The saris’ charm is eternal. For it can look both traditional and contemporary. When interwoven with dance moves it becomes magical. A magic that was created by Malavika Sarukkai and her troupe for a huge audience at the NCPA that also included weavers.
‘Thari - The Loom,’ the latest group production of Malavika’s Kalavaahini Trust, had innovative choreography inspired by the hand woven ‘unstitched garment’; a dedication to Indian craftsmanship and paramparik karigar.
The sari has been a part of Malavika’s life. For her, it is not just a cloth but an emotion, a statement, a private conversation demanding to be retold. According to her, it has poetry, music, myth, design and dance. It has the note of Krishna’s divine flute that beckons.
Classical art was well deployed in ‘Thari...’ to convey the story of the constant (sthithi) and changing (gati). A thread of creativity strengthened by technique effectively translated the idea into dance movement.
Why thari? “The impulse to work on the concept of Thari happened quite by chance, whilst reading an article which described in detail the traditional korvai sari from Kanjeevaram. I was amazed by the artistry and it touched a chord in me as I saw a concept come to light. It was exciting... Soon, I could visualise the flow of the production as a celebration of the thread, its movement and finally the design of thread. The inspiration to create could strike one at the most unexpected moments,” Malavika said.
Malavika Sarukkai
Crisp and compact
The programme was crisp and compact - narration, nritta segments, swarams et al. unfolded with precision.
With the rhythmic sounds of the loom playing in the sound track, dancers moved in a criss-cross, vertical and horizontal manner with loom shuttles to convey the art of weaving. Their movements in parallel and intersecting lines interpreted the warp (constant) and weft (variable), the process of interweaving of threads. The presentation moved on to the woven fabric and elements of the sari. Motifs on the sari and the border were brought out with imageries of flowers, parrot, peacock etc. through mythological references. Sancharis well woven with immaculate footwork made for an interesting visual tapestry.
The neat choreography was deftly executed by the dancers led by Malavika. Jyotsna Jagannathan, Shruthipriya Ravi, Adithya PV, Shreema Upadhyaya and Nidhag Karunad all dressed alike in appealing costumes. Sumantra Ghosal, highly regarded filmmaker was the creative collaborator. He penned the poems and shared the credit for the well-knit script and narration with Malavika.
Prof. C. V. Chandrasekhar and Aditya Prakash from LA created the music, reproduced with sound design by Sai Shravanam. The patterned play of light was brilliantly done by Gyan Dev Singh that made every inch of the stage come alive.
Actor Vidya Balan, a champion of the sari on and off screen, was the chief guest.
“Inspired by the loom and the metaphor it contained, I spent several months internalizing the concept to discover its hidden wisdom, together with research and discussions with Sumantra Ghosal. Excellence in presentation requires time, effort and shraddha. It is easy to ‘perform’ a choreography but quite another matter to invest time and effort internalising the choreography before presenting it on stage. When this quality is brought in, it takes the dance to another level,” said Malavika.
“Translating an abstract idea into concrete dance movements requires vision, intelligence, creative conviction, technique, passion and hours of rehearsal. Creativity is both deliberate and spontaneous,” she pointed out.
As for the need to think beyond traditional borders, keeping the audience in mind, she said that tradition has structure, vocabulary, grammar and technique. “The question is what does the dancer, performer, artiste do with it?” And she answered it with her innovative production.
