This year April 29 is going to be a retrospective World Dance Day for dancers in India. We have been celebrating our rich cultural heritage over the years and depicting it through various dance forms like classical, contemporary or folk. But this dance day, it’s time to analyse, sit back and reflect on the issues and challenges that really need to be addressed in order to make this form of performing arts much more engaging. From funding to sponsorships and doing away with mediocrity in dance, dance scholars across India feel that the dance scene in the country needs much more participation and financing from various sectors.
Ashish Khokar, dance scholar, archivist and writer, says that the basic problem starts and ends with funding. “It’s really sad that there is no patronage and no support for young dancers in this country. Most of the times you simply see the big and established names making a headline at most of the prestigious dance festivals across the country,” says Khokar adding that dance as a medium ends up being marginalised. “I can’t help but sound cynical since the reality is bitter to swallow. The fact is that the corporates are not willing to sponsor unless you have a big name from the glamour industry associated with your project. It’s just sad that there is no concern for culture. CSR ideally should be translated to cultural social responsibility. I think that corporate India is not culturally informed,” says Khokar.
Having been in the fraternity for ages and organising and writing about dance, Khokar says the situation is grim and some concerns like funding need to be addressed immediately. While metropolitan cities have it easy with respect to availing resources, Khokar says that smaller cities like Mysore and Trivandrum have a tough time. “The problem also lies in the uniform allocation of resources which can only be solved if various cultural bodies strive to pitch in and engage actively,” he elaborates.
In fact, cultural institutions who are believed to be blessed with funding also rue about the lack of sponsorship. Am-rita Lahiri, head — programming (dance) at the National Centre for Performing Arts says that the biggest problem is getting audiences for a dance performance. With so much of investment going into a dance performance, the challenge really lies in pulling the audiences to the theatre. “Dance is a difficult medium to comprehend at the first go, but eventually once you are into it, it’s a lifelong affair. The idea is to get them to watch a good performance and then eventually hooked them to it,” says Lahiri.
Another important issue she touches upon is the mediocrity in dance these days. “It’s sad that most of the performances we see are mediocre. The strive for excellence somehow doesn’t come across. The issue of training is like that of the chicken and the egg. It’s the bad training that producers bad dancers or vice versa.” She says that people get away with mediocrity in the big cities because of the brouhaha around something small. “Even an insignificant event is hyped. I think people get away with little which is unfortunate,” she says. The lack of good dance education and training is also another problem area. “We also lack gurus who could give a student an all-round education rather than just the physicality of dance. Your dance guru is someone who stays with you forever, so someone of the stature of say a Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra is not to be seen anymore,” adds Lahiri.
Jayachandran Palazhy, founder and artistic director of Attakalari Centre for Movement Arts says that the lack of infrastructure is a huge problem. He denies that there is lack of resources, but the basic problem lies in accessing our inherited knowledge and culture. “We live in an interconnected world and our rich background definitely helps us get an in-depth sense of art. But coupling that knowledge and creating world-class productions is a challenge,” says Palazhy. He adds that at the Attakalari centre, there are 15 productions underway with contemporary dancers from different countries across the world. “We definitely need more investment in the contemporary dance scene. Eventually, it would mean a miniscule investment in terms of the GDP, but in the long run, it has its bonuses. We have the experience and expertise, but what we need is infrastructure for training. It could be as simple as having shock-absorbing wooden floors,” says Palazhy. Like Lahiri, Palazhy too believes in doing away with mediocrity. “You definitely cannot have sub-standard performances being rendered to the audiences. We need more checks and balances to have quality control in our dance scene. Apart from that we also need systematic training with comprehensive programmes for our dancers,” says Palazhy.
Bharatnatyam dancer Rukmini Vijaykumar, a known name in the field of classical and contemporary dance says that we need more dance curators and venues who can curate excellent performances. Having studied at a dance conservatory in Boston, Rukmini says that we are well placed to deal with the problems here, just that streamlining is important. “Our artistic qualities need to go up along with adequate sponsorship and funding. Moreover, classical dancers can consider group performances rather than branching out to become soloists. Quality will always be appreciated and that’s what we should strive for,” says Vijaykumar.
But Lahiri says that the situation is not so bad as its made out to be. There are encouraging initiatives and platforms for dance to thrive and become areas of excellence. She says, “At NCPA we have various discussions and events where the public can participate for free. And in most of these events, we have seen a great turnout in the recent months which is encouraging. We also have a dance discussion forum known as Dance Dialogues which is also being received well.”
Vijaykumar says that resources is not a problem and there are plenty of platforms for you to showcase your talent on. “We are blessed with good heritage and culture. I go to New York three times a year and notice the difference in the repertoire between ours and theirs. It’s just a matter of curating performances well,” says Vijaykumar.