© 2008 Sankalpam www.sankalpamdance.com © Text with authors Edition of 500 Cover Photograph: Mira Gokul © Chris Nash Back cover: Rukmini Devi This page: Stella Uppal Subbiah, Mira Balchandran Gokul, Vidya Thirunarayan © Chris Nash Sankalpam Management: SarahTrist 020 8541 5399 sarah@stdma.com www.stdma.com Programme Design & Production: Allan F. Parker pureland@dircon.co.uk www.pureland.co.uk
SANKALPAM Celebrating Tradition, Celebrating Change
1. Kalakshetra and Sankalpam 2. The Journey of Bharata Natyam 3. Attam 4. Bharata Natyam From archetypal Indian dance to international art form
5. Sankalpam Productions Education Biographies of Company members
“Kalakshetra was founded by Rukhmini Devi on the 6th of January in 1936. Just before this date she herself had been acclaimed as one of the great dancers of India. Since that time she has worked through Kalakshetra maintaining the purity and beauty of spirit embodied in the great art traditions of India, combined with the highest standards of technique and learning. As for Bharata Natyam, the finest of the Indian dance forms, it would have completely died out and been lost to the world were it not for the genius and devotion of Rukmini Devi.� Kalakshetra publicity brochure - c. 1952
Stella Uppal and Valli Subbiah
From Left: Stella Uppal, Venkata Challapati, Rukmini Devi, Prasanna Vadani, Kodai Nayki
1. Kalakshetra and Sankalpam Sankalpam was founded in London in 1995 by Valli Subbiah, Vidya Thirunarayan, Mira Balchandran Gokul and Stella Uppal Subbiah. All four founder members were alumni of Kalakshetra, the internationally renowned centre for arts and learning based in Chennai, South India. To understand Sankalpam, it is first necessary to look at Kalakshetra. Kalakshetra was established by the dancer and theosophist Rukmini Devi Arundale on the 6th of January 1936. She devoted the rest of her life to the cultivation of the Indian arts, in particular Bharata Natyam, through Kalakshetra. Some argue that had it not been for Rukmini Devi and Kalakshetra, Bharata Natyam would have died out with the abolition of the devadasis (or temple dancers). Certainly, it would not have achieved the level of international acclaim and familiarity that it has today. Sankalpam draws on the inspirational way of life the founder members experienced in Kalakshetra – a way of life created by Rukmini Devi together with exceptional teachers such as Sharada Hoffman, Anandi Ramachandran, Pushpa Shankar, Krishnaveni
Lakshman and more recently Leela Samson (the current director of Kalakshetra). Sankalpam’s aim is to respect tradition while venturing beyond current convention to build a new choreographic framework for Indian classical dance – reaching for the future while embracing the past. Since 1995, the group has worked to fulfil this aim, with works such as Dance of the Drunken Monks, Tat and Ullaa, fusing their traditional training with their experience of the contemporary world. Sankalpam is committed to communicating the ideals of Rukmini Devi and the beauty of classical Bharata Natyam to as wide and varied an audience as possible. To this end they conduct regular classes and workshops across the UK. The company has also initiated Attam, a project which provides a platform for young and developing artists to perform together with professionals in their shared exploration of Bharata Natyam.
