In my post ‘Samakala’ of 19.06.2012, I had narrated my experience of
attending a Festival of Contemporary Dance last year.
The Department of Tourism, Govt. of Odisha and Odisha Sangeet
Natak Academy
organized the 2nd Festival of Contemporary Dance at Bhubaneswar from the 11th to the SAMAKALA
II
13th June, 2013. I attended the Festival.
The word ‘contemporary’ means ‘at the same time as’.
Contemporary dance is a style of expressive dance which connects the mind and
body. It combines the vocabulary of several dance-forms. The thirst for
improvisation caused its birth.
Contemporary dance is like abstract art. It needs an effort
to understand its nuances. A deep insight into it is needed to appreciate its
meaning and beauty. I tried to remember these while watching the performance
but I shall be less than honest if I say that I could fully understand the
nuances.
Padmini Chettur of Chennai’s presentation was first item of
the first evening. Her dance-number ‘Beautiful Thing -2’ represented the
relationship of the body’s geometry with space. The booklet made available at
the function explained: ‘The performance prescribes nine ‘lines’ in space. The
physicality of the body becomes abstracted over time till the spaces it holds
and moves become more present.’ Padmini quotes the statement of her teacher
Chandralekha, “Where does the body begin and where does it end?”
One can have a glimpse of Padmini's dance-number 'Beautiful 2' from Youtube.
The second presentation in the first evening was by Ashavari
Majumdar from Kolkata, who originally trained in Kathak. Her item ‘Surpanakha’
was a combination of Kathak, spoken text and video presentation. The production
drew from various versions of The Ramayan to present new perspectives on
Surpanakha, through her relationship with Ravana, Sita and Rama.
The second evening started with 2 dance-numbers by Anita Ratnam from Chennai (web portal www.narthaki.com). The first one, ‘Avani’ was inspired by the epic poems by Rabindranath Tagore, his call to the earth as Prithvi, mother, protector and destroyer. Like Durga, she is both gentle and fierce and capable of caring and devouring. Her second presentation was ‘Sita’. It presented Sita refusing to return to safety on Hanuman’s shoulders.
The second presentation of the second evening was by Astad
Deboo from Mumbai. The 4 parts of his performance were titled ‘Surrender’,
‘Your Grace’, ‘Awakening’ and ‘Walking Tall’.
The third evening started with the presentation ‘Dravya Kaya’ by Navetej Johar from New Delhi. Dravya is
objects and kaya means body. It
focused on select objects in Ramayana and attempted to imagine the visceral
exchange between these objects and their human users. It explored the tenacity
of Rama’s kodanda (bow) as well as
the bow-ness of the archer’s body. It focused on the valkala vastra (garment made from tree-bark) that Sita wore when banished
into the forest. It also dealt with the relationship between inside/outside as
well as between earth and food through the episode of Lakshman Rekha.
The last presentations of the programme were River Sutra and other dance-numbers by Ramli Ibrahim and his Group from Malaysia. These were inspired by Bharatanatym, Odissi and modern dance. Trained in classical ballet, modern dance and Indian classical dance, Ramli has single-handedly established Odissi dance in Malaysia.
Like last year, I attended the 3-day Dance Festival out of curiosity and to be a little familiar with Contemporary Dance Forms and have a little insight into it. I must confess that I could not fully comprehend everything that was being presented on the stage. Some of the nuances were inscrutable and intriguing. Most of the interpretations given in this post are from the booklet made available to the viewers at the venue. The compere in her introductory remarks explained that most of us are familiar with traditional dance-forms but we can develop a taste for contemporary dance. To understand its nuances, the viewer has be mentally a participant in the presentations. One has to be more attentive and more involved than when viewing presentations of classical dance-forms.
I hope attending the 3-day Festival last year and this has slightly
expanded my horizon of appreciating the world of dance-forms.
I find the contemporary dances tricky...sometimes the compositions and performances are beautiful..sometimes they are downright boring and vague!!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.myunfinishedlife.com
Yes, I did feel like that when I was watching the performances.
DeleteI think the exponents of contemporary dance would be thinking like the proponents of modern art and modern poetry. Once I attended a seminar on different forms of Odia literature. There, dealing with the complaint that modern poetry is difficult to understand,a well-known poet said, 'To understand Tamil you must know Tamil language; in the same way, to understand a modern poem, you must know poetry!'.
I really enjoy coming to your page as I always find some gem or the other here during my visits. Contemporary dance forms seem quite distinct from the traditional dance. It seems to be a mixture of multiple styles.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Delete2.I love watching presentations of classical dances. A number of programmes on these are organised by Govt. and non-Govt. agencies at Bhubaneswar regularly. For the last 2 years Contemporary Dance Festivals also are being organised at Bhubaneswar by Govt. of Odisha. I am trying to develop a taste for this and to expand my horizon.