Mentoring starts at the level of choices that dancers need to make to sustain themselves as professionals. In India, the mentoring process needs to be interdisciplinary. Not every input should feed straight into a performance, but has to feed into the spirit of a dancer. This is a radical, yet clear array of first thoughts on mentoring from Anita Ratnam, as we seat ourselves comfortably in the stairway of a dance studio, after rehearsal with a group of dancers she has been mentoring for three years.
Anita Ratnam is one who never colours within the lines, leading to many a creative outcome . She defines her dance style and herself as ‘Neo Bharatam’ and ‘Contemporary Classicist’ and has recently been chosen for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar (for contemporary dance). Anita is hardly threatened before taking that leap of faith to explore new territory and embrace new trends in her profession. ‘Narthaki,’ a web portal on Indian Classical Dance and her brainchild, curates information on dance. It therefore comes as no surprise that she sees mentoring as a necessary trend, but her approach and reasons definitely are a surprise package.
The first two conversations of the three-part series on Mentoring, with Professor Chandrasekhar and Malavika Sarukkai, established a few common denominators in the process of mentoring, though the approach and focus were different with each mentor-mentee relationship. In the third and last conversation of the series, Anita Ratnam talks about the mentoring process with a group of four dancers Keerthana Ravi, Vandana Supriya, Meenakshi Kishan and Sukruti Tirupattur.
Anita Ratnam’s mentoring process begins with emphasis on building a cross-art perspective, to remove from the dancer’s mindset, the paradigm that the dancer is the diva and the other technicians are working for them. Dancers also need to question their choices, starting from whether their core style is the right one for them, even if it is scary to do so. She expects a mentee to be curious, not submissive and demands full participation in the creative process.
padme
“The four dancers who I continue to work with/mentor, started with an audition for a dance project Padme with a few others, who were part of the production. For three weeks, they rehearsed six hours a day, as part of the Padme production work, improvising, doing theatre exercises and choreography phrases. They also were made to take Tai Chi classes and contemporary dance classes. As artistic director, I watched from a distance, not wanting to interfere with the choreographer, Kalpana Raghuraman’s process. In the last three three years of performing Padme on various stages ranging from Krishna Gana Sabha to the Kala Ghoda festival, I have addressed, as their mentor, the feudal hierarchy in Indian dance that leads to absence of disagreement and healthy introspection. I have also urged them to make proposals and tour with other groups, to know how dynamics worked. I wanted them to be fearless in explorations. Some have soared,” explains Anita Ratnam.
“On the first day of the audition of Padme , I was nervous. However, after meeting Anita akka , my fears vanished,” says Meenakshi recollecting the warmth she exuded. Her words “Learn lighting Meenakshi, it is absolutely necessary for dancers” is a precious take home for this young dancer. “Anita akka treated us as equals at an intellectual level, by being open to discussions. She never chose to hold back information . She gave us a platform to explore, the liberty to fail in the process and a helping hand through it,” recalls Vandana . “The thoroughly professional yet fun learning environment made the whole process a beautiful experience. We were not required to shed our individual experiences as dancers. In fact, it was insisted that we embrace and bring our individuality to the project” adds Sukruti.
“As a mentee, I didn’t seek opportunities to perform or make recommendations to sabhas. I was careful not to misunderstand the mentee-mentor boundary. I sought another perspective, a new pair of eyes to look at the cultural world outside, something I often overlooked. Over the last few years, Anita akka has opened up a new world of sensibilities for me,” shares Keerthana.
There were some thoughts that resonated in the responses of all the four dancers, who have dissimilar learning backgrounds and different classical styles as their core form. Significant among them were the understanding of the body as a performer, collaborating with other artistes and professional demands such as being fit, punctual and rehearsed.
