It was the defining moment in dancer Geeta Chandran’s career. Her guru Swarna Saraswathy had taken ill and it was certain that she would not be able to continue teaching. Geeta was in a quandary, even contemplating giving up dance as she could not dream of training under anyone else. That’s when she met guru K.N. Dakshinamurthi. And this made all the difference.
The late Dakshinamurthi urged Geeta to experiment with adavus and jatis. “He was so much into contemporary work and knew how to craft the dance. This must have been in the early 1990s. While my first guru taught me the philosophy of dance, the second instilled in me the belief that dance needs to engage. He made me understand the depth of the arts,” says Geeta. The well-known Bharatanatyam dancer and innovative choreographer, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007, is one of the prominent dancers of this generation.
Firmly rooted in traditional Bharatanatyam, Geeta relentlessly interprets the classical in the modernist idiom. She dared to move out and explore the dance form, to reiterate various issues that were till then not the premise of Bharatanatyam. This dichotomy raised a few eyebrows; it was frowned upon by her contemporaries and seniors. “I do what I like, not what the market forces dictate. There was such a hue and cry when I performed with puppeteer Anurupa Roy and when I performed Kaikeyi with a theatre artiste. I find no dichotomy. For me, the classical and this experimentation are parallel roads. I’m always trying to push the frontiers but my spine is Bharatanatyam. I like to push my body; I don’t want to freeze.”
Geeta continues to pursue what she firmly believes is the best for her; her ‘philosophy of dance.’ “I did a Surutti varnam in Chennai, during the season. It was a revival of that piece and there were many who told me after the performance that it was after a long, long, time that they had seen a traditional varnam like this. And there were many eyebrows that still remained raised as they, perhaps, never thought that a ‘contemporary’ dancer like me could do something as ‘traditional’ as this piece.”
Geeta is clear where to draw the line. Today, styles have blurred, there’s a lot of restlessness. But Geeta’s experimentation is firmly rooted in classical Bharatanatyam. “Dance is racy and there is focus on occupying space to capture the audience. It is a mechanical formula. What the young dancers need to realise is that dance is much more than having a slim figure. You need to be open to all aspects of dance. There always seems to be pressure to do something new and this has, to an extent, killed dance.”
Born in Mattancherry, Kochi, Geeta’s mother’s place, she moved to Delhi very early in life, coming back to Kerala regularly for vacations. “I’m very much a Malayali. As a child I remember the holidays spent in Kerala. But apart from that I have never stayed in Kerala though I have performed many times here.”
Geeta began learning dance from the age of five. Her parents loved Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam. “I grew up watching the greats like Balasaraswati, Indrani Rehman, and listening to concerts by doyens such as Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar, Madurai Mani Iyer and others. Before I began dancing I was already familiar with ragas and the compositions. My guru Swarna Saraswathy hailed from the Thanjavur Dasi lineage. I had my arangetram under her guidance. I just loved dancing. Looking back, this attitude seems so odd for we never knew what it would lead us to.”
A lot has changed in dance and the changes keep happening. “There is an attempt to move out of the grammar of dance. The adavus, the basis or the backbone of Bharatanatyam, is often compromised. Also vanishing are the gurus and nattuvanars. Without the guru, the journey from riaz to sadhana is not possible. My parents put full faith in my teachers. Even if I complained they would listen and the next day saw that I went for my classes.”
Geeta’s contribution to Bharatanatyam has been her synthesis of the knowledge she received from her gurus to give the dance a personal vision. She is also celebrated for her Carnatic music, her work in television, video and film, theatre, choreography, dance education, dance activism and dance-issue journalism. She is also artistic director of the Natya Vriksha Dance Company, with whom she has managed to create interesting spaces for classical dance.
“It has been one tough, creative, interesting journey. Taking up dance full time after my Masters in Statistics and Mass Communication and a well-paying job was a good choice for that was when I could expand my dance repertoire. Otherwise it was like moving in tangents. Perhaps, living in Delhi helped me. In the beginning, language was a barrier while performing in the North. It took a while to break this. I think my research in Haveli sangeet helped a lot. These were times when I attempted to bring in English poetry, using music, into dance. Delhi also helped in collaborations, providing me many creative opportunities.”
There is a proliferation of dancers and has this spurred them into contemporary adaptations? “Proliferation of dancers is a healthy trend. Dance is a tough profession. As a teacher I know that it is not easy to keep the young dancers motivated. They are all academically bright and if they have still decided to take up dance, the responsibility of the teacher becomes very high. But, proliferation of artistes and dancers cannot be justification for diversifying into contemporary work. I find that the new crop of dancers are passionate to learn. The challenge is to create using tradition, opening new spaces,” says Geeta.