Top left: On tour with Kalakshetra to Andhrapradesh at Guntur station. Girija, Valli, Shanta, Vasu, Padu teacher, Sita-Akka, Chalapti-Anna Bottom left: Sports Day at Kalakshetra (The three-legged race) Above: Rukmini Devi on Sports Day
Top: Shanta Devi, Valli Subbiah and Stella Uppal Centre Shanta Devi, Valli Subbiah and Stella Uppal out side The Music Cottage Left: Valli Subbiah, Jayanthi Nadesan and Stella Uppal under the banyan tree at Kalakshetra
Trying to measure the form of our Lord With the river in his hair, Brahma, flying into high heaven, And Ari, digging deep in earth, Searched in vain; But the three-eyed god With his beautiful body smeared with ash, Even while the gods in heaven worship him, Desires to take us alone in love. He loves Venkuru’s shrine, And here he abides. Campanatar – Images of the Lord v.9
2 The Journey of Bharata Natyam Many, many years ago, in a world filled with bitterness, greed, jealousy and ugliness, the people of the earth yearned for something beautiful and enchanting, a thing of grace and wonder that would cut through the gloom and chaos and light up their world. In despair, they approached Brahma the Supreme Creator and begged him to create something which all the people could enjoy with all their senses, and which would take their minds off the wretchedness and misery of their lives. Brahma went into a deep and lengthy meditation. Swirling through his mind were slokas and mantras from the Rig Veda, chants and sruthis from the Sama Veda, histrionics and expression from the Yajur Veda and emotions and sentiments from the Atharva Veda. And all of these came together in a brilliant amalgam, and thus was born the Natya Veda, the holy scripture of dance, music and drama. Drawing inspiration directly from this Natya Veda of Brahma, two thousand years ago, Sage Bharata wrote the Natya Shastra, a veritable encyclopedia that covers every aspect of stagecraft, dance, music, costumes and poetry, all haloed with the sheen of the divine and spiritual. Fact and fable, history and mythology, these are the warp and weft of the Indian way of life, and woven into this glorious tapestry is a glittering jewel: Bharata Natyam. Born two thousand years ago, Bharata Natyam, the classical dance of Tamil Nadu, has had a fascinating evolution. Imagine it as a vast river, now sweeping sparklingly through a broad plain, now struggling through an arid desert, now running, dark and barely visible through a gloomy forest, but always flowing, always alive, gathering twigs and stones, carrying life and death, endlessly replenishing itself with bracingly fresh water from tributaries and rainfall, as it moves relentlessly and unstoppably on towards a horizon and a future which nobody, and everybody, can see. The rules of Bharata Natyam are laid out in staggering and mindboggling detail in the Natya Shastra. Almost every imaginable movement of the eyebrows, the eyelids and the pupils, is described; the nose, the cheeks, the chin, the lips, the neck, the knees, the arms, the legs – no part of the body is too small or too big to escape description, categorization and classification. Add in permutations and combinations of any or all of the above, and one gets a sense of the vastness and thoroughness of this treatise. Blending all the ingredients of drama, music and literature, Bharata Natyam – and all classical Indian dance – has three components: Nritta, or pure dance, Natya, the dramatic element, and Nritya, the histrionic element, also known as abhinaya. All these together are the brick and mortar, the steel and concrete, of Bharata Natyam.
Arrival of performers from Kalakshetra at Kalpakkam Nuclear plant at Chennai
And here is where the greatness of Bharata Natyam is revealed: it has taken this brick and mortar, this steel and concrete, and fashioned something of extraordinary beauty, a feast for the eyes, the ears, and the soul - a divine medium for narrating the story of life itself. The name Bharata Natyam is a relatively recent one. Behind this name lies a saga of revivalist and reform movements, accusations of moral weakness, affectations of propriety and decorum, caste battles, nationalistic pride, and colonial repression. All this could have undone a weaker structure, but it was a trial by fire of sorts for Bharata Natyam, and it has emerged, stronger than ever, according to some, compromised and adulterated according to others, but alive it is, surging strongly towards that invisible horizon. Until the early years of the twentieth century, what is known as Bharata Natyam today was called Sadir, Dasi Attam, or Thanjavur Natyam. It was performed in a milieu that is vastly different from today’s world. The earliest exponents of this dance were temple and court dancers. These dancers were called devadasis, and they formed part of a 2,000 year old temple dancing tradition. The world of Sadir and the devadasi was one of imperial kings and their social hierarchy, the opulence and sophistication of their courts and temples, a world where the dancer enjoyed the highest status and admiration and often wielded enormous power and influence.
The grandeur of the king was expressed in his courts and his temples, and what better way to showcase his enlightenment and learning, his refinement and taste, than by having the best and greatest number of dancers, the most venerated dance teachers and musicians? Sadir, and many of the devadasis, prospered and thrived in this environment. The devadasi belonged to a community which “married” their girls to the temple deity. Temple ceremonies tied them for life to the temple. By and large, the “office” of the devadasi was a hereditary one, although there were some women who, attracted by the economic independence, the high status and the authority generated by this position, chose this path for themselves. The best of the devadasis enjoyed the patronage of the wealthy and influential members of society; this in turn benefited the temple. Nothing lasts forever. The world of the devadasi, with its kings and wealthy patrons, and insinuations of the nature of the relationship between them, collided head-on with the British colonialists and their ideas of morality and seemliness, and in the end, it was the devadasi world which lay in the dust. The British, strongly and actively backed by many Indians, dismissed the devadasi system as seedy and backward. The official death knell was struck in 1947 with the Madras Devadasi Act, which abolished all temple dedications and effectively killed this tradition. One can view the devadasi system through many mirrors, and each one will reflect back a different reality: the empowered female; the prostitute; the temple property/commodity; the goose who laid the golden egg for the temple and its community; the helpless woman under the control of her male patrons, teachers and priests. Whatever one believes, the reality is that this system is now dead.
