June 1, 2012
The morning sun hits the yellow apartment block through the vertical
window shades and spills a brilliant hue on concrete. A warm
“hello” from wintry Australia!
It is cold in Sydney, and having left 40 degree swelter just 24
hours ago in Chennai, I am chilly, sitting wrapped in fleece and banging
away at the keyboard. A new country, a new hemisphere, a quiet
airport, friendly immigration and customs staff who actually smile and
say “hello” were unexpected for this world traveller.
Looking forward to my interactions with research students engaged with
interculturality and politics of presentation and representation through
the lens of tradition, hybridity and modernity is one of the
interesting listings on my week long diary. (Try to process that
academic heading for my talk!) Another is the potential collaboration
with western composers and their “take” on Indian epics. Will keep you
all posted on my Sydney diaries as they evolve.
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN IGNORE DANCE ON TV? This is the provocative
title of one of the forums at the New York City annual DCA conference.
Watching the mushrooming of dance shows, competitions and showcases
featuring such young kids pretending to be adults and performing with
amazing skill has changed the way we all watch dance. If we are
pretending that these programmes are “not pure”, “not real dancing”,
“somewhat cheap”, then we all need an extra shot of JOLT.
THIS is what seems to mean dance even in India. ‘TA KA DI MI TA’ - the
lone classical/folk/neo classical dance based show on Tamil TV continues
on Sunday mornings despite being surrounded by film based shows. Its
format has undergone a sea change from the early days when I was a
guest, judge and performer. Still, Sunday mornings finds many dancers
glued to their TV screens to watch what producer Radhika Shurajit has
conceived each week. The DCA event is focusing on the challenges facing
dance writers today. Shrinking space for serious discourse and various
new media becoming the choice for these dance shows is forcing dance
watching and commentary to re-evaluate and recalibrate like never
before. The key word is ADAPT.
This month, I focus on the increasing stress with work visas for Indian
performers travelling overseas. Numerous concert tours have been
cancelled, postponed and hurriedly recast due to stubborn visa officials
or new rules. Daksha Sheth was in panic until the last minute before
her group left for the UK, having submitted and resubmitted papers more
than twice. Many European countries are getting more and more
unreasonable with documentation requests. If a dancer (me) wants to just
VISIT a country, the visa officer insists on speaking to me to enquire
WHY I am going for a mere visit???? Like I went to sleep wearing
“salangai and netti chutti”. Phulleese! Already the UK economy is
withering with student visas getting to be impossible and Australia and
Singapore reaping the economic benefits of Indian higher education.
Anyway, this increasing cultural border vigilance is making the world a
less interesting place and many promoters bankrupt with cancelled shows
and tours. Perhaps the one circuit that is buzzing is the Mama-Mami
South Indian dance and music circuit. With fan clubs set up in Harvard,
MIT and Stanford for Carnatic vocalists, USA is always throbbing with
one performer after the other – with curd rice, tamarind rice and potato
chips as the diet staple. While it could be counter productive to many
performers who wish to break into “mainstream circuits”, it is very
valuable to many of our solo divas and devas who excite and inspire
thousands of young dancers and musicians.
The well entrenched mode of corruption in the sabha circuit, with
dancers paying organisers for a chance to perform is not even commented
upon anymore. In this market based economy, where I see long lines
before petrol/gas stations for a single litre of petrol or diesel, I
wonder why anyone would want to leave their homes to watch a performance
in the evening. Even if it is FREE. Now it seems that
dancers themselves have joined this money making jamboree. Gurus hire
halls, pay the weekly rentals, then ask their own students and students
of other gurus who never get a chance to perform, to pay a fee to dance.
A good way of making money, proving that they are giving young dancers
“AN OPPORTUNITY” and laughing all the way to the bank. Amidst all this,
where are the pathways to professional development of an artiste? Where
are the support systems that can enable serious dancers to continue and
be inspired by affiliated systems like education, advocacy, pedagogy and
choreography? Granted that western modes do not sit comfortably on the
Indian guru-sishya template but we have dismantled that formula recently
and even good gurus are finding newer ways of teaching and staying
current.
Good news amidst this mire of questions and doubts are several private
initiatives like the SAHRDAYA dance camp that connects performers,
musicians, academics and theory in a week long engagement near Chennai.
And the first complete NATYA SASTRA seminar and workshop conducted by
scholar Pappu Venugopala Rao under ABHAI (Association of Bharatanatyam
Artistes of India). Also, a recent gathering of dancers discussing
ECONOMICS OF DANCE brought out the sheer SISYPHUS-like endurance today’s
performers require to just STAY in dance. Good luck to you all. I could
not do it if I was 25 today!
Looks like EVERYONE is dancing for the Olympics. So many of our
performers are leaving for the UK saying they are part of the Cultural
Olympiad that Heathrow immigration may find more artistes than athletes
standing at the airport kiosks! Perhaps they are more wanted overseas
than organisers like SPIC MACAY at whose national convention there were
only TWO dancers amidst more than 40 musicians. While founder Kiran Seth
has pioneered a completely new way of energising the classical arts
with young minds for the past 25 years, his slant towards music has
always left many wondering. Malavika Sarukkai and Madhavi Mudgal
represent the best of their traditions at this sweltering Karnataka
venue. In the past, SPIC MACAY has helped hundreds of dancers to tour
remote parts of India sharing their skills with young minds. However, it
is in Tamilnadu that the formula found the most resistance. I remember
walking into my children’s school and college to watch Birju Maharaj and
Teejan Bai perform between a span of 7 years. The school kids looked
universally unhappy and the college crowd was totally absent, the
audience made up completely with outsiders. Even today my son remembers
that incident that prevented him from playing cricket with his friends!
The absence of a good presenter, the school officials failing to make
the event interesting and project Panditji himself as an example of a life
dedicated to the arts created this less than pleasant situation.
An update on the Leela Samson reinstatement issue. All the work of the
online petition and the emergency board meeting on May 11 at Chennai are
completed. The ball is firmly in the offices of the Ministry of Culture
and the corridors of Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi. There are numerous
points of view, name calling and religion being thrown up. My own name
has become part of a fundamentalist petition accusing me of NOT being
Pro Hindu by my support of Leela Samson. And so the rumour mill and
Chinese whispers continue. Many replacement candidates are waiting
quietly for New Delhi to announce the verdict. Meanwhile, Leela Samson
will be in the UK, not for the Olympics, but as teacher and mentor for
the annual Milapfest Summer Dance intensive and is looking forward to a
break from tiresome papers and files. We are all waiting for the final
decision of the Ministry to alter their age rules and to reinstate Leela
so she can complete her second term as director (only two years
away) before making her decision for the future. Hopefully the age for
retirement will be 70 years for all future directors. And who will it be
when the changeover happens? Anyone’s guess but for now, all eyes,
ears, mobile phones and computer screens are in anticipation.
Closing now to take a morning walk with Bharatanatyam dancer Aruna
Subbaiah, a new immigrant to Sydney. We are planning a stroll through
the fruit and vegetable markets and a visit later to the annual VIVID
festival of arts and outdoor sculpture by the waterfront. Aaah.. ..
NNNNNIIIIICE.
Enjoy the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere and the
longest night for those south of the equator, both this month. Thank you
all for the wonderful birthday wishes that poured in through various
forums. And keep those feet and hands moving, the metabolic rate pumping
and that mind on active-mobile mode.
Anita Ratnam
Sydney/ Chennai
Twitter: @aratnam
Facebook: Anita R Ratnam
Instagram: @anitaratnam
Blog: THE A LIST / anita-ratnam.blogspot.in
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