Choosing to receive

Ananda Shankar Jayant on receiving the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and shaping her own world.

Bharatanatyam dancer Ananda Shankar Jayant, who was among the artistes conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 2009 early this week, looks as bubbly as she did when she received the Padma Shri a few years ago. All in all, she looks not very different from the time she received her Bharatanatyam diploma in the form of a tamra patra from the founder-director of Kalakshetra, Guru Rukmini Devi Arundale, in Chennai several decades ago. But just because Ananda's face and figure have hardly registered the effects of time, it is not as if time has stood still for the feisty dancer. What the world has seen is that nothing — doctoral studies, a job in the civil services, marriage and domesticity, and more recently, a recent battle with cancer — can stop Ananda from performing, choreographing and smiling radiantly at the world. But perhaps more significant is what Ananda has to say about this journey.

It was facing a dreaded disease that tested her belief that art is not just about performance but about how to live life. If her family too comes in for praise, it is for understanding that rather than “mollycoddling” what she needed was support in pursuing her dance as best as her body would allow. With motivational talks now added to her already full agenda, she brings to her conversation a holistic view of the arts — a view nurtured by Kalakshetra and her own eclectic reading. Here, Ananda speaks about her plans and hopes for dance and how she creates her “own planet” to be able to live in an environment of positivity in a world bombarded by negative images. Excerpts from a chat with the Hyderabad-based dancer during her visit to receive the SNA Award in New Delhi:

With the Padma Shri and now the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, your contribution to dance has been well recognised. How do you look at what you have brought to the field?

What I would say is I have stayed the course and continued to perform, teach, choreograph…. For Bharatanatyam, in Hyderabad, I've made a huge space. I've made a decent group of students. And it's not so easy for young dancers to make a space for themselves, so performing with a group [her institution Shankarananda Kalakshetra] makes it a bit easier.

Dance has consumed me in a very different way. It has also sustained me. The one thing that ensured I never thought about the ‘big C' is dance. I think it defines me. And this is true for all us artistes. Now that I'm invited to give talks, I tell everyone, find your own core space. It's a wellspring of strength and energy. From that space you can deal with anything life challenges you with. For me it was dance.

What would you yet like to give to your art?

It has been a dream for me to give Hyderabad a space like Kalakshetra where people can get the kind of holistic training we got. I try my best to teach in that way, but it's not the same. I would like to create a school where children can make that choice (of pursuing art seriously) early in life. And of course I would like to be remembered as a good teacher, a good performer, choreographer…. That is every artiste's dream.

Being in the Civil Services with a classical art background offers the possibility of bringing a healthful breeze to art administration….

Yes, why not? But I will not go looking for it. If I'm in a position where I'm given an opportunity to do something, I would love to do it. There are so many things that are needed: a system of agents, a system of standards — for example, if you go somewhere to perform and you get the stage, lights and sound as required. Now, that is not the case. If it is offered to me [to work in a capacity to remedy this situation] I would love to. But then again it is a huge logistics thing. At this point of time I am not prepared to leave Hyderabad. Right now, it is only in the realm of conjecture.

Maintaining two careers is tough. And when government servants are better known as artistes, there is a common, if incorrect, perception they must be taking it easy on the job.

I don't think that's the case at all. Because you're in two parallel careers and you go out of your way to prove yourself in both. It's the same thing as when women always go that extra mile to prove themselves. Also, being in another career brings another dimension. I always say I bring my administrative skills to my art and I take my egalitarian attitude — the harmony of my art — to my office. As for time, I think we all just make time. In the process I cut down on the dross. Of course you adjust your leave, you fix performances for weekends, but again it's back to organisation.

What would you classify in dross?

I don't think I should actually call it dross! But I probably don't do too much socialising. I don't watch television at all. I never did earlier, but now after my cancer experience, I just don't want any negative images. I don't watch the news. You may think I live on another planet, but I have realised I create my own planet. I've decided to choose what I receive. I flip through the papers for 10-15 minutes, that's it. I've decided to choose what enters my head. And that's made my life better.