On tour with Kalakshetra to Andhrapradesh, at Guntur station. Girija, Valli, Shanta, Padu teacher,
And the doors have been thrown open to a whole new paradigm, from the closed, hereditary “unrespectable” devadasi one to one that became eagerly sought by the educated, upper caste, ultrarespectable elite, performed on stages and auditoria where often a statue of Nataraja is the sole nod to the temple tradition of yore. The repertoire of the devadasis was varied and wide-ranging, and a lot of it survives to this day. They performed ritual songs and dances, mainly in Sanskrit and Telugu, like stotrams (poems in praise of a particular deity) and pushpanjalis (offering of flowers, seeking the deity’s blessings). They had a vast repertory of artistic compositions, mostly in Tamil and Telugu, and these included the alarippu, varnam and padam. Often the themes of the padams and varnams were performed in an erotically explicit manner, which might have contributed to Sadir’s somewhat unsavory reputation among the people of “good” families. Devotional songs and dances in Tamil and Telugu were also popular, like the laali (lullaby) and taalattu (cradle song). Kuravanjis, dance dramas depicting a variety of stories and legends, were enormously popular, and were sometimes performed over the course of several days. The modern Bharata Natyam margam, (which means path), or performance format, has its roots in the great Thanjavur Quartet, four brothers who lived and worked during the early years of the 19th century in the courts of the Maratha King Serfoji of Thanjavur, the Mysore King Rajendra Odayar, and the Travancore King Swati Tirunal. These great brothers, Chinniah, Ponnaiah, Shivananandam and Vadivelu, will be forever remembered for their immense contributions to Bharata Natyam. Their incomparable compositions are exquisitely suited to the rhythmic patterns, emotions, moods, themes and tempos of Bharata Natyam, where the music and the dance each bring out the best of each other, a perfect marriage made in heaven, an impeccable union of the Bhava, Raga, and Tala elements of Bharata Natyam. The pieces that they composed are still revered as the gemstones of the Bharata Natyam repertoire – centuries later, they still glitter and sparkle, and evoke the feelings of ecstasy and serenity that come with the sublime harmony of dance and music. The complete Bharata Natyam margam, as prescribed by the Quartet, includes the following: Top left: Stella and Uma-Aka meet Chinese officials on tour in China Stella in China Left: Kalakshetra tour of Russia performing in Moscow (right)
Alarippu: This is an invocatory piece, with the dancer performing a series of rhythmic exercises to a particular talam, seeking the blessings of God, the guru, and the audience. Jatiswaram: A purely rhythmic piece consisting of jathis, danced to a repeated melody of swarams (melodic notes). There are jatiswarams in a variety of ragams, each invoking a different mood and set of rhythmic patterns.
Shabdam: A short and sweet piece, the warm-up to the main piece of the recital, the varnam, where there are short rhythmic parts, as well as a few lines to which the dancer performs abhinaya, or emotional expressions. This is the first piece where the entire range of a dancer’s skills is shown, albeit in small doses. Varnam: this is the most rigorous piece in the Bharata Natyam repertoire, and the ultimate test of a dancer’s ability. A Varnam weaves demanding rhythmic segments (theermanams) with story sequences, all of which require unerring precision, compelling facial expressions, and tremendous stamina. The Varnam can last from half an hour to almost a full hour, and a good dancer will make this time seem like a few magical minutes. The story line of a Varnam can range from the plight of a devotee longing for a sight of her beloved Lord, to the ever-popular frolics and pranks of the naughty child Krishna, to a description of the majesty, power and beauty of a particular deity. There is normally an intermission after the Varnam, following which is the slower-paced, emotion-laden segment of the recital, where the dancer unfolds the fine textures and nuances of abhinaya, (emotions and feelings), revealed through stories of heartbreak and love, of scolding mothers and pouting daughters, of unfaithful friends and fickle lovers, all sung in hauntingly melodious, lyrically poetic, padams and javalis. Some of these padams and javalis are brazenly erotic and sensuous, but handled skillfully by a good dancer, they are never vulgar, but a beautiful embodiment of life, in all its multi-faceted glory. The final piece in a traditional Bharata Natyam margam is the Thillana, a fast-paced, joyous piece that is mainly rhythmic, with a small expressive section. It jolts the audience back into toetapping mode, with its variety of melodic and rhythmic patterns. Today, many Bharata Natyam recitals carry some version of this margam, usually a much-shortened, telescoped-into-one-hour one. Most often jettisoned are the jatiswaram and shabdam; and where a dancer might have performed three, or even four, padams twenty or thirty years ago, he or she might whittle these down to one or two. Attention and time spans are shrinking. Ever greater numbers of dancers need to be accommodated. Theme and concept based dances are gaining in visibility, if not necessarily in popularity. The story of Bharata Natyam after the fall of the devadasi system is one of unremitting, untiring effort and devotion by a group of pioneers, including Rukmini Devi Arundale, E. Krishna Iyer, Balasaraswati and V. Raghavan, who did everything they could – and succeeded brilliantly in what they set out to achieve – to ensure that this ancient tradition would not wilt and wither away. Of these, Rukmini Devi Arundale has left behind perhaps the most concrete legacy of all.
