Monisa Nayak is married to national-award-winning light designer, Sreekanth Nair. He hails from Kerala. But that wasn’t the only reason why this Kathak dancer decided to conduct a Kathak workshop in Thiruvananthapuram. For this accomplished artiste, it was a way of giving back to the art form, which has been an integral part of her life since childhood. A disciple of Rajendra Gangani of Jaipur gharana, the 38-year-old danseuse has been popularising Kathak by teaching and performing all over India. She talks about the challenges of being a teacher and choreographer, even while sticking to the traditional stylistics of Kathak. Excerpts:
Kathak has not got many students or performers in Kerala. Then, why did you choose to hold a workshop here?
The capital city has a rich heritage of art and culture...I believe there are over 180 dance schools in the district alone. I have been married for 10 years now and I come to Thiruvananthapuram every month to stay for a few days. Whenever I get a chance, I watch different classical dance forms. Most dancers seem to feel that Kathak is all about doing chakkars (pirouettes) and fast footwork. It is all filmi... inspired by Bollywood movies. Having seen many such performances, I wanted to teach students what Kathak is really about. The workshop organised by my dance school, Khanak Institute of Performing Arts in New Delhi, was meant to be an initiation into the dance form. Thirty-three students attended the five-day workshop at my husband’s studio at Ulloor. The response has inspired me to conduct regular monthly classes here soon.
Monisa Nayak
You said that many wannabe Kathak dancers are influenced by the Kathak performance they see in films, especially Hindi movies. Is that the biggest challenge you face as a teacher and as an artiste?
It is one of the challenges. We do have the dance in its pristine, classical style in Delhi. But I have to keep working on changing the mindset of many students. Another challenge is making the students understand the importance of learning the techniques properly. Now what happens is that within a few months of their training, most students consider themselves ready for their first stage performance and many of them do perform in their schools and colleges. However, at my school I ensure that the students are trained properly for at least a year before I give them permission to perform on a stage.
From an artiste’s point of view, the biggest hurdle is taking the dance form to the masses. In this fast-paced world, you can’t expect everybody to understand the technicalities and intricacies of the dance. So I have to read the mind of the audience. If it is a learned audience, my task is easier as I know what to perform. But it is not the same when I am performing before a crowd that has no clue about the dance. So I explain everything by connecting it with our day-to-day activities, take them through the techniques through stories they are familiar with and perform a fast tharana.
Meanwhile the learning/teaching process has also undergone massive changes, thanks to technology. While our gurus had it all in their head, we have it on our mobile phone now! So earlier the teaching and learning had more depth, intensity and spontaneity, and there was a strong one-to-one relation between the guru and the disciple.
What kind of a relationship do young students have with the dance?
That depends on whether they are learning because of parental pressure or because they are passionate about it. I get a lot of students who learn Kathak because their parents force them to. At the same time there are many adults who pursue dance because they couldn’t learn it at a young age due to various reasons. I love working with the latter group.
They know they don’t have enough time on their hands and so they have immense focus unlike the young students. It is fun working with them and that experience helps me as a teacher.
You are a torch-bearer of the Jaipur gharana. What attracted you to this tradition?
My elder sister, Moumala Nayak, and I started learning Kathak from a teacher who followed the Lucknow style. We were living in Patna then. Later, when we moved to Ambala in Haryana, we got a teacher trained in the Jaipur tradition. I got attracted to the latter, which has powerful footwork and more spins, whereas in the Lucknow gharana, the emphasis is on the nazakat (elegance), grace and abhinaya. After watching a performance by guruji (Rajendra Gangani) I didn’t have to think twice before becoming his disciple. So while I follow the Jaipur gharana, my sister still adheres to the Lucknow one.
What are your views on experimentation and tradition?
If you learn an instrument, you can play any raga provided the instrument is properly tuned. In the case of dance, your body is the instrument and right techniques and proper practice mould an artiste. I am totally against learning the dance form in capsules. Also, I prefer wearing traditional costumes and I experiment only with the colours of the costumes. I am appalled when I see young dancers experimenting without really making an effort to understand the basics of the dance.
Milestones
Monisa is recipient of Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar of Sangeet Natak Academy and an empanelled artiste of ICCR
Her productions include ‘Spectrum’, which related colours to sentiments; ‘Raga-Chitra’ that depicted various moods of the ragas; and ‘Nartan’, which narrated the evolution of Kathak.
Her father, Amiya Kumar Nayak, a former government official, is a magician as well. Monisa, her sister and their father used to stage performances blending magic and Kathak.
