What happens when the story of Swan Lake takes an Odissi turn? Audiences will soon find out in Hansika, an adaptation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, that brings the fairy tale of love, magic and tragedy to the Indian classical stage. Directed and choreographed by Odissi exponent Sharmila Mukerjee and produced by Praveen D Rao, the production retells the story of Odette, the princess cursed to live as a swan.
The original storyline remains recognisable. Odette is cursed to become a swan, while Prince Siegfried continues to play an important role in the story, and the tragedy has not been replaced with a happier ending. But Mukerjee has made several changes to the characters and setting. The original sorcerer has been reimagined as a sorceress. The production – on August 30 at Delhi’s India Habitat Centre -- also includes an Indian wedding scene.
Where dance meets ecology
The play moves between the world of the swans and that of the human characters, using abhinaya to develop the emotional side of the story. Odissi costumes have been reworked to reflect elements of the original ballet while allowing the performers to mirror the swans’ movements effortlessly.
The biggest addition is the focus on the environment towards the end. Mukerjee uses the fate of the swans and their lake to reflect on the destruction of natural spaces. As lakes dry up and become polluted, the swans are left without a habitat.
According to Mukerjee, bringing such concerns into a dance production is part of an artist’s responsibility. “Art is and art has always been a messenger” of what is happening around us, she highlights. She adds that she has changed the final scene so that it moves from the beauty and synchronisation of the opening to a much more chaotic ending; the contrast is introduced to “convey the message more strongly”.
Tchaikovsky into Odissi
Despite taking inspiration from ballet, the production uses Odissi throughout, drawing on elements such as “Hansa Gati”, which includes movements associated with the swan, as well as Pallavi and Mardala rhythms. There are also some similarities between the physical qualities of the two forms, particularly in the way dancers glide and move on their toes, Mukerjee tells TMS.
Producer and composer Praveen D Rao notes that working on the music was one of the most interesting aspects of creating Hansika. The challenge, he says, was to Indianise Tchaikovsky’s melody while retaining its identity. The sitar and flute, Indian rhythms, Indian ragas such as Hamsadhwani and Mohanam have been used to give the familiar score an Indian character as well as rather than simply reproducing the original orchestral arrangement.
According to Rao, who has also composed music for many Kannada films and television shows, working on a dance production differs from working on films or television. In cinema, music is generally added after scenes have been shot and edited, allowing the composer to respond to images that already exist. In Hansika, the music had to be imagined before the dancers performed. The composer had to understand where a dancer would enter, how a movement would unfold and where the mood of a scene would change.
“Both are equally interesting, but here (in theatre) we need to draw more on our imagination and our understanding of the dance form and the story to create music for such productions.”
Making Odissi accessible
The adaptation also hints at Mukerjee’s interest in bringing stories from outside Indian mythology into Odissi. Swan Lake, in particular, has an advantage because many audiences already know the basic story.
For Mukerjee, accessibility is also important to the survival and wider understanding of Odissi. She recalls that when she moved to Bengaluru in 2004, some people had never seen the dance form and did not even know what it was. Hansika, she points out, has helped bring audiences to Odissi. “A lot of people come to see Hansika because it’s [an adaptation of] Swan Lake. And then they get to know what Odissi is about.”