She came from a Brahmin family - not any Brahmin family, but a highly respected one. Dancing was the last thing she was expected to do. Her interest in dancing was kindled by a ballet performance she saw, by the famous Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova. She was so enchanted that she wanted to learn ballet, but was gently steered towards the dance of her own heritage by Pavlova, who encouraged her to learn and revive the rich dance forms of India. To make a very long story short, Rukmini Devi Arundale did precisely that. Confronting many obstacles, she sought out and learned from the best dance teachers. To remove its association with the devadasi of yore, she renamed the dance Bharata Natyam. In 1936, she started an institution for the teaching of dance and music, which she named Kalakshetra, or Temple of Art (Kala means art, and Kshetra means temple, or holy place). She employed the top musicians and dancers of her time, and adhered strictly to tradition, while using that same tradition as a springboard to choreograph many stunning pieces and dances for Bharata Natyam. Here evolved the Kalakshetra style of dancing, with its emphasis on Angika, or the body form. Clean lines and crisp rhythms are stressed, as opposed to the looser, sinuous forms of other Bharata Natyam styles. Other schools and styles of dancing have flourished as well, as the old teachers, with generations of learning and knowledge flowing through their veins, were sought after. Well-known and tremendously respected today are the styles of Pandanallur, Vazhuvoor and Tanjore, each one with their special and unique attributes. Once Bharata Natyam became “respectable�, the floodgates opened, and the scene today is heartwarming, or one that evokes despair, depending on how one views the situation. Never before has this art form been more popular, more vibrant. Yes, there is plenty of mediocrity and worse, but also, shining brightly all around the world, are many dancers with tremendous talent, imagination, knowledge, dedication and determination.
Swans from Nala Damyanti: Jayanti, Rekha, Rama, Stella and Sita-Aka
The borders of the Bharata Natyam universe are expanding, and the world within is one which is testing all boundaries, where tradition and innovation, age-old issues and modern ones, the abstract and the concrete, the sensual, the ascetic, the carnal and the spiritual, are all jostling for attention, all parading themselves on stages around the world to audiences that are bemused, outraged, thrilled, excited, or despairing, but never indifferent. There are people experimenting with using the language of Bharata Natyam to explore new themes like dowry deaths, women’s issues, poverty, AIDS, the environment, and war; there are those who throw themes and narrative to the winds and rejoice in the framework of Bharata Natyam to highlight the excitement and visual stimulation of abstract dance; there are some who have chafed at the rigid outlines of Bharata Natyam, and have incorporated elements of modern and other dance styles to enable them to best express their ideas and ideals. Some dancers have eschewed the whole devotional element; others vigorously oppose this viewpoint and are uncompromising in their belief that Bharata Natyam is a spiritual experience, not just another means to express modern life and its dilemmas. There has been experimentation in music; there has been venturing into a variety of different musical genres. Ancient texts and scripts have been revived; brand new words and music have been written to express something new, something unique, something original and utterly personal. And of course, there are many who cherish what has been handed to them, this gem which has lived for over two thousand years, and they pledge to safeguard it and preserve its pristine form. All of this means one thing: Bharata Natyam is alive and well. No, this is an understatement. It is vibrantly healthy, thriving, dynamic, at the crossroads at one of the most exciting stages of its long and gripping life story. It is a majestic, powerful river in full flow. What a journey it has had. And what a journey lies ahead of it! Kamini Dandapani – Karnatic Musician New York March 2008
Right: Mira Balchandran Gokul Š Carl Smith
Š T.S.Chai
3 An Introduction to AATTAM The power of performance – any performance, but especially that of the dancer – is that it is always more than the execution of an idea or composition, more even than interpretation. Each performance is a new creation, brought into being for the first time in the moment. In each, the changing dynamic of dancer and music directs, and is directed by, an evolving relation, instant by instant, between the body and mind of the dancer. This contingent, extempore quality, this perpetual newness in the best performances of forms and traditions that are centuries old, confirms the symbiosis of dancer and dance form. That form endures which, across the ages, continues to spur the dancer to her most vibrant displays of creative achievement; equally, a good dancer keeps the form alive by investing it, for herself and for each new audience, with a vital modernity. © Eva Rotondo
