Some four decades into a highly successful career as a classical dancer, Swapnasundari, a Padma Bhushan and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award holder, looked up to as a scholar and guru, is ready for new artistic adventures. At a juncture when others might be content to float along on a sea of admiration, she prefers to question where her choices have led her so far and look for fresh inspiration rather than safe repetition.
This is not the first time the veteran dancer has felt the need to ‘reinvent’ herself. It happened when she was at a high point in her performances of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. As a popular artist, she could have gone on giving recitals to acclaim, but she experienced a “burnout” in which she began to ask herself “what next?” That was when chance — or destiny — introduced her to the dance of the Telugu devadasis, an art whose revival and recasting for the proscenium she is largely credited with, and which has come to be called Vilasini Natyam. Now, after more than 15 years of documenting, performing, teaching and propagating Vilasini Natyam extensively, she has again stepped back from her immersion.
And it is only when one steps back from the subjectivity of immersion that one can make an objective assessment and take decisions, she adds. What next, then? Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Vilasini Natyam, besides a high standard of musical training, which she has used in composing, singing and bringing out albums...Where is her creative inner self steering her now?
It is certainly steering her to cross boundaries she previously allowed herself to remain within. For one, she says, she is looking more than before at the visual arts, particularly the modern and abstract media, an interest that came to her comparatively recently. A second area of exploration is that of the folk and tribal theatres, many of which are considered precursors to classical forms. Other artists before her may have “been there, done that,” she notes, but she is here recounting a personal story of new inspirations.
And thirdly, she emphasises,“I do not want to repeat myself now.” She's had one decade of each of Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi and Vilasini Natyam, presenting “given material”. She mentions here that though she expanded the repertoire with her own compositions, it was still within a strongly marked structure. And now she craves a breaking of the compartments themselves.
Now, instead of treating herself as a dancer who can perform three styles, Swapnasundari is moving towards finding a vaster dance language. The three traditions of classical dance have each a distinct physical vocabulary. “I want to use the muscle memory to create an integrated personalised idiom,” she explains. The body language she is endeavouring to create for herself will be one where she can “freely draw upon all three body systems” to make new artistic statements.
So much for artistic inspirations. There is a social factor at work too. Swapnasundari is candid enough to admit that being completely engrossed in a pursuit can cut one off from one’s surroundings. As an artist, till a few years ago, she was able to remain unaffected by the everyday world of mundane thoughts and common entertainment, of limited exposure to the arts and literature. It is a world, nonetheless of infinite tiny joys and sorrows that never make it to the exalted heights of fame and celebrity. Since she has been married to a non-artist for over 25 years, says Swapnasundari, that world has always been within her reach. But it was only recently that she consciously began to reach out to its inhabitants. And having done so, she has discovered new and mentally stimulating energies. “I never expected to enjoy anything outside of dance,” she remarks. And it happened because of her own change in attitude. “I thought, let me step out of my mindset and mingle with the outside world.”
So the walls have well and truly started to come down. There is excitement in the artist when she talks about her own evolution. However, as a guru to many, she is responsible for the logical evolution of her students too. “I’ve decided not to impose my brand of dancing on my students,” she states.
The problem occurs when they want to emulate her path. She does not accept this approach, since it is impossible for any two individuals to have an identical background, personality and experiences. As all these elements shape the growth and maturity of the artist, she points out, “How can a student ask the same questions as I ask?”
So she tells them to do what is natural for them at their age and stage in life, and to eventually ask their own questions along the way.
To start with, though, they choose one of the three forms — Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi or Vilasini Natyam — to learn from her.
Now preparing for the opening show of the Old Fort Dance Festival, the festival of classical dance presented at New Delhi's Purana Qila, she voices another concern. Since the festival features group choreography and each presentation is limited to an hour and a quarter, she is not sure that her personal idiom will be distinctly visible.
But she is offering a glimpse of her current thought processes by designing a programme consisting of all the three dance styles, wherein her students will dance their chosen forms as well as performing one of the other styles (something they are enjoying greatly during rehearsals, she mentions). Also, she will perform with them, but while the students will dance to set choreography, she has left herself free to emote and move to the music according to her newly freed inclinations.
‘Purists’ may disagree with her approach, but she is sanguine that if she presents it with conviction, the programme will be well received. “I want to move forward, shed dead wood, make my personal statement,” says the artist.
In an era of super specialisation, says Swapnasundari, when a neurosurgeon refuses to take responsibility for the heart of a patient coming in for spine surgery, don’t we the need good general practitioners? “I would like to be a very good GP,” she concludes.
(Swapnasundari and group perform on the opening evening of the Old Fort Dance Festival, Purana Qila, New Delhi, November 4.)
