It’s that time of the year when Vaibhav Arekar turns off his phone and spends his days in rehearsal. Five days before the Sindhu Festival – which he organises with light designer Sushant Jadhav, and dancers of his company, Sankhya Creations – the tussle between his dual identity as festival organiser and Bharatanatyam dancer is evident. Yet, momentary tussles apart, the festival has taught its organisers to treat dance as an extension of life, looking beyond their own practice to be in dialogue with an expansive range of traditional dance practices. In response to this understanding, this edition of the festival presents a mixed bag of classical and popular dance practices.
Myriad shades of love
The Sindhu Festival’s inaugural day is dedicated to the thematic Shringar Rang: Shades of Love , which will feature Arekar and the lavani dancer Shakuntalabai Nagarkar. Defined by their audiences, Bharatanatyam and lavani dance forms address love in distinct ways. The classicism of the former is understood to bring in restraint and its stated goal is to engage the audience by conveying an experience and perhaps transporting them to it. For the lavani dancer, the objective is to entertain, and to an extent, seduce. And Arekar is extremely intrigued by these varied approaches to the idea of love. “How do I understand shringar when I am standing beside Shakkubai (Nagarkar)?” he asks. “Lavani dancers live shringar. As classical dancers, many of us never live this. We don’t have a customer. We are actors. We don’t experience every role we play,” he says.
While they mainly perform solos in their own styles, the two dancers make brief interludes into each other’s territory. Arekar dances Bharatanatyam to a lavani, while Nagarkar will dance to a Marathi padam( mimetic composition) that narrates an incident from the life of Radha and Krishna. Marathi padams, incidentally, are an integral part of the Bharatanatyam repertoire, composed in the 19th century during the Maratha reign in Thanjavur.
Mastering the art: Shakuntalabai Nagarkar says that dancers have to internalise the lavani and convey sentiments to the audience.
Understanding the art
Nagarkar’s understanding of lavani as a lokkala (popular art) drives her to find new audiences for her work, with significant forays into the spaces of online media and theatre. Quiet and self-contained off-stage, she is explosive when immersed in her art, even breaking into a lavani lyric on the phone, as we speak. The relationship of form and structure to classical dance practice is dissolved in lavani, which turns to the audience for cues in its functioning as a mode of popular culture. Nagarkar locates the rigour of her practice in understanding her role as an actor, and in a sincere engagement with the subtext of poetry. “I look my audience in the eye when I dance. I also sing,” she says. “If an actor has to play a role, she has to put herself in that role. I study the song and think about its mood. But that is not enough.” The dancer continues that you have to be able to communicate the song. Language is not enough to understand; the dance must communicate. “The sentiments have to complete this understanding,” she says. “We have to internalise the lavani and convey this to the audience.”
A classical introduction
The second day of the festival, with short performances by four classical dancers, offers specific portraits of each form and an opportunity to compare stylistic traits. There’s kuchipudi dancer Amrita Lahiri, Odissi dancer Arushi Mudgal, kathak dancer Gauri Diwakar and Bharatanatyam dancer Praveen Kumar. This evening is directed at younger audiences looking for an introduction to classical dance. In favouring dynamic compositions that bear the imprint of a style, the programming throws up interesting choices for the dancers, who are budding choreographers yet seasoned performers. In the past year, Lahiri has had occasion to reflect on choice-making as a choreographer. “There are so many steps to making a new work. The first thing is to find the inspiration for it,” says the kuchipudi dancer. “How do you outline a character, show conflict or bring in deeper emotions? Do you want a second character? While the music and dance come together, how do I structure a poem or text when I choose to interpret it in dance?,” questions Lahiri.
Meanwhile, Arekar will be able to turn on his phone, with his colleagues stepping in to keep the festival going. He is grateful. “Honestly, I wouldn’t have continued the festival after the fifth year, had Sushant not taken the lead,” he says adding that a dancer need not do a festival. But now, dancers at Sankhya watch performances and recommend artistes who must be seen. Sindhu has become a festival run by the entire company, and it has changed its members as dancers.
The author is a dancer and writer.
Sindhu Festival will take place at the Sheila Gopal Raheja Auditorium in Bandra West on April 15 and 16. Tickets at the venue.