All this, more or less true of any tradition and its modern performers, is particularly true of the great classical dance tradition of India. In the course of a long history, Bharatanatyam has migrated from the world of the courtesan-dancers (devadasis) of the ancient Indian temples, to the safe respectability of the Indian middle-classes, to wider, more global settings, and it has found its exemplary practitioners in each of these settings. The great Bharatanatyam dancers, across different eras and cultures, have realized and continue to realize anew the radical possibilities of the form, with its demand for the intricate intermingling of the sensual and the spiritual, the profane and the sacred. Above:
Vidya Thirunarayan Left:
Stella Uppal-Subbiah Right:
Marcella Cappellatti, Sarra Whicheloe
In time, there have come to be established two distinct kinds of Bharatanatyam performance. The first is individual: the solo performance of the traditional maargam or ‘path’, from the basic type of composition to the most advanced, a path along which the dancer demonstrates an increasingly complex combination of skills. This is the mode of the individual dancer, herself the
embodiment of a unitary self or isolated consciousness. The second, quite different kind of performance is collective. The dance-drama, developed by the great pioneer in Bharatanatyam, Rukmini Devi Arundale, represents a deliberate eschewal of the traditional solo recital. Calling instead for a group effort, it combines theatre with dance so as to release more fully, the dramatic energies inherent within the Bharata Natyam form. Choreography becomes the very essence of the mode, as different configurations of space and movement are enabled by the manifold mutual interactions of the group.
This page (l to r):
Inspired to another kind of innovation by Rukmini Devi’s example, Aattam seeks to combine the strengths of these two very different modes. It recasts the solo genre for group performance, following the structure of the individual recital, but infusing that recital with the energies generated by multiple performers. Bringing together dancers from across the country, at varying stages in their study of the art, Aattam participates in the ongoing vitalization of that art, by conceiving for the performance of Bharata Natyam, a new mode that is especially conducive to the global and cultural range of its modern practitioners. The Tamil word, aattam, was chosen in preference to the Sanskrit natyam or nritya, because along with ‘dance’, aattam carries the meaning of ‘play’ or exuberant movement: aattam captures more completely than its Sanskritic synonyms, the open-endedness and unfixed possibilities of the mode that it signifies.
Bottom:
Uttara Natarajan Goldsmiths’ College, University of London
Kamala Devam, Indira Kemp Right hand page (top: l to r)
Sarra Whicheloe, Thushy Sivananthan, Veena Middle:
Veena, Marcella Cappellatti, Shrikant Subramaniam, Archana Ballal, Seeta Patel
Thushy Sivananthan, Sarra Whicheloe, Marcella Cappellatti, Archna Ballal, Sarra Whicheloe
Š Eva Rotondo/Rooban Selva
4 Bharata Natyam – from archetypal Indian dance to international art form Bharata natyam is perhaps one of the most politicized of dance forms. By this I mean that it is a dance form that has been used very prominently to represent something – a social group or movement – and that this identity has often seemed as, or more important than the form itself. This has had repercussions on the way it is performed. As is well known, Bharata Natyam shifts from temple to theatre, from being sadir to being ‘Bharata Natyam’ at the centre of the debate forging the identity of independent India. The newly revived and revised Bharata Natyam is held up as a symbol of the newly emerging secular nation state, India. In the context of diaspora, bharata natyam continues to be something of a battleground for alternative perceptions of identity, especially around ‘Indian-ness’. Between the promotion of Bharata Natyam as a link to the culture of the ‘Motherland’, and the still surprisingly strong ‘smells and bells’ camp of Westerners seeking a route to the Orient, it sometimes feels difficult to establish a place for Bharata Natyam as dance – and not as a means to a vision of India. At the other extreme, elements of Bharata Natyam vocabulary are used without any reference to the cultural or religious context from which they have emerged. This raises concerns as to whether Bharata Natyam is somehow being ‘sampled’ or exploited – stripped of its cultural essence, abbreviated and simplified to make it more palatable to an audience that lacks the context and the attention to appreciate a 45 minute varnam. At the Navadisha conference in 2000, David Bintley voiced fears about the ‘McDonaldization’ of dance forms – including Kabuki and Bharata Natyam. Here the question becomes - at what point does Bharata Natyam stop being ‘Bharata Natyam’? What are the essential constituents of its identity? When bharata natyam is performed by a white woman in jeans outside a supermarket to a soundtrack featuring an ‘electronic hum’, can we still call the result ‘Bharata Natyam’? Above: Mira Balchandran Gokul © Simon Richardson Opposite: Stella Uppal Subbiah, Mavin Khoo, Shijith Nambiar and Mira Balchandran Gokul
