Beautiful Odissi Pictures

A continuation of my previous blog on the Odissi performance I attended a few days ago.  I did not mention in the last blog that as I sat watching the dancers and wondering how best I could capture the experience, I realized quite soon that my tiny camera would not serve the purpose.  I had to preserve the events of this evening in my mind and try and put them onto paper in some way.

As it turned out, quite by chance, there was a man seated next to me, professionally clicking away, and from the angle and timing of the camera clicks, I knew he was getting some good pictures.  Blogging makes one meet and talk to people one might not otherwise.  So, after some thought, I requested him to send a few pictures, if he didn't mind.  He kindly agreed and has, indeed, done so.  These are some very striking pictures of some very talented dancers, taken by Saroj Kumar Mishra during the 'September 2012 Dance Discourse' programme.

I am attaching a link to the set of pictures taken by him.  (If you click twice on the first image, you can see a full screen version of the set).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarojmishra/sets/72157631666050813/

An Evening Of Odissi

Young Odissi dancers of Bangalore

Yesterday I braved the rain and the crowds to reach a small auditorium for an evening of Odissi dance. Odissi, a relatively newly acknowledged classical dance form (from the south-eastern state of Odisha), is one of my favourite Indian dances.  Though considered one of the oldest Indian dance forms, and initially a secular dance form, Odissi was confined to temples for many centuries and it only stepped out of this enclosure about seventy years ago.  This was largely due to the efforts of a handful of gurus, whose desire to dance to a general audience and to teach this in its pure, classical as well as folk-derived forms, overcame the restrictions that were imposed on who could dance Odissi and where.  Currently, Bangalore, despite its distance (geographically and culturally) from Odisha, has a high density of schools teaching Odissi.

In an attempt to battle the weekend traffic and ensure that I could locate the place, I found I had arrived an hour early and hovered around near the door for quite a while. As I was one of the first to enter, I managed to be seated right next to the stage, which I always enjoy, as one gets to see the musicians and the dancers (especially their feet movements) up close.  One also gets to see the deity (in this case, Lord Jagannath, a form of Vishnu, worshipped in Odisha).

Lord Jagannath, a form of Vishnu worshipped in eastern India

The evening's programme was an overview of some dance schools of Bangalore and began with the youngest - children who were six and older.  They were all good dancers and one got a glimpse of tremendous promise and talent especially from some of the smallest ones.  Odissi is a very exacting style (like most classical dances).  However, it is especially hard for young dancers, I think, because it is largely based on depicting ancient poems, mythology and scenes from the walls of wondrously carved Odisha temples.  To be able to narrate all this requires a certain depth, imagination and maturity apart from training and ability.  Certainly, the children are given simpler sequences, but I could discern a certain confusion in the older (perhaps teenage) dancers, which is not surprising.  I guess they are trying to discover their form and style.  My aim is not to dissect the dances closely and critically; I find it interesting to observe different movements of the dancers and think about how their styles emerge.

The end of a wonderful performance by students

I was able to take a few pictures, but I realized that flash photography was not allowed, so I have no more images of the subsequent programme.  However, pictures would probably not do justice to dance and so I attach older utube videos to illustrate what I felt during and after the programme.

Much of the dancing was done in the style of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, who had trained a lot of students from outside the state.  His is a slow, soft, sensual style with many stances where the dancer looks as though she might be frozen into or just emerging from the wall of a temple.  Interestingly, Guru Kelucharan's own style was different from that of all his students (whom I have seen).  His own emphasis was largely on narrating a story in as expressive a way as possible.  He sometimes added stories to existing old tales, to incorporate an extra layer of drama or movements, and he easily played more than one role at a time in an inimitable fashion.

Yesterday's programme began, as all dances do, with a Mangalacharan, a prayer to the gods (in Odissi, it would normally begin with mother earth and then proceed to Ganesha or Lord Jagannath (Vishnu), however modern dancers often leave out the earth element, as was done this evening - the cost of stylization and urbanization!).  But it was a nice beginning anyway.  I attach below a picture of the children doing Mangalacharan, followed by an old performance of Mangalacharan by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and a recent one by his daughter-in-law, Sujata Mohapatra.  Sujata's style is traditional too and it is the style which all his students have imbibed (this video is about eight minutes and you need not watch the entire dance if you are not inclined to; watching about half (unfortunately, it begins with an advertisement) will give you a general feel for the movements and how they differ from Guru Kelucharan's own movements).

