Devi: Celebrating the power of female form
Once a dancer, always a dancer. A dancer, truly dedicated to her art remains entrenched in it till her last breath. And renowned danseuse Sonal Mansingh is living up to that.
In her recent productions, Mansingh has gone beyond the usual and worked at developing new perspectives through her choreographies. She has been extremely busy with a number of productions and quickly finds time for this quick rendezvous over the phone from Delhi. She
was in Mumbai recently for a couple of performances and headed back to Delhi for her
grand production on the female forms of goddesses “Devi”.
“‘Devi’ is about several manifestations of the female form. For instance, Durga is one of those manifestations. Devi is the divine one. She is a mother, a protector, a fighter, a consort, a lover and so many other different roles,” says Mansingh.
Mansingh adds that a tremendous amount of research has gone into the production. “The narrative is extremely important in a production like this. Various people believe in different manifestations and to put so many forms together is a challenging task. The female form is celebrated in so many different avatars. Even in dance, we have the Mahanayika, who is the greatest dancer,” says Mansingh.
Over the years, Mansingh’s dance ventures have slotted her as a versatile dancer, adding more glory to her legendary status. She says that time has come to look beyond the obvious in dance. “Back in 1993, His Holiness Dalai Lama had invited me to dance at the consecrated park in Delhi. Keeping the core Buddhist tradition in mind, I had developed a piece using the Buddhist chants. It was one of its kind then. Of late, we have been overdoing, imitating so many things and it’s become monotonous. Even at this stage in life, I would love to explore the unknown,” says Man-singh with a dash of warmth and humility in her voice.
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