lec-dem and the occasional panel discussion, which has been truly edifying. So it was with many questions and some excitement, at the chance to finally meet V. Ramnarayan, the editor-in-chief of Sruti magazine in person that I set out. The event was hosted by Dhvani, India Performing Arts Society of Central Ohio.
“Our magazine faces additional challenges above and beyond those faced by all print magazines” says V.Ramnarayan. Given the intimate house-setting, the evening begins with Ramnarayan walking us through the history of the magazine and his own journey. For those not familiar with the story, the magazine was the brainchild of Dr N. Pattabhi Raman, a retired UNDP official. Pattabhi Raman, incidentally Ramnarayan’s uncle and an ardent rasika, started Sruti in October 1983 not long after he first returned to Chennai. His vision for the magazine was ‘adherence to high standards of authenticity, objectivity, sophisticated writing based on thorough research, and a healthy respect for individuals and institutions, balanced by an equally healthy irreverence towards holy cows’.
Ramnarayan, himself an author of several books including “Cricket for the Love of It” and “Third Man” is a natural raconteur. His tale of the Sruti journey, in many ways gave rise to many questions that sabhas, performers and rasikas face on a daily basis. Three prominent issues were discussed both in the questions that attendees posed as well as within the Sruti story.
Supporting the arts
Financial viability or business models that allow the arts - be they sabhas or magazines such as Sruti to not only survive but to thrive and evolve was a major theme that arose. There was a mild foray into willingness or lack thereof of rasikas to pay appropriately for concerts. Questions such as “Why are so many Carnatic concerts free?” “Why are people prepared to pay in the thousands to hear a Pandit Jasraj sing but not so for an OS Tyagarajan concert?” were raised. The consensus - not just from the Sruti story but the experiences of sabha secretaries--was that sponsorships were the viable and reliable means of economic support upon which a viable arts organization can be run. While some discussion of whether such sponsorship itself can act as a source of influence or “pressure” was briefly touched upon, the present climate fortunately presents benevolent sponsors who have largely remained hands off.
Expanding the audience even while preserving the tradition
‘What can be done to improve subscriptions to the magazine?’ we wondered aloud. Much like cultural organizations or sabhas which depend largely on sponsorship Sruti thrives largely from advertising revenue and less from subscriptions from readers. But the question of raising the readership numbers still comes up. Sruti, as a magazine focused on primarily Indian classical art forms, is already a niche publication. Despite Indian magazine and newspaper readership growing relative to the rest of the world where print is under siege on every front, Sruti too is not immune to the forces of digital media. Ramnarayan mentioned how Sruti has attempted to adapt with apps on both Android and iOS - as a publication on the Magzter platform. The concern that expanding the audience, somehow implies diluting the core premise of uncompromising quality was at times palpable. Does writing for a larger audience outside of the classical arts aficionados come at the cost of diluting the standards? I for one felt that this is a false dichotomy. What lessons if any could be drawn from other magazines such as the New Yorker or Harper’s Magazine, which were the original inspiration for Pattabhiraman, was a question that came up.
Adapting to the digital and social realities
Given the panel was happening in Columbus, the conversation turned to how many young non-resident artists are beginning to pursue classical music seriously. Young artists both resident and of the NRI variety, as with most millennials are digital natives - active on social media promoting both their own work and that of others. How has the magazine tried to hold the interest of the millennials? This is the demographic that is constantly texting, posting pictures by the second on social media and tweeting live as events unfold in front of them.
Ramnarayan did discuss several specific things that he’s attempted including getting the top artists themselves to be both writers and readers of the magazine - to attract an audience and building community. He’s also hired a slew of young people, in many ways more representative of the young listeners (“Are there too few of them” was a question that popped up in the discussion) and continues to experiment with article formats to have a mix of both longform (the original intent and continued focus) and more “newsy” reportage.
The discussion eventually veered towards the quality of performances and the dearth of critics in the field. The lack of space in media for classical music has always been a concern for musicians and rasikas. The consensus was that with the exception of The Hindu, classical music concerts and dance performances do not get enough media coverage and that the situation is unlikely to get better. This in many ways would make Sruti and its digital descendants even more critical.
Following the discussion there was a scrumptious meal served to the guests. The ardour with which the discussion continued over the meal, gave me the sense that the panel discussion had been a great start to Dhvani’s fall season.
Chitra Srikrishna is a musician who blogs at chitrasrikrishna.com
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
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Birthdays & Anniversaries
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Sanjeev Raja's Mridangam Debut
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