“You are a dancer?” That is one question Bijoy Anand Shivram is asked every time he introduces himself as a classical dancer. “Because I don’t fit into the usual concept of a male classical dancer,” says the Bharatanatyam exponent.
It has been nearly four decades since Bijoy took to classical dance, mainly Bharatanatyam, and so he is used to the stigma associated with male classical dancers in the country. “I think the male dancers should be blamed for the ridicule they invite. Why should they try to be effeminate when they talk or walk? If you are a dancer you have to enact the roles of both the nayak (hero) and the nayika (heroine), but that doesn’t mean you have to be effeminate. I have been told that I am among the few male dancers who dances like a male,” he says.
He has several interesting anecdotes to share when Friday Review meets him at Midhilalaya Dance Academy in the capital city when he pays a visit to his first guru, V. Mydhili. “I was in Toronto for a performance and Pandit Jasra ji was also giving a performance there. When the organisers introduced me as a dancer, Pandit ji looked at me and asked, ‘Aap dance karte ho?’ (do you dance?). He said he would like to see me dance. So I performed to a Ganesha sthuthi he had sung and then he told me that he never thought that I could be a dancer. When I asked him the reason, he said: ‘You have a moustache!’ His reply surprised me, but then that has been the general perception about a male dancer,” he says.
In fact, when Bijoy chose to learn dance at the age of seven his relatives were aghast. But his parents had no quarrel with his decision. Son of veteran journalist, the late K. Shivram and Amni, one among the first women journalists in the country, he took to dance after he saw his sister, Neethi Rani Shivram, dance. “My mother used to take me along to my sister’s dance classes. I learnt the steps, sitting outside her dance class. Once I got my proper training, I had my arangetram with my sister, inviting a lot of media attention for it was rare to see a brother-sister duo of classical dancers,” he says.
Although he has his roots in Kerala – his father is from Thrissur and mother from Muvattupuzha, Bijoy has lived mostly outside the state due to his father’s job. He was born in Vijayawada and lived in Chennai for some time before settling down in Ahmedabad, where he is now Principal of JG College of Performing Arts. Bijoy also runs Preksha, a non-profit organisation started 25 years ago to promote art and culture.
Ahmedabad has seen his growth as a dancer of repute and his association with Darpana Academy of Performing Arts is a significant chapter in this. After finishing his diploma in fine arts from MS University, Baroda, Bijoy joined Darpana as a graphic designer. However, the dancer in him didn’t take a backseat. “The five years I spent there was an interesting period of my life. I was the in-house designer and was part of various productions as well, performing Kathak, Kathakali and Odissi or taking care of costumes, set, lights and the like. The institution had a regimen of its own. That was when Mrinalini Sarabhai was in full glory as a dancer. There was a lot of depth in Amma’s creativity, her thinking was amazing. She moulded me and it was there that I learnt to work in a group,” says Bijoy. As a designer, Bijoy worked in Mapin Publishing run by Mallika Sarabhai and Bipin Shah.
He left Darpana in 1990 and started Preksha. He got his first student, Nikita Ghiya, in 1997. She had chronic kidney ailment and was on dialysis. “Owing to her illness she had to stay away from dance. But she wanted to get back to it as a therapy and sought my help. She was a fighter till the end,” Bijoy remembers. He is proud that Preksha could bring in the reputed dance institutions/teachers in Gujarat under one roof. “There was absolutely no communication between them and there was a sense of insecurity. We could break the ice by holding a programme featuring all these institutions,” says Bijoy.
Another milestone in his career has been the marathon event organised to protest against the riots in Gujarat. “There was fear all around and we wanted to change the scenario. We decided to organise an event to protest against human rights violation. It was meant to be a small programme, but the response was so tremendous that it became a huge event with dance, drama, music, visual arts… Ironically the government stepped in with support, but we didn’t accept any,” says Bijoy.
In addition to discharging his duties at his college and Preksha, Bijoy gives solo and group performances and conducts workshops. He leads dance dramas, most of them for charity, like the one on women’s empowerment he did in the capital city to raise funds for an old age home.
Before signing off, the 54-year-old can’t thank enough his gurus and mentors, whose pictures adorn the walls of his office back home. “V. Mydhili, Radha and Bhasker Menon, Mrinalini Sarabhai, Mallika Sarabhai, Pathagudy S. Ramaswamy, Maheswari Nagarajan, Radha Ramachandran Menon, Kumudhini Lakhia, Prof. C. V. Chandrasekhar… They have made me what I am today. I am so very lucky to be doing what I love to do,” he says.
