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Dances of India
A Learning Process What we both learnt from the initial phase - her 1997 New York concert, the Guggenheim show, and the India tour - was the importance of knowing each other's traditions. Conja had studied Kathak as a child, and is a great aficionado of Indian music. She has Arab roots and instinctively understands the flavors of eastern poetry. My own connection with Flamenco goes back thirty-five years, since when not only do I speak Spanish but can (sort of) sing the odd Flamenco song, and perform simple alegrias, bulerias, and solea dances. As we continue to explore new strategies for working together, we learn more about each other's music and dance traditions. Both Flamenco dance and Bharatanatyam are closely allied to their musical traditions. Indeed, they are a PART of their respective musical traditions. La Conja is a wonderful singer, often invited as guest artist to perform with great dance companies such as those of Jose Greco. Ideally, and with good musicians, both Bharatanatyam and Flamenco dance are improvised as is the music that they dance to. Of course there are cues–ways of marking rhythms so that musician and dancer can communicate a change. In both traditions, dancer and musicians must listen to each other and TOGETHER make great music. True, we both use footwork, arm and hand movements, and are concerned with expressing basic moods - bhava, aire - leading to rasa or an expression of duende. In contrast to northern European music, both forms of music use quarter-tones, and complex rhythms. But it is from the differences that one learns most of all. As we came back to regular flamenco and Bharatanatyam, respectively, we understood better the particularities of our own traditions. I feel I am a stronger Bharatanatyam dancer now. I think Conja has grown as a flamenco performer. 'Fusion', and the dynamics of cultural change I suppose what we attempted could be classed under the general rubric of 'fusion', though I prefer to think of it as part of a natural process of cultural borrowing that takes place not only in music and dance, but also in language, in customs, and ways of life. Our present age, with its many possibilities for instant global communication has been reflected in the profusion of cultural meetings in all aspects of the arts, the performing arts, - in particular. As a result traditions themselves are fast changing - Flamenco being a perfect example of this. In the last thirty years, Flamenco music has incorporated Afro-Caribbean rhythms, north-African melodies, jazz, and pop-music to the extent that the Peruvian cajon, tabla, ghatam, and sitar, and the Egyptian oudh ('lute') are commonplace in flamenco shows. Young Spanish audiences and young flamencos alike, want to experiment. They are often impatient with the 'classics', especially old-fashioned singers and dancers whose work is not of the top quality. In India, too, young people turn away from classical arts to the point that great performers like Zakir Hussein and Hari Prasad Chaurasia themselves turn to other countries for inspiration, and in response of the needs of their younger audiences. They have between them explored the music of Brazil, Japan, China, and Spain, not to mention jazz and afro-rhythms as well. "Fusion' music is most prevalent in films, and in the pop culture - on cat-walks, in discos, and blaring away at street corners everywhere. Cross-cultural blends in dance
Indian dance
forms like Bharatanatyam, too, look for ways of making contemporarily
appropriate meanings that 'speak' to the current generation of 20-30
year olds - performers and audiences alike. Moving away from one's
carefully learnt craft for a while gives one an opportunity to see it
afresh, and without the blinkers necessitated in being a 'good pupil'.
As Conja and I work out new pieces, often presenting them to young
audiences at universities, we find an instant rapport not always present
when we dance our traditional repertoires. Conja has always played
with the music and dance of other countries - she has sung Flamenco
songs in Arabic. Her
On another front I am working in partnership with Preeti Vasudevan, brilliant student of the Dhananjayans, to develop pieces that use Bharatanatyam technique and abhinaya in ways that give a contemporary voice to this traditional form. Our first concert held in New York in November 2000 and entitled "Bharatanatyam Variations" was essentially to a modern dance audience. Initial feed back from modern dance presentors was that they were pleased to see that while our work expressed a post-modern aesthetic and was exciting, it clearly adhered to our traditional form. Looking Ahead Given the rush of creativity that began by Conja's invitation to me to choreograph Pani, I thus maintain my concerts with her, too, since they continue to be a source of inspiration. I get a double fulfillment: I sometimes get to dance to Flamenco music, which I adore, and then come back to my first love, Bharatanatyam performed to Carnatic music, refreshed, and energised. My goal now is to bring more and more people into the fold of Indian dance, by expanding the vision of its possibilities - as a dance form, a musical form, a theatrical form, and as a language of the vital soul of a peoples. Bharatanatyam is much more than it has been, or that we think it should be - it has a quality of infinitude encapsulated by its greatest practitioner - Lord Shiva, himself.
– Rajika
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For myself,
I am returning to Bharatanatyam by re-thinking its relationship to its
music, and also its very aesthetics - its use of space, its visual
impact, its costume. On the one hand I am working with a wonderful
Carnatic singer, Aruna Sairam, figuring out strategies for movement
during her regular vocal recitals, attempting to follow her
improvisations without interfering with her sublime music. We have
performed a set of concerts entitled "South Indian Classical music
and its dance" in Spain and in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh.
Aruna keeps teaching me that 'less is more" - less movement, less
costumes, less sound, less overt abhinaya. 