Mangalacharan 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQm9vkJawI4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wX5yHh6DHc

The other guru whose presence was felt, in a tremendous solo performance (by one of the organisers, Madhulita Mohapatra) was Guru Deba Prasad Das.  I like his style for its earthiness and emphasis on strong expressions of moods.  In this case, Madhulita depicted a scene from the poem 'Geeta Govinda', an old erotic-mystical composition in the bhakti tradition (where Krishna (a form of Jagannath) is worshipped as a lover).  This will need a section (or a blog) in itself to describe, so I won't get into details here.  This dance was the highlight of the evening and had everyone on edge, watching Madhulita showing an abandoned lover's grief which ended with her sitting disconsolately on the stage, tears flowing down her face.

Just to depict Guru Deba Prasad's style, I add here a link to a dance sequence by another talented Bangalore-based dancer, Sarita Mishra.  In this snippet, she performs the beginning of Geeta Govinda, a description of different avataras of Jagannath as he appears on earth to vanquish arrogance or evil.  As you can probably make out from these performances, Odissi is a dance which has the potential to reach out and touch you - gently, enticingly or passionately, invoking happiness, sorrow, love or awe as the dance proceeds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG6bHnunDgk

Delhi International Arts Festival

Being in Delhi implies being caught up in a flurry of events, each day there is so much happening. This year the government has been particularly active in promoting cultural events as we celebrate the centenary of shifting of the capital (by the British) from Calcutta to Delhi (or to be exact, New Delhi). The city was planned by two British architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker and it is in the wondrous 'Lutyen's Delhi', shaded by venerable old trees that many of the cultural events unfold. Now, of course, as the city expands, new venues are identified and some part or the other seems to host a significant programme almost every day.

The Delhi International Arts Festival, organized by the dancer Pratibha Prahlad, has grown enormously over the past seven years and now is a fortnight long event that brings outstanding artists of all ages and countries (the emphasis of course is on Indian artists) and hosts shows that are free and open to all. This time it seemed bigger than ever. We witnessed dance from Spain, Iran, Sri Lanka, Korea, India, music from Egypt, Israel, Australia, India, theatre from Britain, Hungary, Russia, Japan, India, films from Cuba, India, America, art and photography from Hungary, Russia, India and more. Each event was impeccably organized (at least all that I attended). Of course, the international events seemed to draw larger crowds, especially as they were organized in collaboration with various embassies, but what I enjoyed most were a series of classical Indian dance performances held in the outdoor auditorium of Rabindra Bhawan as a tribute to Tagore.

We were seated under the wide open skies with an ancient peepul tree in front that was decorated with garlands of marigold, around which was built a large stage lined with oil lamps that flickered through the evening. Each day had two performances; there was a large repertoire that was displayed and I watched, fascinated to be sitting so close to the dancer. I felt fortunate that I could see both old and young dancers, see a range of styles (many not often accessible outside their own region) and within a style, to be able to compare different schools of dance and see how a dancer's own interpretation and selection of pieces brought about a distinctive stamp of individuality on the performance. I learned a lot.

It is impossible to recreate my experiences through words or through video recordings, they do not do justice to the beauty of the dance and the melody and rhythm of the music. However I am giving a few links below just to show some of the dancers (and dance styles) that are not publicized much. They are not the best recordings but watching them for a couple of minutes will indicate the tremendous diversity of dance that we have in this country.

Bina Devi (Manipuri), looking ethereal (though very small!) on stage-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL3PNQ5r814

Sangeeta Dash (who learned Odissi from Guru Deba Prasad Das, one of the masters of this dance who has a different, more direct style compared to the better known, curvy style of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra), in an invocation to the guru-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-XGYkJ2lis

I also show two snippets of kathak (a popular dance form of north India), performed by two different older dancers, just to show subtle differences between different schools of the same dance.

Rani Khanam, the emphasis is on describing a mood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqJjget4a8E

Sunayana Hazarilal, the emphasis is on percussion and foot-work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt_hfB37hIM&feature=related

Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and his Odissi

Yesterday, as part of India International Centre's annual festival, we watched Madhavi Mudgal in a beautiful Odissi (a classical dance originating in the eastern state of Orissa) performance. We sat outdoors, watched over by a benign sky and even the trees and bamboo clumps stood silent and alert - in admiration perhaps of this beautiful dance form that remains now eternally linked to the memory of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.

Kelucharan Mohapatra was fascinated by rhythm and movement from an early age despite the family disapproval that followed. As a child he was drawn to and subsequently immersed in folk theatre, this included various aspects that were to help him later in his choreography and composition - back stage work, percussion, dance, drama and more. Working with different companies (one of these led to a meeting with a highly talented dancer whom he married), learning expression skills from a range of teachers of music and dance and researching traditional dance forms, he finally came up with his own way of expressing this classical dance, in the early fifties. At that time, Odissi was unknown outside Orissa and even within the state, it lay very much alive but somewhat somnolent, awaiting people such as Kelucharan to arouse it and renew it so it could move forward and spread outward.

