CHENNAI : December is the favourite month of dance and music connoisseurs. The Margazhi festival offers a plethora of artistic delectables to satiate the cultural soul. And this enthusiasm was visible at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha on Thursday, which had an enviable line-up of discussions for the 38th edition of the Natya Kala conference titled ‘Aneka’. On the second day of the conference, two performing artistes — Apoorva Jayaraman and Shweta Prachande presented the topic ‘Millennial Adavus’.
The two disciples of renowned Bharatnatyam dancer Priyadarshini Govind, inspired by their guru’s creations, spoke about the practice and application of the existing adavus. The talk was backed by excerpts from their mentor Priyadarshini Govind’s choreography followed by renditions on stage by the two dancers.
“This is a platform for rasikas and dancers to crystalise their ideas about dance. Every generation brings changes to the dance form but the principles of dance remain the same across generations,” said Apoorva, one of the artistes.
Adavu is said to have been derived from a Tamil word Adaivu which means to attain. The duo presented a few positions of adavus on stage. The idea behind the presentation is not to change the grammar but only the application of the steps.
On day 3 of the conference, Indian classical and contemporary dancer and choreographer, Anita Ratnam was in conversation with Gladys Daniel, Intellectual Property Rights attorney. They discussed the answers to questions such as — What to do if a photographer uploads a picture of your performance on social media without your permission? How to ensure nobody copies your design? Who to ask while making an adaptation of a song on public domain?
When asked what are the rights of an artist when he/she is photographed while performing in a public space and is later asked by the photographer to pay money if the artist wants the photographs, Gladys said, “You cannot take the photograph of a person unless the person gives consent. If the photograph has already been taken, the artist has two options — they can either ask the photographer to delete the photographs or ask the photographer to surrender the photos and not pay for them.”