Chennai:31-12-2010: For Friday Review: A million SITAs, performing by Anita Ratnam a dance theatre work in Neo Bharatam style at Bharatya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore on Thursday. Photo:R_Shivaji Rao
Anita feels that in a guru-sishya relationship, the guru continues to see the sishya in the same light. Some encourage only the bright students, while some don’t encourage the bright students. The best relationship is one where the two have a dialogue that allows both to evolve to a third level. According to Anita, a mentor may not have answers all the time, but has to search, explore and grow too. This quality of exploration is visible in her choreographic works, each one of which introduces either a collaboration or an element new to the orb of Indian dance. Co-creating with theatre directors, visual designers and costume designers, she has contemporised Indian choreography through multiple sensibilities. Her productions ‘Vaitharani’, ‘Seven Graces’, ‘Ma3ka’, and ‘A Million Sitas’, which is still in active repertoire, have been her important milestones millstones of discovery.
She asks “What has been my imprint? As a performer? A choreographer? A producer? An organiser? An Arts Entrepreneur? A writer? A speaker? Mentor? Which of these hats do I really cherish?”
“All of them. Each is like an atom that makes up the whole,” is her answer.
Anita Ratnam’s multiple sources of learning and avenues of engagement in performing arts, stitched together as a patchwork of rich experience offer much to learn for young artistes who want to diversify. Her thought, “Indian dance mostly beautifies, western dance often brutalises, it is important to humanise in dance,” resonates.
CHENNAI:31-12-2006: For Friday Review:" Neelam" Dance drama by Anita Ratnam at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha on Saturday. Photo: R_Shivaji Rao
What the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award means to her
To be a creative artiste is everyone's right. To be a contemporary performer when the word itself is problematic in the Indian arts context throws an additional challenge in my path. My body has known Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam and Kathakali for 25 years. To suddenly call myself a contemporary or a modern dancer as per western aesthetics cannot apply to me. My geography is my history and my body's kinetics are atune to the bent knee and the free swaying of the torso.
The news came at the most unexpected moment. I was sailing on the calm water of the Adriatic Coast, off the coast of Dubrovnik in Croatia when the phone began reacting to multiple pings. The first reaction was relief before joy!
Relief that my 25 years of persistent and stubborn resistance to stereotypes. Joy that I had finally been acknowledged for my contribution to the world of contemporary performance. The Sangeet Natak Akademi award is a singular honour in that it is a selection by a panel of senior artistes from every discipline. That my name is now on the honour roll along with those of Uday Shankar, Chandralekha, Guru Maya Rao, Astad Deboo and others is a heart swelling moment.
Personally, I feel like I am afloat. Those who wished this moment for me are no longer among us. My mother Leela and grandmother Saraswati - my loudest cheerleaders and fiercest critics, my gurus Neila Sathyalingam and Adyar K Lakshman who were both guarded and cautiously supportive.
As a performer and producer of my own work for nearly 30 years, I stretched every fibre to find a collegiality among performing artistes. ARANGHAM TRUST, established in 1993, was created to become a crucible for the performing arts with dance as its lead motif.
How do I keep myself current and powerful in a world fuelled by youth and speed?
What does it take to embrace stillness when everything is a blur?
How does one stay battle ready and yet have the softness to dream?
These are my questions.
Dance and all that I do, should continue to spawn answers and more questions.
Unique Initiatives
Anita Ratnam feels that her contributions and responsibility to the dance world are not limited to her productions and performances alone. She co-founded and co-curated ‘The Other festival,’ India's first annual contemporary dance festival. She has been instrumental in having several contemporary artistes and creative collaborations find a platform in the Sabhas of Chennai.
Anita literally connected the scattered dance fraternity from different parts of the world, to make seem a small world of dance, through ‘Narthaki,’ which has been selected to receive the ‘Viswa Kala Ratna’ from the U.K.-based MILAP Fest.
As a testimony that contemporarising Indian dance does not imply tearing away from one’s roots, she revived the tradition of ‘Kaisiki Natakam’ in Tirukurungudi, from where she hails. Under the banner of Arangham Trust, the surviving devadasis, who performed this natakam were found and artistes were trained to stage it again. This festival is now being held annually.
Published - July 06, 2017 04:28 pm IST
