Does dance in the country get its due? Can online teaching of dance ever replace the traditional Guru-Shishya equation? Can dance ever be enough to sustain an artiste? These were some of the relevant questions thrown up at the recently concluded Hyderabad Literary Festival that saw stalwarts in the field of dance like Leela Samson, Ananda Shankar Jayant, Veena Basavarajaiah and well-known critic Sunil Kothari come together to discuss ‘The Drama of Dance’.
The session that was held to a packed audience saw the artistes discuss the various aspects of dance as a career in today’s day and age with Ananda moderating the event. Given each panellist’s varying expertise and areas of interest the session threw up some interesting points for the audience to ponder upon. While Veena Basavarajaiah, a contemporary dancer from Bengaluru, believes that dance students should not limit their knowledge by giving too much importance to one entity, who is usually just a speck in the universe; Bharatanatyam exponent Leela Samson believes that the ideal guru instead of limiting their students’ knowledge will guide them and turn every day into a learning experience.
As Ananda steered the conversation towards the opportunities that exist in the field of dance when compared to earlier, Leela avered that the opportunities were endless. “But it depends on what one considers an opportunity — a chance to dance or to perform at say Music Academy? Because that is a tough call. It took me 62 years to be able to perform at the Academy, but that is all right. I’ve performed for much smaller audiences at smaller venues, but for me that was more personal and satisfying. I like to dance for just people; it is frightening to perform for a bunch of people that call themselves connoisseurs,” she explained.
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Sunil Kothari on the other hand believes that the audience owes it to the artiste to have the courtesy to sit through an entire performance and not walk out mid-way. “It is insulting to the artiste. What is the point of dancing for such an audience? Also the media, these days, does little to promote fine arts and the equation between the dancer and a critic is fading.”
The panellists also touched upon how there was a need to promote dance and other fine arts with adequate funding. “Dance has moved from temple precincts and with shrinking patronage from the government and civil society performing for the love of the art is difficult. One ends up subsidising the performance to meet the demands of the day,” she said. Leela Samson agreed, adding that this also results in the diminishing quality of the art. “Even the Sangeet Natya Academy is at the behest of the government; and let’s admit it that they don’t care much about the arts. Not just this government, but any government.” The session ended with the panellists agreeing that the civil society as a whole had to look at preserving the arts and doing a lot more to take it forward.