On the 8th
February, 2013, I had the good fortune of watching a programme called ‘Fastest
Feet in Rhythm’ organized jointly by Odissa Tourism and U S Consulate General, Hyderabad. It was a
unique and amazing Jugalbandi by
Kathak maestro Pandit Chitrsh Das (creator of Kathak Yoga) and the Emmy Award winner American Tap dancer and choreographer Jason Samuels Smith. It was
a fusion of the classical Indian Kathak dance and Western tap dance. They
performed against the backdrop of the famous Rajarani
Temple at Bhubaneswar. The receding winter, neither
cold nor warm, provided a perfect atmosphere for this open-air presentation.
The first part of the
programme was an innovative Kathak dance by Chitresh Das. After presenting Shiva Vandana in the classical style, he
moved to his innovation. By skilled footwork he created the sounds of a
galloping horse and then a running train and the crossing of two trains. In the
second part, Jason started with the usual tap dance, moved over to dancing to
the playing of Indian musical instruments and then to the ‘tapping’ effect with
swift footwork.
In the third part, the duo danced
with perfect synthesis. There was a perfect fusion between the Indian classical
music and dance with Jazz music and Western dance.
Tap dancers use their feet
like drums to create rhythmic patterns and timely beats. The sound is made by
shoes with metal ‘tap’ on the heel and toe. The term ‘tap dancing’ is derived
from the tapping sound produced when the small metal plates fixed to the
dancer’s shoes touch the hard floor. Tap
dancing has two major variations: Rhythm (Jazz) Tap and Broadway Tap. Rhythm
Tap focuses more on musicality while Broadway Tap emphasizes more on the dance.
It was a very enjoyable
evening.
The previous evening, the two performers spoke to a leading national newspaper about their unusual collaboration and the kind of reaction they get from the audience. Chitresh Das, who is 68, said that he felt younger when he performs with Jason. Jason said that their collaboration started at the backstage of the American Dance Festival in 2oo4.
.
Interestingly, Rajarani
temple, probably built by Somavanshi kings, has a mystery about it. There is no deity in
it and no puja is performed here.
Nobody knows whether there ever was a deity in this temple. Some believe that
it was a pleasure resort of Raja
(King) and Rani (Queen) and hence the
name but other historians show evidences to disprove this theory. Some
historians say the original name of the temple was Indreswar Temple
but later it came to be known as Rajarani temple as it is built of Rajarania,
the fine-grained yellowish sand-stone. Both in art and architecture, it has all
the features of a temple-structure. Beautiful statuettes and carvings adorn
this temple which as tall as any other such structure. Some historians say it
was a Shiva temple while others say its presiding deity was Lord Vishnu.
A beautiful and
well-maintained park and a lawn have been laid out around
this temple. The precinct
comes to life every year in January when the 3-day Rajarani Festival is
organized here. Noted Indian classical vocal and instrumental artistes from all
over India
perform in this Festival and the temple reverberates with notes and strains of
captivating music.
I am a regular visitor of
this Festival.
