The lights do wonders. They play on her characters bringing out the turmoil in their journey through the dark alleys of ignorance. They simultaneously create the mood, a vital sense of realism and tension. Tanusree Shankar’s ‘The Child’ translates the fear of people stepping into the realm of unknown following the end of a civilisation with the tempo raging from slow, deliberate movements to high energy choreography.
“They are looking for a leader to help them take the leap of faith. The search leads them to the faith within,” says Tanusree. Inspired by the Passion Play of Christ in Germany, the dance recital weaves a story with Rabindranath Tagore’s poem also by the name, The Child. “It’s Tagore’s only poem originally written in English and he sat through the night to complete it,” she says. For the audience at the Rabindra Mandap here, it was poetry in motion.
Traditional & Western
Tansuree brings to the floor the beauty and grace of traditional Indian dances and the soul of western ballet expressions. In her choreographies, the body interprets the expression of music. “The essence is Indian. I may pick ‘tribhangi’ of Odissi and some elements of Kathak while creating a new idiom and use ballet in presentation of the concept,” she says.
All about technique
She stresses that ballet aspect of the dance is not in the western sense of ballet, where the dancers point their toes to make long and graceful lines, and has to do more with the techniques and presentation. “Perhaps that is why my father-in-law called his troupe, Uday Shankar and his Hindu Ballet,” she says. Uday Shankar, the pioneer of modern Indian dance, translated Indian classical dance forms and their iconography into dance movements inspired by elements of western ballet style. He had devised a comprehensive training programme that included the study of several physical and performance traditions and improvisation along with music and visual art. While he collaborated with Ustad Allaudin Khan for music, Thottam Shankaraan Namboodiri for Kathakali, Kandappa Pillai for Bharatnatyam and Ambi Singh for Manipuri to create a new dance vocabulary, his production, Kalpana, influenced films in India.
Inspired by Thang-ta
Similarly, Tanusree draws extensively from ‘Thang-ta’ (Manipuri Sword Dance) along with the folk and regional dance forms of India. It begins with a vision that flows through music into body creating movements that are both exoteric and aesthetic. “It is a challenge to create a balance. It is more like preparing a dish where all ingredients have to be in right measure to achieve perfection,” she says.
She has experimented with Tagore’s poem without the traditional accompaniments and concepts from Hindu scriptures. “The dance allows me the freedom to challenge myself with different ideas drawn from varied sources,” she says.
While ‘Durga Vandana’ and ‘Uddharan’ were based on Hindu scriptures, Tanusree’s ‘Chitrantan’ was a multidimensional offering of Tagore’s poetry through the grand narration in English by Amitabh Bachchan depicting the triumph of love over hatred. With ‘We the Living’, she tickled the five senses and nine emotions through a Sufi poem.
“I want my audience to enjoy the performance, understand the aesthetics and come back for more,” she says.