Bharatanatyam beyond borders
CHENNAI: Every new year, resolutions are made and some are religiously followed. Among those are the summer projects to hone one’s skills, or to create something exceptional. Aalaap’s founder Akhila Krishnamurthy spent the summer of 2023 in the United States to put together a one-of-itskind event. “I connected with a lot of dancers. I felt that it would be lovely to create an exclusive festival, where dancers who live outside the country (India) practice Bharatanatyam, perform (here),” shares Akhila. The result is The Diaspora Dance Festival that will be held today.
The idea behind the festival is to expose the audience to the kind of work that’s happening in Bharatanatyam across the world. “This festival is also to establish a focused opportunity for those dancers to be featured in this,” says Akhila. She believes that artistes in the city will be introduced to global practice and interacting with international talent will bring clarity to their line of work. Backed by Apsara Arts, a dance company in Singapore, six artistes — Periyachi Roshini, Sophia Salingaros, Pallavi Anand, Anugraha Sridhar, Divya Ravi, and Amritha Jayakrishnan — will perform on stage.
“Akhila ma’am follows my work on Instagram and asked me if I could be a part of this festival. I agreed and I am happy because this is my first solo in India,” shares 22-year-old Periyachi, who began her dance journey at the age of four and went on to join Apsara Arts in 2019. After graduating from an Arts school, she now works on her own choreography. Talking about the importance of the festival, she notes that while the opportunities for the artistes from the city are more, it takes years for artistes outside the country to get there. “I have been dancing for 18-plus years now and after so long this is my first entry, my first gateway to be performing in India, particularly in Chennai and that too during the Margazhi season,” she says.
A devotee of Lord Shiva, Periyachi will present a performance close to her values and principles, and her work on the deity. She notes that it is important to maintain a balance between being relatable to yourself and your audience. “If I don’t understand a topic performed, but I see the truthfulness and the rawness of the dancing. I think that would move me as an audience,” she says. With this, the relationship between the art and the artiste is put forward.
While relatability is important to connect with the audience, recognition is also significant for the artiste on stage. “When you are a budding artiste, validation from your guru, parents, audience and someone you look up to gives you satisfaction. As you grow with the art form, validation from within is what matters the most,” says 28-year-old Anugraha Sridhar, a Bharatanatyam dancer and a musician from the USA.
“At this time a festival like this is so crucial because people from Chennai are consuming content from artistes from around the world. It makes it relevant for the artistes because you’ve seen these artistes online and now to bring them here live, puts a face to the names that the audience see on these platforms,” she says. Anugraha will perform with Madhumanti Banerjee, a contemporary Bharatanatyam artiste. “It’ll be a presentation of a juxtaposition of two styles with a live orchestra,” she says.
The presentation brings variety to show that there can be many ways of doing the same art form. “While practicing and performing in Chennai makes you dance to a live orchestra where there is a lot of give and take, in the US, there are mirrors in front of you and practicing there helps you fine-tune your art. Here, there are mentors to guide you, but there it is mostly self-exploration,” she notes. As the first edition is all set to take stage, Akhila is packing and getting ready for her summer project this year to bring in more artistes for the second edition.