Bharathanatyam and transnational narration
Time was when in the countries of the Indian Diaspora, the terms ‘Indian’ and ‘performing arts’ made one think of traditional – largely classical’ – forms of music and dance, with theatre subsumed under the latter category. The most valued performers were Indian, and lived in India. For anyone living abroad it was almost obligatory to go to India to study. The number of people exposed to these performers was relatively small and the impact they made on the population at large was minimal.
Through classical arts one can exercise the power to create and understand the creation of God –Human. Bharathanatyam, owing to its origin and native is a technical repertoire. There is now a wave of choreographers and performers who want to break this tradition and portray something that is both appealing and comprehensible even to an audience who has not confronted Asian art[1]. Therefore the need has evolved for a more informed presentation of the art that is approachable and understandable to the ultimate spectator. The fact of the now is the audiences are changing both in geography and in preferences.
Globality of bharathanatyam
Bharatanatyam, a highly technical, primarily solo South Indian classical dance form, consists of a repertoire and vocabulary that bifurcates into nritta, abstract rhythmic choreography, and nritya or abhinaya, dramatic dance. Its non-thematic sections consist of explosions of virtuoso footwork, performed with legs rotated outward into a bent-knee position that exemplifies the form’s characteristically grounded use of weight[2]. The abhinaya component, by contrast, organizes itself around lyrical, leisurely phrases of gestural movement traced by articulated fingers, hands, and arms. In these segments, the dancer walks in time to the music, her body position almost quotidian in comparison with the sharply delineated positions of the more staccato phrases.
Bharatanatyam learned using socio-cultural tenets is a valuable Asian Indian artistic and transnational literacy tool. The socially constructed shared activity in learning, which is the premise of socio-cultural learning model, is evident in Bharatanatyam instruction. Bharatanatyam is a culturally driven object-driven activity. Bharatanatyam is taught using these socio-cultural pedagogies. A Bharatanatyam dancer is a transnational interpreter, who helps teach Asian Indian students about their culture, religion, history, heritage, and literature through the medium of dance. Risner[3] rightly posits that, “Historically, dance and dance education have (has) shared important social bonds with their communities, both by definition and out of necessity”. Bharatanatyam learned using socio-cultural instruction teaches valuable social and language skills incidentally along with helping Asian Indian students use this dance form as transnational literacy.
A bharathanatyam dancer is a transnational interpreter
The stage lights come up gradually as a Bharatanatyam dancer, costumed in a tailored silk sari and beautifully adorned in jewelry, walks out from backstage. In a manner neither formal nor completely relaxed, she walks downstage to a point beyond the normal performing space but still removed from the audience. She begins to explain the key features of this South Indian classical dance form. More specifically, she extracts, for decoding, the symbolic hand gestures known as mudras from Bharatanatyam’s semiotic lexicon. Standing in one place and without musical accompaniment, she performs mudras fluidly and gracefully. Meanwhile, she also translates into English the sahitya, or lyrics, of the song that the gestures will accompany. Demonstrating her skill in elegantly balancing the competing tasks of speaking and rendering gestural movement, she alerts the audience to the linguistic nature of the abhinaya, or dramatic dance.
At the end of the synopsis, the dancer retreats backstage. A musical interlude signals the beginning of the “actual” performance. The dancer reappears, walking crisply. When she launches into the performance of the piece, her gestures flow easily as in the explanation, but now she augments them with evocative facial expressions and a directed use of her gaze.
Bharatanatyam is an entity, capable of responding to the hybridity of its immediate urban environment. Through Bharatanatyam, dancers establish social affiliations in the transnational cities. Spectators in any part of the globe today can see the classical Bharathanatyam dancer, dressed in traditional costume with ankle bells tied to her feet, appear dramatically on the stage. Splendidly she becomes the Devi while portraying the valor and the beauty, rhythmically she transforms in to the Asura showing the anguish and fear. The dancer stages herself theatrically as a dancer-historian-narrator-storyteller, and the audience in enthralled in the platter of emotions being expressed.
The image of the translating Bharathanatyam dancer demonstrates the kind of cultural and political dilemmas faced by a 20th century Bharathanatyam practitioners. The dancer becomes the image and the face of culture in terms of globalizing the art. It is suggested that the verbal interlocutions retain its orientalist narratives and also emerge out of factors that belie orientalist frames of unchanging tradition.
References
[1] RajikaPuri, “Performing arts in the Diaspora: Constricting hybridity” SEMINAR, Ed. TejbirSingh. (June 2014) (Retrieved from: http://www.narthaki.com/info/articles/art123.html).
[2] JanetO’Shea, “At home in the world” Ed. DeveshSoneji, Bharathanatyam: A Reader (Oxford Publications, 2010) p. 297
[3] Risner D., “Dance Matters: Rebuilding Postsecondary Dance Education for Twenty-First Century Relevance and Resonance.” (Arts Education Policy Review, 2010) p. 123-135, Doi: 10.1080/10632913.2010.490761.
SMITA RAJAN |
About the Author
Smita Rajan a certified Dance and Movement Therapist and Mental Health Practitioner is a Co-founder (Programs and Outreach) at Thunai Trust (www.thunai.org) – An organization working in Trauma-Resilience building and Maternal Mental Health. She also teaches Bharathanatyam and Movement classes at her institution, Parampara—Dance for wellbeing. |
I found your exploration of Bharatanatyam and its transnational significance captivating. The way contemporary dancers are reshaping this classical form to engage diverse audiences is inspiring. I appreciate how you highlighted the dancer’s role as both performer and educator, using movement to convey complex narratives and emotions. This art form truly transcends cultural boundaries, fostering connections and celebrating shared heritage. Thank you for shedding light on the beauty and depth of Bharatanatyam!