India report

Dance Magazine, August, 2004 by Cynthia Hedstrom

INDIA is a land where dance first thrived over 2,000 years ago. Yet, in the South Indian city of Bangalore, a teeming metropolis where digital technology and ancient customs intertwine, two recent dance festivals reflected India's ancient/contemporary dichotomy.

An all-night spring festival, Vasantahabba, at Nrityagram, a dance compound just outside Bangalore, has become an annual destination for arts lovers. Nrityagram was founded in 1990 by Protima Gauri Bedi, who convinced the local government to give her ten acres of dusty land where, brick by brick, she built a thriving home for classical and contemporary dance. Students who live and work at the school follow intensive training in yoga, Indian classical dance, and martial arts, in addition to caring for the buildings, gardens, and grounds. The center's acclaimed professional company creates original choreography based on Odissi classical dance, the roots of which reach back to the second century B.C. Odissi was revitalized in the mid-twentieth century through the study of hundreds of sculpted dancing figures which are still visible on stone temples in the East Indian state of Orissa.

Under a full moon last February, more than 30,000 people gathered in Nrityagram's outdoor amphitheater and surrounding grounds. This feast of dance and music attracted local villagers, families, hip youth from Bangalore, and aficionados from around India. Opening with a drumming invocation, the program contrasted classical Bharata Natyam performed by the long-limbed Priyadarshini Govind with contemporary work by the Mumbai (Bombay) artist Astad Deboo, whose slow motion dance on the raised roof of the stage created a transcendent moment in the moonlight. Deboo's spinning dance, in full white skirt and top, recalled the early work of American postmodern choreographer Laura Dean. An all-male Odissi dance troupe presented classical story dances, bringing masculine energy to the fluid, feminine movements of the form. Like most classical dancers, they were heavily made-up, brightly costumed, and adorned with bangles, bell anklets, earrings, and rings. The attentive audience stayed throughout the night, stumbling home, sated, in the early dawn.

Back in the city of Bangalore, Attakkalari, a local dance center led by Jayachandran Palazhy, hosted the International Festival of Movement Arts, a week of performances in February at various sites ranging from traditional theaters to an open-air club on the rooftop of a downtown corporate building. While classical forms have dominated the Indian dance revival over the past sixty years, contemporary explorations are increasingly visible throughout the country. The festival sampled many of these trends--from a duet by Abhilash and Deepak, who utilized movements common to capoeira, yoga, and contact improvisation, to Navtej Singh Johar's intimate dance diary (built from daily one-minute improvisations) to a video installation with dance by Ein and Anusha Lall that posited a single woman's protest against an American political landscape dominated by George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The festival concluded with a performance by Aditi Mangaldas, who, by using elements of traditional North Indian Kathak dance, created theatrical intensity through pure movement and rhythm.

In a land where ancient traditions are vibrantly present and dance is often considered the ultimate expression of the human spirit, the art form is evolving. Led by individual pioneers who work both within and against tradition, contemporary Indian dance speaks to the concerns of twenty-first century life.