Quality of Dancers on Tour in USA Questioned

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 29 Mar 2008, 18:16

My afternoon browsing found this article on Kutcheribuzz:

Are USA-touring Indian dance groups really of top quality?
by Mukundagiri Sadagopan.

(http://www.kutcheribuzz.com/news/200803 ... ndance.asp)

an exert:

... ... ... In recent years India-Based Dance Troupes- with a few notable exceptions - leave much to be desired. To state briefly, every troupe is anchored by a main dancer who is past his / her prime and is physically unable to move rapidly on the stage. Because of this the programs they offer are slow and boring.

These India-based troupes are mostly anchored by a senior artist who exceptional in her Abhinaya (hand gestures) and Nrityha (expressional or narrative dance) - but is lacking in Nrutta which is pure dance. "Pure dance" - the rapid-fire stepping and dynamic footwork is what differentiates a dance from a "Katha Kalakshepam" - a musical, often a tear-jerker. ... ... ...

Please read the complete article. I'm sure that some of the things that he says must be true, but I am still sad if it means that Indian Dance has to have the same demand for youth that has afflicted entertainment in general.

I have always been pleased that the dance audience does not reject a performer on the basis of a few extra years or a few extra pounds or a little less agility on the feet.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 29 Mar 2008, 19:08

Nick:

Having lived in smaller towns which can't afford a dance troupe, I have not had the opportunity to verify the veracity or generalizability of the writer's observations. That being said, I think he (Mukundagiri is a 'he', not a 'she'!) is correct in some of his observations: many of the senior dancers certainly do not have the physical appearance to make this essentially visual art-form appealing (not ALL, thankfully! There are notable exceptions). Certainly, fast-paced nritta is wisely eschewed by some of these, but even in the abhinaya segment, I have some issues: I for one (and maybe that is just the shallowness in me) am not able to appreciate some of these dancers trying to convince me that he/she is a nubile gOpI, or a sinuous kALIya, or a mischievous krishNa. They carry more weight (literally as well as figuratively) when they are enacting the lamenting mother who has lost her son on the battlefield or something like that! Even aTTamIs are tough to discern, and more importantly, lack grace, when a gazelle-like neck becomes hidden in a cephalo-thoracic body!

Nick, I do not agree that demand here is for youth: it is rather, a demand for discipline that also controls weight. It can be seen as a demand for youth only if one equates having a lean physique with athletic abilities as the exclusive prerogative of youth and accepts that enormous cambial growth is inevitable as one ages. I do not want to single out anyone, but there certainly are senior dancers who have invested in this aspect and reap the rewards. I respect those performers enormously. Just imagine Dame Margot performing, if she had gained an enormous amount of weight between the two phases of her career. It was her maturity as a dancer, coupled with her exquisiteness, and still youthful and athletic body that made the latter phase (where she and Nyureyev danced together for 18 fabulous years IIRC) even more phenomenal than the first.

I better put a disclaimer here: Just my opinion folks.

Please don't take my head off, and throw the baby out with the bath water! There are some valid points Mr. Sadagopan has made.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 29 Mar 2008, 19:26

he (Mukundagiri is a 'he', not a 'she'!)[/i] Woops, sorry: will edit.

I'm am sure there are pros and cons here.

Having contributed my small opinion, I look forward to more from those in the know!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 29 Mar 2008, 19:54

What Ravi is saying is that Sadagopan is a name for a man. Mukundagiri is the name of the place he hails from.

Nick H · Post by **Nick H** » 29 Mar 2008, 23:00

Hmmm.... ______giri. Yes, I suppose I could have thought that through. The article caught ,my attention more than the name!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 30 Mar 2008, 00:59

The hills where Mukunda resides.

chitrashankar · Post by **chitrashankar** » 30 Mar 2008, 11:40

I think the main problem is that the senior dancers do not respect the scriptures like Natya Shastra, do not even read Abhinaya Darpanam, and don't actually understand anything about natya.

I think Padma Subrahmaniam put it very bluntly when she said that most of the Bharatanatyam dancers are actually doing modern folk dance disguised as "traditional natya". That is to say, it is plain fraud.

If you meet any of these senior dancers like Sundari Santhanam, ask them a simple question: Why did the ancient scriptures lay down the criteria that disqualify a person from public performing of natya?

Why do the senior dancers like Sundari Santhanam give very little opportunity and very little space for their best students who exceed their gurus in every respect? Isn't it shameful? Why don't the senior gurus be more modest if not humble?

kanchanad · Post by **kanchanad** » 31 Mar 2008, 20:47

rshankar wrote:Nick:

Just imagine Dame Margot performing, if she had gained an enormous amount of weight between the two phases of her career. It was her maturity as a dancer, coupled with her exquisiteness, and still youthful and athletic body that made the latter phase (where she and Nyureyev danced together for 18 fabulous years IIRC) even more phenomenal than the first.

As we know, Fonteyn's career lasted until 1979, her sixtieth year.