And Kelucharan Mohapatra obliged, with all the love and devotion that is so much a part of his dance form. Almost every well known Odissi dancer today has a link of some sort to his style or compositions. His compositions were exquisite - several being designed with a specific student in mind. A master of rhythm and expression, his pieces (composed to abstract rhythm, medieval songs or classic mythological poems) looked as though dancers had stepped off the walls of the beauteous Orissa temples or had been recreated from images and descriptions found in old texts.

Madhavi is one of his many gifted students and she spoke briefly on his style and teaching - how he emphasized continuity in movement and expression to lead the viewer into a particular state of mind or experience. She showed us a range of compositions, some solos and several adapted by her to include one or more dancers. It was a wonderful experience though I always feel that none of the students is quite like the master himself (and understandably so). I feel irresistibly drawn to Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra's performances (though I could never watch him live, he died in 2004 at the age of seventy eight). For his own dances he is simply attired, there is a bare stage and the music is minimal but very striking. And then, he brings to life characters and emotions in a joyous, free flowing manner that remains with one long after the dance is over. I also feel that his ability to express both masculine and feminine forms was amazing, something I have not seen in any of his students, who are often more skilled in the feminine aspects.

I attach below a link to one of his performances - an excerpt from Gita Govinda (a 12th century poem that was written in Orissa). This is an unusual piece of work, describing Krishna's overwhelming love for Radha. The poem reminds us from time to time of Krishna's divinity but the lyrics are highly sensuous. In the excerpt shown here, Krishna is anxiously awaiting Radha, who has been avoiding him. He is temporarily in disgrace for having neglected her in favour of other frolicking village maidens! We know that this is no ordinary love, a divine element is at work here and Kelucharan Mohapatra is able to convey a human anguish keeping in mind what lurks beneath. It is also interesting to watch this because often classical dance scenes portray distressed maidens awaiting their lovers; here the situation is reversed. The words are addressed to Radha by her friend (Krishna's messenger), describing Krishna's desperate wait for her and advising her to remove her anklets and adornments and to silently rush to him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv-xrLGlGNw

I also add a link to a performance by Madhavi and her students, just to show the difference in style and the range of forms created in this dance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTV3iwqbBOo

Why does Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra's dancing haunt me so? I think it is because it emanates from his very being. He had said once, "The real dance must convey the feeling of undivided existence, that a spectator can feel that he is not different from the thing observed."

Sufi Kathak

Delhi is always nice at this time of the year, every day there are cultural events that stretch to the festival season and beyond - right upto the end of the year. Many of these are open to a general audience and it was one of these that I attended a few days ago - a new dance form called sufi kathak, that combined the spirit of sufiism with the classical dance of North India, kathak.

Sufiism, a mystical form of Islam moved towards India in the 9th century. Northern India was introduced to this form of spiritual expression through Sufi saints who preached the importance of purifying one's heart and surrendering to God at an individual level. There was no focus on attaining heaven after death as is emphasized in mainstream Islam, instead one strived to experience God in this life, through one's thoughts and actions. Nizamuddin Auliya is one of the most revered Sufi saints of Delhi; he lived in Delhi in the 13th century and his teachings were mainly about the importance of love and compassion. One of his closest disciples, a scholar, musician and royal poet called Amir Khusro, composed a large number of verses in various languages, some of these were set to a distinctive kind of music that he developed (called qawwali) in praise of the teacher, Nizamuddin Auliya or Mehboob e Ilahi (Beloved of God), and his spiritual teachings.

The programme I attended was at the Bahai temple - a beautiful lotus bud structure in white marble with lush lawns and clumps of trees stretching all round. The dance was indoors, but walking past the temple and its picturesque surroundings towards evening, when all colours are altered by the setting sun, with a breeze in the background, was wonderful.

The dance, conceived and arranged by Manjari Chaturvedi (who has begun this new style), was very moving, partly because of her innate grace and partly due to the powerful qawwals from Lucknow, who, through their music, seemed to be beseeching God himself to come down upon the stage. Kathak lends itself well to this form of expression because it naturally has a lot of whirling, akin to that done by Sufi dervishes.

