The ambience at the basement of Alliance Francaise is intense and sweaty. A group of dancers of different ages are moving rigorously to music while Mumbai-based dancer-choreographer Sumeet Nagdev shouts out the instructions. A couple of minutes later it is time for some rest, but the class continues as theory as Sumeet plays a few dance videos to his students, who huddle around him and his laptop. He starts off with the videos of renowned modern dancer Martha Graham. “She is the queen of contraction and expansion. She feels the emotion when she moves. And her kind of dance demands a lot of energy and focus, sometimes almost to the point of tearing you apart,” explains Sumeet as the video plays. “Being a dancer also needs determination. For me working with Martha was my dream. I applied to work with her once and was rejected. Then I applied again after a few years and was selected. So you need to persevere in this field,” he talks in between the videos and suddenly points out, “Watch the movement vocabulary. These are some of the best contact-improvisations you will ever get to see,” he says in complete awe of the dancer.
“In modern dance, we work in the reverse. We start with a vision, create the movement vocabulary first and then set the music to the moves,” explains Sumeet, who then plays a few videos of another legend of modern dance — Trisha Brown. “You learn to let go, when you watch her,” he adds.
Finally they do a final rehearsal of their morning dance routine before the class breaks for lunch and Sumeet makes time to talk to Metroplus about what modern dance is. “I once heard a dancer say there is no definition of modern dance simply because it ceases to be ‘modern’ the day we define it.”
The dancer, who started the Sumeet Nagdev Dance Arts (SNDA) in Mumbai in 2007 was in the city to conduct a two-day workshop called Rhythmic Movement and Self Expression, organised by CMTAI (Creative Movement Therapy Association of India – founded by dance therapist Tripura Kashyap). He adds that his alliance with Tripura goes back many years. “She has done so much in dance therapy. I was impressed with her work that I trained as a therapist under her. She and her husband (Chau and contemporary dancer Bharath Sharma) have been my mentors. So, when she requested me to conduct a workshop for therapists, dancers and educationalists, there was no way I could say no,” laughs the man, who is also a trained Kathak dancer, trained from Uma Dogra.
He recalls how he got into dance even though he has “no family history in performing arts. I was into gymnastics in school and college. I liked the fact that my body was getting a chance to challenge itself and actualise its potential. Doing something physical with your body is always a discovery.”
Soon, he discovered he was reacting to music too on a “higher level. I realised even a simple rhyme like ‘twinkle, twinkle’, has a rhythm and a tempo. Soon came a time when I would dance every time I heard music. Those days I had no clue that modern dance or contemporary dance existed. I only discovered that when Google came to earth,” laughs Summet, who went on to train himself in jazz, ballet and contemporary dance from teachers across India and abroad. “Learning from Martha Graham changed my whole perception of life. She touched a chord deep within me. I loved the way she depicted relationships through her dance.”
The 31-year-old dancer says modern dance is big in India today and youngsters “can take to it as a profession if they want to lead a simple life and do something with passion and creativity.”
