The 21st Natya Kala Conference - a report

This is a little late to be publishing a report on last year's Natya Kala conference, held during December 15-21, 2001, at the Krishna Gana Sabha in Chennai. However, this is such a thorough and detailed report that we think it is never too late! The report is by A Seshan, Economic Consultant in Mumbai, who was formerly Officer-in-Charge of the Department of Economic Analysis and Policy in the Reserve Bank of India. He is a music and dance enthusiast and writer, who attended and took copious notes on all days of the conference.

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Wrap-up

Anita Ratnam posed the following questions to the delegates who were divided into groups each led by a choreographer.

1. What is choreography?
2. What is innovation?
3. What is contemporary?
4. What is dance?

What is choreography

There were several views taking one back to the first day's session. Astad Deboo perhaps spoke for many delegates when he said that on the opening day a senior guru had made an "unforgivable comment" to the effect that nattuvanars never did any choreography. The definitions provided by the various discussion-groups were:

It is a process of selection with a view to achieving a goal. The goal is the carrying across to another a message or idea which is born from within the choreographer.

It is a concept of movement and need not convey any idea to the viewer. As in the case of painting the spectator can interpret it in his own way.

One person communicating the collective thought of a group.

Bones of an idea assembled to form.

Arrangement of dance - solo in the Indian context.

It has to be a concept and should mean something to the artiste.

The use of music dance, time and space to establish an idea with right aesthetics.

The process of selection of images and the selection of a focus on them.

Placing objects or displacing movements in a given space. Interacting with other actors or imagined characters in that space. Threading a thematic sequence in that space over certain time.

Some of the definitions were so general that they could be applied to any movement. This reviewer argued that it was wrong to say that the traditional nattuvanars did not do choreography. If choreography is defined as the art of making dance one could say that the Tanjavur Quartette was the first group of choreographers in India having codified and standardised the presentation of Bharatanatyam. Choreography is a continuum. One can talk about conventional choreography ("Puradana" or "Sampradaya Nadana Amaippu" in Tamil) and modern choreography ("Naveena Nadana Amaippu" in Tamil). It is naive to say that the depiction of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center is choreography but not the alarippu to tillana format. The latter also requires a complete arrangement regarding music, stage décor, costume, lighting, sound system, etc., besides dance proper. Using the vocabulary of Susan Cooper in her book (Staging a Dance), slightly modified in the Indian context, a distinction could be made between choreographing a dance (say, alarippu) or a work (Tagore's Chandalika or Kalidasa's Shakuntala)

As mentioned already, choreography is much more than just designing the dance movements as any standard book on the subject would show. It was therefore surprising that Preethi Athreya and Lata Pada were perhaps the only speakers who devoted time to talk about technical aspects like lighting and sound and the role of the videographer as a visual designer with knowledge of the dance form. The lectures and demonstrations were mostly confined to the enactment of dance movements overlooking the other aspects in choreography.

Innovation

It is the birth of a thought not done or seen before.

It is an extension of any possible movement already conceived to give it a different perspective.

New Movement, new hastas to express an idea, a new perspective.

Reinterpretation of an idea/theme as different perspective

Making familiar into unfamiliar or unfamiliar into familiar

Another side of creativity

It can go as afar it wants as long as aesthetics is preserved.

A rediscovery of something that is already existing or giving a new name to something not quite understood.

Any process motivated by a question

Creating that which is different from existing practice.

Contemporary

Whatever is danced today, traditional or modern or innovative

It is subjective and time-dependent Every traditional item, when it is danced, to that dancer it is contemporary at that moment.

A reaction to the classical, something that is relevant to the present day context

No division between traditional and contemporary. Vision looking forward.

Improvisation is contemporary. Present is contemporary.

It is whatever being done at present with themes which were not attempted earlier. Every stage of life is a combination of stylisation and idealism. The proportion between the two can change according to circumstances.

Is there a difference between contemporary and modern? Is it the evolution and the present form of dance or is it the modern dance based on other techniques and infusing it into your own?

Anything existing or coming into existence at this instant.

Tradition can be contemporary. There can be contemporary response to a tradition in every field. But modern is modern. The two languages are totally different.

Dance

It is movement, which creates in the viewers an emotion, a feeling, a thought.

It is very physical.

A conscious movement of body used to express an idea or emotion. By extension dance can be seen in animals. It is any movement in nature that seems to follow some proportionate principles.

Coordinated movement, motivated by rhythm, idea, outer expression of inner emotions.

Poetry in motion. Communication through organised movement.

We have to have angika, vachika, aharya and satvika abhinaya or at least angika abhinaya.

Everything breathes. Dance must be expressed to be understood easily.

Expression of life itself in a stylised form.

Any extraneous movement

Orchestrated and symmetrical movement. Any movement with a purpose.

Summing up

Was it the case of the elephant and the seven blind men trying to describe the animal? No. It is in the nature of such conferences that divergent views would be expressed and no consensus could be arrived at. The main purpose was the exchange of ideas and loud thinking or brainstorming and it was achieved. It was interesting to note that the speakers were passionate about what they talked and had the courage of their own convictions, not of others. From this point of view the conference was a success. Not a little of it was owed to the competence of the convener, Anita Ratnam, whose time-management was excellent. It is not always an easy or pleasant task to cut into a veteran and senior artiste's talk and tell him or her to speed up the presentation. She did that chore marvellously without giving offence to anyone. It is also not easy for a convener to resist taking advantage of a captive audience and engage in lengthy comments. Anita's interventions were brief and to the point. The koothambalam of the Krishna Gana Sabha provided a good ambience. The only problem was that most of the video presentations ran into difficulties. Also the fast-forward spooling and the rewinding of frames took time off from the presentation. Tapes could have been edited and brought for presentation instead of being done so on the spot. Prior testing should be arranged in future. Ashish Khokar's was an exception as his presentation of his documentary went through well. With his years of experience Secretary Yagnaraman provided guidance on administrative arrangements. In view of his indifferent health, Joint Secretary Venkateswaran had to bear the full burden for the entire day's programmes throughout the season He and other staff members deserve kudos for the excellent arrangements they had made, some of them working from early morning till late night with only a lunch break, just out of love for the arts. Last, but not least, the canteen staff served tasty dishes with courtesy. Naturally the canteen was the first place of call for the artistes and the audience alike before entering the auditorium. The only suggestion I could make is that there should be some variety in the menu from day to day. Such variations would be as interesting as those in sanchari bhavas!

Leela Samson, convener for the next two years, should explore the possibility of getting dancers from as many schools as possible. I had a feeling that Kalakshetra, despite its greatness, was over-represented this year. Besides Bharatanatyam the conference saw presentations on Kathak and Koodiyattam/Nangiyar Koothu. One wished Kuchipudi, Odissi and Mohini Attam had also been represented by a dancer each. Kathakali had to be ruled out as it is still rooted in the past and there are no modern trends that could be highlighted at the conference. Could this be the reason for the other styles mentioned above also being left out? Of course, it again raises the basic question "What is choreography?", which was unresolved. A theme like "The dance styles (banis) of various schools of Bharatanatyam" could be an appropriate subject for the conference next year.

I want to thank Narthaki, the website of the convener, which contains the resume of the final day's group discussions, for highlighting a non-dancing rasika's views on the subject of choreography. They appear at the end after the responses of dancers - the last word on the subject?

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