Bharatanatyam in the time of the Taliban

Posing vehemently while dancing and having a nice chat over a cup of coffee with Nirupama Subramanian, corespondent for Indian national daily The Hindu at my dance school in Islamabad. I was captioning it as a perfect rendezvous at that time until I read myself being called a random '20-something man' in her article for the newspaper.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/23/stories/2009062361492000.htm

But sticking to my good old optimism, I am going to call it editor's doing and not Nirupama's. Dark skinned Nirupama in her late thirties was genuinely overwhelmed to see a bunch of so-to-say Muslim girls and a guy dancing, a dance form coming exclusively of the area she belongs i-e Southern India. Together we were rehearsing a unique aesthetic piece, which unites a thorough grounding in tradition, innovative formal striving and a keen contemporary political sense.

It is a challenge to strike a balance in terms of technique. I don't believe in a fusion with no meaning and no rigour. There are many other forms of movement which I welcome very much. Just as a poet may welcome cadences, idioms of other languages. There are and will always be very strong impressions of Bharatanatyam in each and every piece - can't escape that. When someone watches a piece, a question may arise, "Is this Bharatanatyam?"

Bharatanatyam has also changed over the years. The art is more important than just one form - it is many forms. If we are true to the art then it will be authentic. We do not do this or that in order to "keep" it authentic. It's not like Bharatanatyam does not allow me to show torture on the stage, so I won't do it. I will make my own gesture to show the burnt fingers. Later, maybe in 100 years, it will become a dance gesture.

Jati is not a decoration, or an interval, but part of the passion. Look at the endings of jati - the muktaya or teermaanam - all are in odd numbers. We translate muktaya as "resolution" but it is not a closure, it is incomplete, the door is open. Even elementary nrtta (pure dance) has emotion, some social meaning beyond arithmetic. In abhinaya the dancer has an aim, a content to convey. In nrtta, it is the social meaning conveyed through the dancer.

Life is full of contradictions but we must question the messages on gender, caste, class, race, community that we propagate. A dancer once told me that Bharatanatyam is feminist, simply because it is "woman-focused." Unlike theatre or TV where women don't get many parts, in Bharatanatyam there are regular roles in javalis, padams ... but what are the women doing? They are only pining for their men. So how is that feminist? I guess one of us has had a wrong definition of feminism.

For teaching or performing traditional pieces I tend more not to choose themes on Hindu deities, like Shiva, Krishna, Durga and Rama. Still, we mostly talk about Hindu gods. Do we even talk about non-Hindu gods, do we even know? Isn't that a political statement? Let us say a Muslim dancer is dancing Bharatanatyam, where is the point of connection? Where is Allah? (or for Christians) Where is Jesus? How do we connect with the rest of the world?

At least we should be able to see the contradictions - from there we can say, we want to do something else. The technique, the form is beautiful. I don't want to let go of my training or to reject Bharatanatyam. So I question these contradictions and take it to a level where I don't have to feel guilty about my choreography and I am also connecting with the audience.

Traditions are created and recreated. It is a question of what we choose to think of as tradition.