The level of experimentation happening with the form today understandably makes people nervous, particularly when it seems to bring with it the risk of losing sight of the classical tradition. This is especially the case in the diaspora where there is not the deep-seated knowledge of the form that there is within the Indian
© Chris Nash
subcontinent. Anxieties are heightened when it seems that there is an establishment bias away from the classical dance form in favour of innovation. In the UK for example, there is a widely held perception within the Indian dance community that Arts Council funding is only available for new or experimental work. The Arts Council denies this, but the feeling remains among classical artists of practising a dance style under threat. Paradoxically, the popularity of artists and choreographers using the form only serves to reinforce a feeling that the classical repertoire needs protecting – as these successful artists have moved a considerable way from the classical presentation of the form. These concerns have some validity. The classical repertoire is hugely demanding to learn and perform. Becoming an accomplished bharata natyam dancer capable of creating and developing an emotion in a padam or a varnam takes decades. Equally, becoming a proper rasika or audience for classical dance is not easy. Engaging with a classical margam is challenging, and like most things, is more rewarding the more educated you are about it. How realistic is it to ask for an audience in Britain to be educated in Carnatic music and Bharata Natyam – art forms that have their origins many thousands of miles away? Well, it may seem a lot to ask, but this is precisely what we need to do. It is time that we stopped thinking about Bharata Natyam as only a ‘South Indian’ dance form – and started viewing it as the
Left:
Mira Balchandran-Gokul Right:
Vidya Thirunarayan
© Chris Nash
Vidya Thirunarayan and P.T. Narendran (also from Kalakshetra) © Chris Nash
international form that it is. In the world today any other approach strikes me as anachronistic. I share the concerns of David Bintley and others who worry about the extinction of cultures, but I feel that we need to make general in order to retain the specific; to deexoticise in order to keep the depth of otherness/strangeness that makes a work ‘exotic’. To attempt to preserve a culture without change is futile – and sentimental. The attempt to shut an art form off from influences that may be ‘polluting’ can lead ghettoisation. The attempt to display or demonstrate a ‘preserved’ culture treats a living entity as a museum piece and can lead to Disneyfication or a pastiche of the culture or art form in question. In other words, trying to ‘protect’ an art form from change can be as damaging as exposing it to too much. This is where it is helpful to stop viewing Bharata Natyam as an essentially Indian art form – and to start viewing as part of a shared heritage for us all to learn, nourish and enjoy. In other words, it is not by whom or where the knowledge of the form is held or developed that matters, but that it is held and developed. The internationalisation of ballet is a case in point. Ballet has travelled a long way from Renaissance Italy and the courts of Louis the X1Vth – both literally, and in terms of the development of the form. However far from dilute, pollute or expunge, the existence of Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, the Royal Danish Ballet and the School of American Ballet serves only to strengthen and develop the dance form. This is the dream for Bharata Natyam.
Stella Uppal Subbiah and Mira Balchandran Gokul © Chris Nash
Magdalen Gorringe (and Ishaan) Bharata Natyam Dancer and Researcher
This is why the inclusion of a Bharata Natyam strand in LCDS, the incorporation of bharata natyam in to the ISTD exam structure, its inclusion as an option for GCSE dance – is so important. But it is not enough. Bharata Natyam needs to be studied more rigorously, in greater depth and with more attention to the classical margam before it can properly be called part of the British heritage – as we would like it to be. We need Bharata Natyam to be as British as fish and chips (a combination of French frites with Jewish fish dishes emerging in the UK as a dish between 1850 and 1945) or a cup of tea (mentioned by the 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys as ‘a Cupp of Tee (a China drink) of which I never drank before’). The vision is for a Kalakshetra equivalent in the UK – the British Bharata Natyam Dance School – where dancers in Britain are given the same depth of training in Bharata Natyam and its subsidiary arts as is given to students of Kalakshetra in Chennai. Against the background of a knowledge of the classical form, we can embrace experimentation with the technique with confidence and enthusiasm, rather than insecurity and suspicion. And in the mean time, we want to introduce primary school children to real bharata natyam – not simply to Bollywood or some diluted form of movement considered easy for them to digest. This is what will truly help to maintain the distinctive nature of the form – not closing the form off, but disseminating a profound knowledge of it more widely. A Year 6 class in Cornwall studying an Adi Talam Jatiswaram in Ragam Saveri? Bring it on.
