BENGALURU: When you think of a beautiful Mohiniyattam dance performance regaling a tale of Goddess Parvati’s beauty, you would not imagine the Japanese artiste Keiko Okano who has been practising the dance form from Kerala for over 15 years. Draped in the traditional white Mohiniyattam attire, the Tokyo-based dancer captivated the audience with her expressive eyes and rhythmic grace while performing in the city recently.
Even before she discovered Mohiniyattam, Okano was interested in India and its culture as a whole. “It was when I studied in America that I started longing home, and got interested in other Asian cultures, especially Indian. Even before dancing, I first started cooking Indian cuisine in Japan.” A classical ballet student as a child, Okano wanted to learn a dance form after she came back to Japan. “It could have been any dance form but the songs that I heard when I went to any Indian restaurant, classical songs with the sitar, veena, and flute, mesmerised me and I felt that classical dance must also be like that.”
Today, while studying the art form under the renowned dancer Nirmala Paniker, who has revived the dance form with many forgotten elements as desi Mohiniyattam, Okano says that discovering Mohiniyattam was a happy coincidence. “I wanted to learn dance and just five minutes away from my house, was a Japanese lady teaching Mohiniyattam, and that is how I discovered it.” Soon after, she met Paniker who was holding workshops in Japan, and decided to visit Kerala.
“The first thing to understand is the body movement because the dance form is not straight lines like ballet, it is a very peculiar movement, and that I could not have acquired studying in Japan. I had to go to the land and be trained for years,” says Okano. In a dance form like Mohiniyattam, the body and expressions reflect various emotions. The abhinaya is prominent in bringing these emotions in a Mohiniyattam performance which Okano says is challenging to learn.
Being in Kerala for the first time, Okano fell in love with the land. “I had never been to any other Asian country, I had only been to Europe and America. So that was my first experience, but soon after landing in Kerala, I fell in love with the land. I felt more connections as a Japanese person to India than the West,” she says. While she has performed in multiple cities in India, Okano’s most memorable experience was performing in Pakistan and seeing the love for Indian culture and art in the country.
Looking forward as a performer and artiste, Okano is figuring out ways to blend Japanese and Mohiniyattam elements. “I feel like I can do something like integrating Japanese instruments while using abhinaya because abhinaya is universal. I am trying to see how I can connect them.”