Apparently, this annual programme began last year and it attempts to continue for 22 years, to celebrate the 22 Sufi saints of Delhi. This year, they were focussing on Nizamuddin Aulia (through Amir Khusro's compositions), which was an added treat for me because I love the poetry of Khusro - it is simple and striking (often misleadingly simple) - accessible to all but containing deep spiritual reminders for those who choose to probe beneath the surface. One of my favourites is a two line composition -

Khusrau darya prem ka, ulti wa ki dhaar,
Jo utra so doob gaya, jo dooba so paar.

Oh Khusrau, the river of love
Runs in strange directions.
One who enters it drowns,
And one who drowns, gets across.

This was not sung, but many of his other well known verses were, and by the end of the evening we were all inundated with the music and dance, and walked out rather thoughtfully, past the temple which was now lit up against the dark sky.

Felicitating Kalamandalam Gopi

Of the Indian classical dances, Kathakali is one with great dramatic impact, owing to the highly perfected style of narration, the colourful costumes which retain a strong element of symbolism and the powerful vocal and instrumental accompaniments. The stories - old tales retold, are often selected from the epics and other early or traditional sources of literature. Traditionally the performance takes place all night in temples or certain special houses, the only illumination being a large oil lamp - the kalivilakku (kali- dance, vilakku- lamp). So, when the Bangalore Club for Kathakali and the Arts staged an hour long performance in the grand ballroom of the Leela Kempinski hotel, purists raised their eyebrows.

I attended this performance, being a member of the club as it brings highly accomplished artists from their home state, Kerala, to the city of Bangalore to perform. Yesterday's function included a felicitation to Padmashree Kalamandalam Gopi, currently one of the best known artists in the field.

As I traipsed in, I was caught unawares by a retinue of Leela Palace staff, pressing upon me delicacies like tandoori prawns, smoked salmon, crab on toast and fruit punch, which I did not refuse. The wonders did not end there.

We all moved to the ballroom, where seats had been laid out and a reasonable stage set up. No one checked for passes or asked for identification. I found myself seated next to the chartered accountant of the society and asked him how they had managed to pay for all the extravaganza (the previous performance that I attended had been in a tiny hall with the musicians standing out on the street welcoming passers by). He said that the owner of the Leela Kempinski hotels was a supporter of the Kathakali club and he had arranged for the felicitation award and for the performance to be held at the hotel.

Before the performance, we heard a small introductory note by Meena Das Narayan, who has just finished making a film on Kalamandalam Gopi and the film trailer was screened. This can be seen at
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=4WDLTus8oUs&feature=related

Though highly abbreviated with credit shots interrupting the footage, the trailer gives a brief glimpse of Kerala and snapshots of some of Kalamandalam Gopi's roles that he no longer performs.

This was followed by a speech by Captain Nair, who apparently began his career in running (highly successful) hotels at the age of 64. He is currently 89, sharp as a pin (or a cocktail stick) and full of joie de vivre. The audience grew restive as he recounted story after story, but I was quite happy to sit back and listen. In a way, he reminded me of my grandfather with his forthright and entertaining tales.

Kalamandalam Gopi came up on the stage to be felicitated, and I was amazed to see that he had a slight build, a ready smile and eyes that twinkled behind his glasses.

Unfortunately he did not perform, but one of his colleagues - Margi Vijayan and several other accomplished dancers played out the second day's narration of Nalacharitam. This performance normally lasts for four days, describing the many twists and turns in the fate of King Nala and his love for the beautiful and much coveted Damayanti, who loves him in turn, but is not allowed to be with him for long after they are wed (blame it on the demons - who are always exciting to watch!).

After the dance, just before we rose to leave, there was an announcement inviting the audience to cocktails. This was obviously a gracious gesture by Captain Nair, though he was not mentioned any time, nor was he very visible at this most amazing of cocktail parties. A bar had been set up in a corner of the large room and a few tables bore a host of nibblies and the most amazing bite-sized desserts - macaroons sandwiched with almond cream, tiramisu that melted in the mouth, tiny fruit tartlets (we couldn't try the others). And then a retinue of waiters appeared, loaded with so many piping-hot appetizers that we couldn't keep track of them - vegetable spring rolls, keema samosas, fried wontons stuffed with duck, crab cutlets on sticks, spicy fried fish, mushrooms on toast, crab on toast, creamed cheese and figs, giant batter fried prawns, minced meat balls, chicken tikkas, tiny chicken burgers...

It was a fairytale feast under chandeliers. Certainly not traditional, but it created a buoyant spirit of bonhomie and good cheer. It was also nice to see all the artists, now almost unrecognizable in their shirts and dhotis, comfortably melting into the crowd and relaxing after their wonderful performance.