“It is necessary to bring in intellectual discourse to dance,” says Geeta Chandran, Bharatanatyam dancer/choreographer and founder-president of Natya-Vriksha, New-Delhi. “To me curation of dance festivals, conferences and workshops is not a quid pro quo between presenters/dancers. It is more about broadening the horizon of ideas, enriching thinking, removing the disregard for history and seeing dance as a whole. Dance workshops should focus on technique and pedagogy, not imparting mannerisms or blindly teaching repertoire pieces,” she says from her experience of curating an event on World Dance Day for the past 12 years with India International Centre, Delhi.
Geeta Chandran also talks about the importance of quality dance teaching in schools, which in its simplest form, is a way of creating rasikas. She throws some possibilities and questions. How wonderful would it be if we could watch and absorb the details of a Kittappa Pillai varnam in a workshop? What if we had a workshop with a temple architect and compare notes with dance forms. “Why are there few dancers in music concerts? Why do few from artistes and the audience question the government supporting one style of Bharatanatyam in the South, whereas the support extends to several Gharanas under the umbrella of Kathak Kendra in the North,” she wonders. A knowledge sharing platform should indeed also be responsible in cultivating a healthy questioning mind and awareness of current state of affairs in art.
Bangalore-based dancer and director of Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography (NIKC), Madhu Nataraj Kiran, had to turn curator and presenter at once since there were not too many platforms when they started and there was a need to create.
Public domain
She talks about the Namma Dance Utsav Bengaluru (NDUB), a festival that spanned six days, seven venues, featuring about 150 performers, from the realms of classical, contemporary and folk dance, to over 13,000 people as audience. “We create dance festivals, fringe events, workshops, and seminars in order to inhabit the public domain through dance, as a catalyst for transformation in today’s times. The venue for the performances ranged from auditoriums to mall atriums. Few thousand people watched performances in the open venues and later picked up tickets for the show in Chowdiah. The demographics of the audience for NDUB was found to be in the age group of 18-25, which seemed to be a sure sign of converting the audience for dance,” says Madhu. On the other hand, NIKC also hosts ‘Kampni Kutcheri’, a platform to encourage solo performing arts ventures in a 'Baithak' / chamber concert set up with a small-focussed audience, curated by senior dance members of NIKC, in addition to their performance trajectory in the institution.
Knowledge transfer also relies on documenting and archiving. ‘Maya to Matter’ – A learning aid DVD has recreated a lecture atmosphere with the legendary Dr Maya Rao and ‘Sankalan’ — archiving and publishing programme in the form of books, digitising archival photographs & DVDs on dance are few of NIKC’s diverse and rounded set of art initiatives. These resources focus on aspects of knowledge such as the poetry of Kathak, Kathak as a springboard for choreography, relevance of Natya Shastra in today's times and world history of movement.
“A knowledge platform should be curated to Inform, Educate and Question,” says dancer and dance historian, Swarnamalya Ganesh, who has been a regular at the Natya Kala Conference. She adds that the fraternity does not however think of a consequence to the conference or similar platforms. “The larger fraternity have to continue to watch and participate. Voices of dissent should be recognised and existence of parallel realities should be acknowledged, without toppling the existing system. A post conference democratic space could be created to address one’s thoughts,” she suggests. Swarnamalya heads Ranga Mandira School of Performing Arts, Chennai, where every three months, a knowledge sharing session with an expert is moderated by a young thinker.
It is exciting when new interesting arenas for knowledge sharing, both inter and intra art perspectives, emerge . A recent most-relevant addition is the Iyal Isai Musuem Series, a part of the Iyal Isai Museum Exhibition, inaugurated in January. The series featured artistes and scholars to talk and perform about various topics related to art, culture, heritage and museums. Gaana, Parai, Bharatanatyam, Kathak, contemporary dance, classical music, folk forms, a wide range found place in the series.
“One crucial role for museums all over the world is to impart education. Children of all ages throng museums abroad, as the world at large looks at a museum as a learning portal. Unfortunately, that kind of thrust has not happened in India and here it is seen as a one-day picnic spot and not a place to quench the consistent knowledge thirst,” says Director of Museums and dancer Kavitha Ramu. “The moment I saw the instruments at the Iyal Isai exhibition, I thought the younger generation has to benefit from the treasure of knowledge. A thought was conceived to have scholars and artistes talk/perform as part of the event and I approached senior artistes and scholars, who readily agreed to be part of it. With Chennai being recognised by UNESCO as part of the creative cities network for music, I wanted to make it as inclusive as it could get,” adds Kavitha.