Maya Plisetskaya is 83 but is still dancing and is still even now in a far better shape than the 60-year-old Dame Margot was.

The important question is, how come Maya Plisetskaya, at 83, is even now fitter than practically all the 20-year-old Bharatanatyam dancers in Chennai????????????? Isn't it a shame?

On her 70th birthday, Maya Plisetskaya debuted in Bejart's number choreographed for her and entitled "Ave Maya".

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 31 Mar 2008, 21:09

Kanchanad,

You are absolutely correct in posing that question!

Dancers who know more can correct me, but IIRC, a few years ago, the SNA in India had made a decision (unilateral I think) that changed the status of dancers over 50 from 'active'. This created a huge hue and cry! While I think that this has to be individualized and done in consultation with the dancer in question, I can see where the SNA was coming from!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 31 Mar 2008, 21:44

kanchanad,
Her debut performance was at the age of seventy??!!
Ah, such a boost to hear that

chitrashankar · Post by **chitrashankar** » 01 Apr 2008, 06:27

rshankar wrote:Nick:

Having lived in smaller towns which can't afford a dance troupe, I have not had the opportunity to verify the veracity or generalizability of the writer's observations.

You just have to watch Anita Ratnam's or Sudharani Raghupathi's DVDs and see how much space they gave to T.M.Sridevi. You are not going to tell us that you think that other dancers in these DVDs are at least half as good as Sridevi, are you?

rshankar wrote:Nick:
many of the senior dancers certainly do not have the physical appearance to make this essentially visual art-form appealing (not ALL, thankfully! There are notable exceptions).

Natya Shastra plainly states that the quality of the narthaki is agility, etc.
Abhinaya Darpanam says that the dancer must be youthful and slender, and plainly states that natya is a visual art form and has to do with the beauty of the physical body, and therefore any other "dancing" is a parody. Do you think we are blind and do not see that the senior dancers' (except, perhaps, for Alarmel Valli's) "natya" is a parody?

I know some people who don't mind eating half-rotten rice. They say, "it's no problem".

rshankar wrote:Nick:
even in the abhinaya segment, I have some issues: I for one (and maybe that is just the shallowness in me) am not able to appreciate some of these dancers trying to convince me that he/she is a nubile gOpI, or a sinuous kALIya, or a mischievous krishNa.

We all have many issues: many children dancers' abhinaya is 1000 richer and more beautiful in expressions than any senior dancers'. One must be blind not to see it.

rshankar wrote:Nick:
They carry more weight (literally as well as figuratively) when they are enacting the lamenting mother who has lost her son on the battlefield or something like that! Even aTTamIs are tough to discern, and more importantly, lack grace, when a gazelle-like neck becomes hidden in a cephalo-thoracic body!

Except for Alarmel Valli, do you know any other 50+ dancer who still has grace?

rshankar wrote:Nick:
but there certainly are senior dancers who have invested in this aspect and reap the rewards. I respect those performers enormously.

Kindly tell me who is there besides Alarmel Valli?

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 01 Apr 2008, 07:55

chitrashankar: I do not mean to come between you and rshankar since I do not know much about the content of the dialog,but it looks like you and rshankar pretty much agree on stuff and you are writing as if you completely disagree with him. I thought I will just point that out.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 01 Apr 2008, 08:08

Chitra,
I was wondering as well, like VK. If you asked rshankar, he would also agree that Alarmel Valli is a super dancer.

manvantara · Post by **manvantara** » 04 Apr 2008, 01:23

I agree with the author - many dancers who tour the USA are not professional! They seem to assume that the audience in the USA is not as knowledgeable or sensitive as the audience back in India and dole out light stuff.

Last year, I attended a recital by a dancer from Madras, in Chicago. She was very fat and I was amazed that she managed to dance. What made her look worse was that she brought along some of her young (and trim!) students. The choreography was good, but it was horrible to see her on stage.
I think that Indian classical dancers should be very strict about their body size! If they grow (and keep growing) they should gracefully step out of the performing scene and stick to lectures!
Earlier, I attended a recital by Alarmel Valli at Memphis. I had heard a lot about her and looked forward to her program. But it was a disappointment - I felt that she did not put her heart into the program (well, Memphis did not have as many in the auditorium as, say Austin might have, but irrespective of the number of people watching her dance, I think she should have been more professional and could have given some depth to her items). To me, her steps seemed more like Odissi with some influence of ballet! Her accompanying musicans were very good, though!
Then there was the "Ekantha Seetha" - which I think was specifically for the non-Indian. The choreography (by the Dhananjayans) was good, but predictable and in the end, left me wondering what it was all about. Sujatha Srinivasan seemed to "dance" without moving her body much! Dhananjayan himself was no good - he tried some Kathakali style eye movements, but only the intent was there - the eye balls did not move!

It seems to me that dancers from India have a condescending attitude towards rasikas in the USA. Which is sad, because a true professional would be true to his/her art, irrespective of the stage/audience.