At one point in “I, Dance”, a documentary on classical dance in Pakistan screened recently in the Capital, a character, referring to the dancer and cultural activist Sheema Kermani, says “it was a madness that made her do Bharatanatyam in Zia’s regime.”
It is an appropriate characterisation, for under Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law in Pakistan (1978-1988), classical dance, despite its origins in undivided India, became associated exclusively with India, and thus something alien and unwanted. State patronage was withdrawn, and stage performances were all but banned. To pursue classical dance under such repression, like Sheema did, was nothing less than a mad act.
The documentary follows Sheema, the founder of Tehrik-e-Niswan, and fellow travellers, on their performances in present day Pakistan and India. Through a mix of interviews and archival material, it also chronicles the ripple effects of Zia’s diktats and contrasts the situation with the cosmopolitanism of the early years of Pakistan.
Although more interested in the question of conflicting identities than classical dance per se, director Sonya Fatah chose it as her subject because “Classical dance was perhaps the most visceral reflection of that conflict.” “It throws up the question really well, and I found it a great device to tell the story,” she says.
The documentary also features other dancers – such as Nahid Siddiqui, who is seen performing Kathak on PTV before it was banned from the channel, and Nighat Chaodhry performing the provocative ‘Purdah’– but its focus is firmly on Sheema. Having learnt initially from Guru Ghanshyam in Karachi, and later, in India, from Leela Samson and Aloka Panikkar among others, Sheema has over the years evolved a unique idiom, with choreographies that borrow from works by Faiz and Khusrau rather than Hindu mythology. All this has not come without a cost: Sheema breaks down while recalling an attack on her, and relates how, till this day, she faces threats and harassment, including from the police.
According to the director, “What is really fascinating about Sheema is that she is quite honest about the fact that she is not trained in the pure classical way; but she persevered despite that...Her life parallels the story of Pakistan over that period.” Through interviews with other younger artistes (among them the male dancer Munawar Haidar Chao) it becomes clear that Sheema has played a vital role in creating and sustaining a space for classical dance.
The situation, however, is still far from healthy. Often, performances are held in front of unappreciative audiences. In Karachi's National Academy of Performing Arts, a course in classical dance was initiated, but no one enrolled for it. As Sheema says in the documentary, while earlier the enemy was the State, now it could be anyone in the audience. Although a host of dancers, including Sheema and Nahid, have now taken on the mantle of teachers in a bid to keep classical dance alive, the battle remains hard as ever.
The screening of the film was followed by a lively discussion with the audience and a panel comprising the director, feminist publisher and writer Urvashi Butalia and journalist Jyoti Malhotra. A member of the audience wondered if Sheema's choice of adapting Faiz for Bharatanatyam was to make it palatable to the fundamentalists, but was informed that this would have annoyed them further. Comparisons with India were inevitable, and the panellists suggested that perhaps the atmosphere of repression had given artistes in Pakistan a sense of art as a political activity, which is often sorely lacking in India.
