Ask a Bharatanatyam dancer which part of the costume is crucial to executing a good performance and — male or female — the dancer would most likely reply that the pleats are the most important feature. Woeful is the dancer whose sari is not pleated properly! So the exhibition currently on in New Delhi, displaying Bharatanatyam costumes from the personal collection of eminent dancer Geeta Chandran, is aptly named: “When the Pleats Dance”. The exhibition, curated by Sandhya Raman, is part of Natya Vriksha’s celebration of Geeta’s four decade-long engagement with dance.
Sandhya, an alumna of the National Institute of Design, was part of NID’s first batch of Apparel Design students. She is one of the few professionals who, in her varied career, has designed costumes for a number of India’s classical dancers. Therefore, since the exhibition is also intended to trace four decades of the evolution of the Bharatanatyam costume, one wonders whether she has considered displaying garments designed for other dancers as well. Calling her partnership with Geeta Chandran a “long and fruitful one” Sandhya notes that the dancer’s personal collection is “worthy of a solo exhibition”. She adds, “I hope someday to be able to showcase my entire repertoire of costumes for a large number of dancers and dance traditions,” but points out, “Costume designers require support and patronage to exhibit their work.”
Sandhya, who as a design consultant for the “Discovery of India” permanent exhibition at Nehru Centre, Mumbai, created dioramas depicting the costumes and fabrics of India, has also put her skills to use in cinema costuming, as well as the development of crafts and textiles. A recipient of the Stree Shakti Puraskar for her contribution towards using design for development, she has worked with the differently-abled as well, and also helps young girls in Bulandshahar hone their skills for income generation and self-sustenance.
Here, Sandhya, a design mentor, advisor and entrepreneur, sheds light on the specialist field of dance costuming. Edited excerpts:
Not many contemporary designers have collaborated with classical Indian dancers to create costumes for them. Why do you suppose this is, and how did you venture into this field?
My interest and love for dance drew me towards this area. At an early stage of my training, I had the opportunity to meet an international costume designer who shared her work with us. Her talk was so inspiring and motivating that it sparked off thought processes somewhere within me. To design dance costumes one needs to be passionate about the dance. There aren’t so many professional designers as it is still a nascent idea in India. The idea of someone making a costume for you, stylised and conceptualised, is an idea whose time has come. We have been able to adapt to the idea of costumes on screen and on stage; dance costuming is a niche that is being very slowly acknowledged. Also, designing a classical dance costume involves an in-depth understanding of the dance form and establishing a connect with the specific dancer. Dance costumes are less about fashion, and although extremely dramatic, cater to very specific requirements.
Which dance styles have you designed for and who was the first dancer you collaborated with?
My first project was for the ballet called “Moonbeam” for Jonathan Hollander. I have designed costumes for Samba, Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odissi. My first collaborators were Jonathan Hollander of Battery Dance Company New York and Mallika Sarabhai of Darpana Ahmedabad in 1991. We worked on several projects, and then for “Songs of Tagore” in 1994. In India my first collaborator was Anita Ratnam whom I met while I was doing a project with Jonathan Hollander.
A costume must allow a dancer the liberty of the entire movement vocabulary. Did you encounter pitfalls or have to change the way you approached garment design?
Costuming is a specialised field that calls for deep articulation and blending several facets like form, function, culture, history, while retaining the original character of the dance form. It demands extensive detailing for ergonomics. It has been a constant learning, as design is an evolving process. Each project sets up ongoing challenges. It has been tough and I have learnt through failure, and interacting with each dancer has provided new inputs. In the initial days I had to master the art of perfect fitting and costume reliability. The Indian dance costume runs the high risk of stage malfunction, as the classical dance forms demand strenuous movements. The pressure on the designer is to make a garment that wears well on stage. The luxury of having 500 saris or identical pairs of trousers to change into, which is possible in a film shooting, is outside the purview of the stage. There are no retakes in dance and a single costume has to perform from the word go.
Did you encounter problems convincing dancers of the feasibility of your designs?
Dancers from an international arena required little convincing, since costume has evolved as an established and familiar area of expertise, mostly from the West. The concept of fitted garments is also something that has come to us from the West. In the context of the Indian classical dance, it involved revisiting the traditional costumes, and asking dancers to move out of the older, familiar trajectories. Obviously, I faced a lot of resistance in the earlier part of my career. Most traditional dancers were very reluctant to shed older, purist conventions and felt that costumes were not meant to be changed. However, dance is also an evolving form. The costume itself has undergone significant changes from the drape to the fitted lower garment. Change continues, but the momentum is slow... there is still a long way to go.