Mavin Khoo, Shijith Nambiar, Stella Uppal Subbiah, Mira Balchandran Gokul in Psyche: The Modern Self and Meenakshi – stills from video Š Allan Parker
Sankalpam productions Since 1995, Sankalpam has created and toured 8 productions, with 10 original pieces of work and 3 major research and developments periods.
1. Walk Around Tradition and Alone By themselves 1994/95 This was the first production created and toured by the company with choreography by Stella Uppal Subbiah who later became the resident choreographer in the company. The physical impulse for movement was the starting point for Walk Around Tradition. It was also the first time the company collaborated with saxophonist Iain Ballamy and composer and percussionist Karaikudi Krishnamurthy. Alone by themselves was a collaboration with award-winning dancer Ellen van Schulyenburch. Both these pieces together formed a spirited programme of work that toured all over the country including Springloaded and set Sankalpam on an inspired artistic journey. Photo: © Chai Dancers; Mira, Valli, Vidya
2. Margam 1995 After the work on contemporary technique with Ellen van Schulyenburch, the company felt the need to work on the classical Bharata Natyam repertoire and enlisted the services of Debbie Fionn Barr as Rehearsal Director. Margam was produced and toured with the support of Swindon Dance and included a performance at Sadlers Wells. Photo © Hilary Shedel Dancer: Vidya Thirunarayan
3. Sambhavam 1996/97 Following Margam, Sankalpam went into a 4 week research and development period with Janet Smith, Sue Mclennan and Pushpa Shankar, looking at and finding different entry points into the world of abhinaya. The research resulted in two pieces of work: Sambhavam and Ulaa. Sambhavam used verses from Kalidasa’s classical text Kumara Sambhavam as a source of inspiration to explore abhinaya. Collaboration with singer and composer Manorama Prasad, Karaikudi Krushnamurthy, Iain Ballamy and artistic advisor Gig Payne resulted in a very rich composition that lent itself to the exploration of abhinaya and the painting of the emotional landscape through music and dance. This piece also started a long term collaboration with costume designer Victoria Baker Photo © Dancer: Stella Uppal Subbiah
4. Ulaa 1998/99 Both Ulaa and Sambhavam redefined the technique of abhinaya and offered audiences a new entry point into classical Indian dance. Tamil scholar and Bharata Natyam expert Anandi Ramachandran, daughter of the literary legend Kalki Krishnamurthy, researched and edited the impassioned songs of the Alwar saints for this work. Sambhavam and Ulaa toured throughout the country and also to Chennai, India, for the annual dance festival there. With music composition by Madurai GS Mani and Karaikudi Krishnamurthy the aim was to reach out to audiences with the poetic beauty of the dancers’ interpretation of these classical texts. Photo © Chai Dancer: Mira Balchandran Gokul
5. Tat 1999/2000 For the first time Sankalpam invited guest artist Mavin Khoo to dance with the company. Long term collaborator Iain Ballamy composed a piece and Karaikudi Krishnamurthy composed a fully percussive score. 4 dancers, 2 musicians and new collaborator Lee Curran with his lighting design and Victoria Baker with her costume design presented a dynamic volley of ideas drawing on the wealth of creativity and training within the company. Tat toured through out the country and placed Sankalpam firmly on the national touring circuit of companies consistently delivering work of quality and excellence. Photo © Chris Nash Dancers: Mavin Khoo, Mira Balchandran Gokul, Vidya Thirunarayan
6 Avatara 2001 After the exploration of abhinaya and nritta in the previous works the company were keen to investigate further the dramatic aspect of Bharata Natyam. Working with Madurai GS Mani and all the other company collaborators again, Sankalpam toured this very theatrical production based on the re-telling of the story of Narasimha. The tour included performances in India as well during the festival season and the company performed to packed audiences in Chennai! Avatara also included a Moksha, piece performed to an original score by Iain Ballamy. Using the idea of the cyclical nature of Budhist chants, Moksha was a short meditative piece driven by the music. Photo © Chris Nash Dancer: Mira Balchandran Gokul
