Four dancers spin down a diagonal, their feet assertively pounding the floor, punctuated by short garlands of quick claps as they syncopate the same rhythmic cycle. The effect is that of eavesdropping on a conversation that happens to be a percussive exchange – an unlikely choice of language, yet highly intelligible. When the dancers direct this conversation outwards, though, their eyes penetrating the audience, they break the charmed circle on stage, and invite complicity. Choreographed by Delhi-based Kathak dancer Gauri Diwakar, Mugdha relies on this balance of the opaque and transparent in how it engages its viewers.
With short pieces addressing the trope of feminine beauty in its various aspects, Mugdha is performed by Diwakar with four other dancers – Aamrapali Bhandari, Meera Rawat, Shubhi Johari and Somya Narang. The term ‘mugdha’ often refers to the archetype of a young nayika (heroine) in the classical arts.
While Diwakar continues to reference the femininity of the nayika archetype, she also uses the term ‘mugdha’ to express her bewilderment and wonder on encountering great beauty. “Mugdha started as a commissioned work for the Ananya Festival in New Delhi,” she says. “I thought of it as an explosion of beauty. I find that the character of Radha is a source of inspiration for eternal beauty. When I started working on the piece, I thought of the movements that would inspire and trigger ideas of beauty, and then selected poetry that would frame these ideas.”
The music for Mugdha has been composed by Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan, who also gave Diwakar a selection of texts to consider. A connoisseur of Hindi literature, Diwakar finally opted for poetry by Lal Balbir. Some pieces are particularly evocative — the opening piece is a paean to Radha’s eyes; eyes that hold secrets, eyes that reveal yet reel you in, only to be drowned in their depths.
In her choreography, Diwakar arrives at a series of images that establish the intent of the piece. Radha gazes out at the world through interlaced fingers that cast shadows on her face. She dances with her veil drawn, suddenly flinging it off her head as she takes the stars in with her eyes. The image of bees drawn to a source of nectar recurs in the production, suggesting notions of attraction, elusive beauty and magnetism.
Diwakar spent many years working with dancer Aditi Mangaldas, and finds that the experience has shaped her own work. “When I started working with her (Mangaldas), I had just graduated from Kathak Kendra. She gave us the freedom to make our own choreography and learn from the experiences and exposure that her company gave us from the very beginning,” Diwakar recalls. “That has given me the time and space to think about how I work with Kathak. I try to use all its elements. If I work with the tihai (three equal repetitions of a rhythmic sequence), I bring in the damdar tihai (with empty spaces between the repetitions), bedamdar tihai (a continuous string), anaghat tihai (ending before the first beat of the next rhythmic cycle) and so on. I also like to work with all the three tempos, tracing a thought across various speeds of movement – vilambit (slow), madhya (medium) and drut (fast),” says the dancer.
Several performers, including Diwakar, want to look beyond Kathak as spectacle. “I can take a hundred chakkars. But do I need to do that?” she asks. Mugdha exploits the spontaneity of Kathak to open up conversations and spaces in the dance itself. Its treatment brings Kathak’s camaraderie to the fore – highlighting how dancers support each other while baring their hearts, making themselves vulnerable every time they step on stage.
Mugdha will be performed at the Experimental Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point on July 21 at 7 p.m; for more details see bookmyshow.com
