There is a separate section on Bharatanatyam dancer Rama Vaidyanathan’s website called ‘technical requirements’. This section is devoted to details such as the platform for orchestra, its size and where it needs to be placed on stage, what the audio system for the performance needs to comprise, the different kinds of lights and even elucidates what the green room must have.
While this is primarily meant for organisers abroad, I was still struck by the amount of planning and the idea that it is the dancer’s responsibility too to go into such detail-in all their minutiae.
As we sat down for a conversation in the green room of Chowdiah Memorial Hall, I realised that this is not unusual for Rama Vaidyanathan. A recipient of the Kalaimaamani from the Tamil Nadu State Government and the ‘Best Dancer Award’ from The Music Academy, Chennai among other laurels, Rama believes that it is a dancer’s responsibility to ensure a performance is perfectly devised.
“We are in the 21st century and no longer just confined to the courtyard of the temple. We are performing for a wide variety of audience across the world and Bharatanatyam, while it is spiritual and philosophical, is beyond an ethnic or a religious dance form. The idea is to make our dance as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. For that, it needs to be perfectly packaged while retaining an aesthetic sense and a deep insight simultaneously,” she explained.
The compositions she had chosen for that day’s performance were in themselves examples of what she meant by the ‘perfect package’. They were different, contemporary, accessible and yet deeply rooted in traditional concepts.
In Sannidhanam , the alaripu in Rama’s hands, became a composition that is used to describe the architecture of a temple. The navarasas are hardly new when it comes to Bharatanatyam but Rama managed to present them differently too. In Navarasa Mohana , she stretched a four-line verse in the Bhagavatam into a 30-minute performance detailing the nine different reactions of people to Krishna when he reached Mathura to kill his uncle, Kamsa. She ended her recital with a Thumri in which Radha out of her love for Krishna, becomes him. “I chose these compositions specifically because I have not performed them before a Bangalore audience.
These are compositions that completely represent me. They show my take on Bharatanatyam choreography.”
Trained by illustrious gurus such as the legendary dancer Yamini Krishnamurthy and the iconic Saroja Vaidyanathan, who also happens to be Rama’s mother-in-law, Rama has spent her life immersed in dance. “I went to learn under Yamini amma when I was six years old. I don’t think anybody has been as fortunate to learn from her the way I have been able to. I was her first student and she gave her best years of teaching to me. It was a routine that was gruelling but I did not feel it at that time. I used to look forward to my classes. She gave me a lot of affection and never intimidated me. But she also taught in a no-nonsense manner,” remembers Rama. It was Rama’s mother’s dream to make her a dancer. “My mother used to gently prod me to even miss my play time and instead go to dance class. It was a very big achievement for her to see me make a name in dance. She passed away in February early this year. She was my inspiration- my biggest fan and an equally significant critic.”
If the technique was planted, sharpened and perfected under Yamini amma , it was under Saroja Vaidyanathan that Rama says she became a professional dancer. “The day I got married was the day I became a professional dancer. My mother-in-law groomed me to know what kind of items to present in a performance, how to dress, contact organisers, work with the musicians and the press etc. These three women have groomed me in three crucial ways.” So, shaped by such solid teachers, was it easy for Rama, therefore, to craft her own style? “It is not enough to give a person a fish to eat, one also must teach him or her to fish. That is the only way he will be able to eat fish everyday. My gurus not only taught me the language but also how to use it. They gave me the freedom to explore.”
And Rama adds, that a style that was distinctly hers is not something that emerged overnight.
“I kept tinkering with my dance for years and began a deep love affair with it. As you grow older, you start seeking answers to questions about life, death, happiness and so on. What happens in the life of an artist is that he or she often finds the answers to these questions in their own sadhana , their dance. I feel that perhaps, as I searched for the answers, the quest as well as my inferences began to be reflected in my perception of a composition, how I approached abhinaya, the kind of compositions I chose etc. I only noticed a style and a distinct perception emerging when others pointed it out to me.”
One question that Rama feels dancers today are preoccupied with is whether they should stick to what their gurus have taught them or if they should fly freely and explore. “Some dancers stick to what they have taught and are successful, some others break out and explore new concepts and forms and are successful. Their success is not because of either of these decisions. Their success is because the dancers are in pursuit of excellence. Without devoting a number of years to one’s sadhana and without conviction, no excellence is possible.”
How would Rama describe the present in terms of where Bharatanatyam is today? “It is like a Diwali, a celebration. Every street has teachers and there is nothing wrong with it. Yes, quality is a concern but it is only possible for two good dancers to emerge out of a pool of 1000,” she explains.