7 Dance of the Drunken Monks 2002/2003 The work on the theatrical aspect of Bharata Natyam led to a further interest in the dramatic aspect and also an interest in the comical and the humorous element of the dance form. This resulted in a research and development period with the oldest Sanskrit theatre form, Koodiattam, with experts and scholars G Venu and Nirmala Venu in Irinjalakuda, Kerala. Professor Phillip Zarrilli, professor of theatre and performance studies and author of several works on Indian theatre forms, adapted a 7th century farce, Mattavilasam, with a plot revolving around the drunken antics of a kapalika monk with his woman. With expert and hilarious performances by guest artists PT Narendran and Narendran Gundurao from Chennai, this production brought together the talent of a team of artists who had been working together for several years, including musicians, dancers, light designer, costume designer, rehearsal director and production manager. Photo © Chris Nash Dancer: Mira Balchandran Gokul
8 Psyche: The Modern self: and Meenakshi 2004/2005 This interest in finding out how stories are told and how emotional landscapes are painted and how to evoke emotion rather than simply telling a story, led to an investigation into traditional storytelling techniques. After a short research period with Dr Prameela Gurumurthy on Harikatha, a traditional technique of storytelling, Dr Uttara Natarajan and Dr Professor Phillip Zairrilli, the company worked with guest artists Mavin Khoo, Shijith Nambiar of Chennai and Liz Lea to produce Psyche: The Modern Self and Meenakshi which toured throughout the country. Photo © Allan Parker Dancer: Liz Lea
Recent Work Since 2006 Sankalpam has taken a break from creating new work. The company has presented on Attam, the annual classical programme of work launched in 2005. The company also spent time with Business Consultant Anthony Peppiatt reviewing the work of the past 11 years and using the experience to develop a range of educational and training programmes. Sankalpam is now preparing to go into a very exciting research and development period with a range of choreographers and experts and will tour a new work in 2009. From 1996 until 2006 Sankalpam was managed by June Gamble and was a regularly funded organisation of Arts Council South East. Sankalpam has been supported by Swindon Dance, Arts Council South East, Arts Council North West, Merseyside Dance Initiative, Art Asia, Hampshire Dance and Julia Carruthers at South Bank.
Current Company Member Biographies: Joint Artistic director Stella Uppal–Subbiah Stella Uppal–Subbiah had her initial training with Pushpa Shankar and then joined Kalakshetra College of Fine Arts as a Government of India merit scholarship student. She performed and toured India and abroad under the direction of Smt. Rukmini Devi. In addition she studied Kathakali in Kalakshetra and did her teachers training at Kalakshetra. Subsequently she trained under Leela Samson in New Delhi. In England her collaboration work includes touring with T. Vinayakram. She also choreographed Search for Valli Subbiah. She is the resident choreographer for Sankalpam and designed the BA Bharata Natyam course in association with Akademi which is taught at the Place.
Joint Artistic director Mira Balchandran-Gokul Mira Balchandran-Gokul studied Kathakali under Sadanam Krishnankutty and went on to study Bharata Natyam at the Kalakshetra College of Fine Arts. She toured with the Kalakshetra Dance Company and as a soloist before moving to England in 1988. She performed with the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company and toured her own productions Vandana and Akasa, a collaboration with Leela Samson. She has trained with Ludus Dance to deliver Bharata Natyam in education settings and teaches regular classes in Bharata Natyam in Southport. She has recently completed a South Asian Dance Development research consultancy for Hampshire Dance and is a partner in Kaleidoscope Arts, a creative collective delivering combined arts projects in the North West.
Karaikudi Krishnamurthy – Composer Karaikudi Krishnamurthy is an internationally recognised composer and Mridangist having trained under Ramanathapuram Muruga Bhupati. A child prodigy, he was performing publically from the age of twelve. Later, he worked with Rukmini Devi contributing to many of the early productions at Kalakshetra. Since then he has accompanied many leading artists such as Ravi Shankar, John McLaughlin. He has been working with Sankalpam since their first production in 1995.
Sarah Trist – Manager of Sankalpam Sarah Trist works as a conduit between Sankalpam and a wide variety of UK and overseas venues, festivals and agencies, communicating with a large audience nationwide, and meeting a variety of cultural objectives. She worked with Sankalpam on the companies inaugural production and again since 2006.