The recently concluded Attakalari Biennial, a contemporary dance festival showcasing the best of contemporary dance works not just in India, but also worldwide, sent a strong message about the dynamic development of contemporary dance in India.

Jayachandran Palazhy, artistic director of Attakalari Biennial is happy with the feedback and response. “It was a great success from many points of view. Imagining the future of contemporary dance was one of the core focus areas along with promoting young choreographers. And one could feel the genuine buzz surrounding the festival, which was encouraging,” says Jayachandran. He adds that this could mean paving the way forward for vibrant creative work in the field of contemporary dance. Attakalari Biennial is held every two years in Bengaluru and over the years has grown to be the most sought after festivals in contemporary form.
Contemporary dance, as Jayachandran explains is not a form of dance. “It is an attitude towards creating an expression. Dance is a sensorial and empathatic form. It keeps evolving and like any other field, contemporary is about the present, the now,” he says. He cites an interesting analogy, which makes the dynamics of contemporary dance very clear. “Every sphere of life is always on the go. For example, new developments and inventions keep happening in the field of science and technology. People update themselves and focus on moving forward. It’s the same with dance. Dance is a constant process. The process is directly felt and hence it is important to keep the creativity going all the time,” says Jayachandran.
The eternal debate between classical and contemporary dance has always existed in India. Many from the dance fraternity choose to take a stand and defend either of the dance forms. However, Jayachandran chooses to differ, “There is no need for polarity when it comes to elaboration about classical or contemporary. I really value our heritage, our traditions, our rich literature and the classical repertoire. Classical dance forms developed during a certain period of time with a definite vocabulary of language and aesthetics. How perfectly we execute this is important and in classical, the story is already pre-ordained,” says Jayachandran. In contemporary, however, the job is not to create anything pre-determined. “It’s like writing. As a writer, you simply don’t depend on our mythological texts like Mahabharata or Ramayana. You go beyond them and also take to other forms of literature from all over the world. The same logic applies to dance as well. Keeping our classical dance roots in mind, we can move onto various dance forms all over the world. At the end of the day, it is you and your art form and how well you define it is what really matters,” Jayachandran reasons.
He believes that honesty is the core essence of any art form. “I think half the solution lies in being honest to one’s profession. Being conscious of our capabilities helps us understand ourselves better. I don’t think I could have been anything else, but a dancer. I knew that if I hone this talent in me, it would help me become a good dancer,” says Jayachandran who has studied Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Indian folk forms and the Kalarippayattu martial art in India. He has also been trained in contemporary dance at the London School of Contemporary Dance and studied Ballet, Tai-Chi, Capoeira and African Dance as well.
Contemporary dance in India needs great support mechanism in order to sustain. “I am not complaining about how there is a lack of funds and all that. Despite the limited resources, this festival has turned out to be hugely successful. So, I think along with concerted political will, we need to bring together human and cultural resources, which we already have. Putting them together and developing them in an organised way is the key to growth of contemporary dance in the country,” he elaborates. “Financial investment is also needed and a fair amount of quality control with that. It is finally about nurturing creativity of your kind, expressing the modern day trials and tribulations with new tools and dancers. This requires some sort of investment like for any other entrepreneurial venture,” says Jayachandran.
At present, Attakalari has a piece of land on which they have built a theatre, a studio and a research laboratory. “We are managing well as of now, but growth and expansion is needed in any sector. In terms of technicalities, we are yet to reach the production level standards that the dance companies abroad have,” says Jayachandran.
Does he ever feel that calling contemporary may get stereotyped as some form of abstract art? “Well being abstract is not such a bad thing. I think it’s closer to an expression and sometime more effective than the mundane forms. We are living in a contemporary society and are deriving these expressions from there without alienating it. Abstract art doesn’t necessarily mean doing something extremely different from the regular. In some ways, it is all about creating within the limited resources. In contemporary, we are not conditioning the dancer’s mind. The only reason we have training schools for contemporary dance is because one needs to develop a certain sense of attitude. And it is this attitude that defines the core existence of contemporary,” says Jayachandran.