Kathak as a dance form has a unique iconic niche in the landscape of major Indian classical dance forms. Based on the 12th century story of Surthani, a Mughal Princess, a thematic kathak dance recital was presented by SpACE (Samarpan Association for Culture and Education ), a Bangalore based Kathak Academy, at Khincha Auditorium, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
The story of Bibi Nachiyar portrays how with a single-minded devotion a Mughal princess achieved the status of a Nachiyar, a goddess. Bibi Nachiyar epitomizes utmost devotion and sacred love towards the Lord.
Starting with the customary invocation to Lord Ganesha, the remover of hurdles, through their opening item ‘Ganesh Vandana’, and after a slokam on Lord Vishnu, the show began with great aplomb presenting the scene of a welcome dance in the court of Mallik Gafur, the Mughal emperor. How he invaded and plundered many temples and how he took away the idol of Narayana and gifted it to his daughter Surtani, how she fell in deep love with the Lord and how Srivaishnava Saint Sri Ramanujacharya along with other devotees repossessed the idol from Mallik Gafur, how the princess unable to bear the pangs of separation reached Melkote and merged with the Lord and how she achieved the rare distinction of being accorded the status of a deity in the Hindu Temple of Melkote.
With talent and an excellent training to match, SpACE has finely put together the historical script of Bibi Nachiyar, turning it ably into performative text. The group aimed at a wholesome dramatic experience and achieved it by presenting their dance recital as a pulsating cultural artefact. With the introduction to the story and the narration of scenes in the background giving the socio-political-religious significance, projecting relevant pictures on the huge screen behind, they held the audience’ attention riveted.
The dancers’ swift pirouettes (spins) and graceful footwork performed to the musical tempo and beat, their impressive artistry and fluid movements, brought on a visual splendour that kept the audience engrossed . It was interesting and inspiring to see all age group dancers, tiny tots to seniors perform with equal grace and gusto. The child-artists who presented the childhood of Krishna were adorable. The jugulbandi scense between Vishnu devotees and the court dancers of Mallik Gafur was very impressive.
The dancers of SpACE truly succeeded in carving a space, as a talented group of dancers. They put together a beautiful presentation to showcase a saga of deep love that was divine and beyond any faith or religion.
Anjana Gupta, the Director of SpACE, speaking about future activities, said:
“We are a kathak-only academy, and focus on theoretical, musical, choreographic and dance as an integrated system of learning.
“With just four students at the beginning our student strength grew to 33 in 18 months. We are now about 70 students and seem to be steady at this number. We have been fortunate to have had many gurus like Birju Maharaj, Neeraj Parikh, Ganesh Desai, and others as a part of our knowledge dissemination initiative.
“We have been working with universities, dance boards and other organisations to cement our learning on what works, and what our students and their parents’ value. We are expanding our dreams to build a University that will deliver both master’s and doctoral programmes in Kathak. Two of our students have agreed to gift land to this venture, and we hope to generate donations to take this idea to fruition over the next ten years.”
Responding to the question why she had chosen Kathak , Anjana said: “I see Kathak as a synthesis of several cultures – this makes this form very flexible and accommodative, giving great room for creativity, experimentation and growth.”
Published - January 31, 2019 02:24 pm IST
