The flow (energy) and lyricism (expressions) subtly merging into the space (limitless) throw up varied possibilities and hybrid forms, a vocabulary which is an artiste’s very own. Welcome to the world of contemporary dance.
The three-day spectacle, Samakala which ended on Wednesday forced the city audience to walk past the watertight compartments of forms, styles and categories exploring the Indian idea of Mandala (geometries of body). Sensibilities-soaked in a blast of colour from the doyens of contemporary dance forms and the Generation-next led them to experience ‘sheer joy’. The festival was organised by Odisha Tourism in association with Sangeet Natak Akademi.
In an interaction with the choreographers of the festival, City Express traced the roots of Indian contemporary dance and the confluence of different forms in creation of a distinctive imagery.
Bharat Sharma
Bharat creates an aura with lights unravelling mysteries and adding depth to the storyline and characterisation. Dim, bright, focussed and intense, the lights play with the artiste’s impression on stage which speaks its own language.
Despite his training in Mayurbhanj Chhau, Kathakali, Modern Dance and Jazz, Bharat works through a free base. “It’s unfair to look for motifs of classical and folk forms in a presentation. Never dissect a work, look at it as a whole,” he says. For him, it is the liberated soul which takes bodily forms expressing the joy of dancing. Bharat’s strong lineage never stopped him from exploring the different facets of performing art. Son of legendary choreographer Narendra Sharma, he branched out into theatre, music and institution building.
Director of Bhoomika Creative Dance Centre at Delhi, he stresses evolution in techniques and improvisation. The fluidity of movements and lines in space are part of his vocabulary with which he not only reaches out to the urban audience but also the rural masses through workshops.
Ananda Shankar Jayant
She intended to reach out to the younger generation with her production ‘Panchatantra’. “They related to its core emotion. And I chose the contemporary form as an entry point to the larger gamut of Indian performing arts,” says Ananda.
An accomplished Bharatnatyam and Kuchupudi dancer, Ananda herself pushed the boundaries of the forms in her flight inspired by Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull. “I couldn’t have performed that piece by stamping my feet. I wanted to fly and use the whole body to express that desire which took the contemporary form,” she says.
She transcends the esoteric with pieces dedicated to characters. Drawing from her classical base, she weaves a story in the present context involving the real people in her attempt to reach out to a larger audience. This is something she learnt from her Guru Rukmini Devi Arundale who had said “Culture is neither performance nor entertainment but life and art is an expression of life”.
Madhu Nataraj
Madhu innovates with forms and her approach is collaborative. She has worked with musicians, designers and filmmakers exploring new possibilities in her presentation. She brought ‘Sakalan’ to the festival, a compilation of the latest choreographic works of her Natya Stem Dance Kampani. It includes a collaborative mixed media work which captures and radiates the various nuances connected to the term ‘Vajra’ which represents the human spirit and its brilliance.
“My vocabulary is an assimilation of Kathak, yoga, Limone technique and Indian martial arts,” she says.
While Madhu’s training in contemporary dance helped her to explore the limitless possibilities of the human form, Kathak formed an important source material as she integrated the elements of footwork and experimented with rhythm and abhinaya in all her creative endeavour.
Her choreographies revolve around use of space and time with movements which her Kampani, STEM (Space, Time, Energy, Movement) sums up well.
Ronnie Shambik Ghose, Mitul Sengupta
Ronnie and Mitul worked on a genre bringing together the similarities in Western and Indian dances which smoothly flow from one form to the other.
A graduate in performing arts from Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Ronnie has learnt the Classical Jazz from Gianin Loringett. Mitul is a trained Kathak dancer. They explored the different dimensions of the dance forms within the set parameters giving shape to Rhythmosaic Dance Company in 2005.
Their choreographic presentation at the festival, ‘White’ assimilates the aesthetics of Kathak, Classical Jazz, Classical Ballet, Modern dance techniques like Limone, Graham and Cunnigham, Lyrical Flamenco and Tap dance in its purest of forms. “The piece revolves around a psychological concept presented through body movements and subtle expressions conveying varied emotions,” says Mitul.
The Rabindra Mandap also witnessed some mesmerising performances by veterans Mamata Shankar and Tanusree Shankar.