At first, you are simply taken by her sheer poise and the shape of her beautiful kajal-smeared eyes. You can literally see a nayika emerge out of the Geet Govinda as she greets you with a warm smile, palms affably joined. Draped in a red saree and tikka, Padma Vibhushan Dr. Sonal Mansingh looks no less than a diva with that glory and beauty. She manages to strike you with her poise and grace. Dancers are not made overnight. It takes ages to see how a dancer still looks like one and feels like one. Mansingh, who performed in Mumbai after three years, presented a wonderful repertoire of her choreographed sequences of the Gita Govinda and Shiva Stotra. She doesn’t blink even once when she starts talking about her journey of dance and life, which revolved around it. The conviction and honesty, and some aggression and angst is visible in the passion in her voice.
“Passion is what it takes to do something meaningful in your life. If you have that, I don’t think anyone can stop you. There have been times when I’ve faltered, fallen, but never given up,” she says. Reminiscing her early days as a dancer, Mansingh says that there were no plans in place about full-time or professional dancing. “I was already a trained Bharatnatyam dancer and took to Odissi much later. My father-in-law who I hold in high regard introduced me to Odissi. To be honest I trained for approximately five years under Guruji (Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra) and I was lucky to be trained under him then. He was at the height of his genius and choreographed some of the most beautiful dance items we see today,” she says. Not many are aware of the fact that some of the famous dance items in Odissi were choreographed on Mansingh. “My father-in-law wanted Guruji to teach me something more, something that challenged me as a dancer. As a Bharatnatyam dancer, I was always used to the complexities in taal and the rhythm. Odissi, which had come to the fore in a refined manner in the early 50s, wasn’t yet proving to be very strenuous. It was also the period when Guruji was experimenting and innovating and developed some of the most outstanding pieces of the Odissi repertoire. We spent time in the Konark Sun Temple developing the style and studying its different aspects. I am proud of the fact that he choreographed the Swadhinabhatrika nayika and Rase Hari Vilasa on me,” she says vividly recalling those days.
She says she hasn’t changed much since those days, but has evolved with the times. Ask her why there aren’t soloists emerging today and pat comes the reply — the discipline and passion that was in the dancers back in the 70s and 80s isn’t present anymore. There truly aren’t many dancers one can relate to in terms of sheer talent and passion. That also leads to another question — if we lack thinking dancers today. “You know, we gave dance a lot of context and carried forward many aspects of dance. Now you have a choice to carry it forward in a broader sense of things or do the routine tasks. I chose to do something different,” she says. Mansingh highlights how there was also a scope for dancers to push themselves and explore beyond the obvious. “Odissi was being revived in the 50s, 60s and the 70s and one couldn’t go on without enriching. I was probably the first woman to learn Chhau in those days Odissi is the lasya (feminine) form whereas Chhau is the tandava (male) form. Even interpreting Gotipua through a woman was different and challenging. I questioned too much and was inquisitive about many things, which probably led to a lot of exploring,” she says.
“Also in those days we couldn’t complain about the long hours of hardwork or cry or frown when Guruji would reprimand us. Now it’s almost like spare the rod and spoil the dancer,” she adds ruing about the present times when dancers simply don’t have the time to sit and experiment with musicians. “There is no time to improvise or create your own style simply because the sync between musicians and dancers seems to be missing,” says Mansingh.
Contemporary dance in India is being talked about a lot, which Mansingh says, is interesting. However, she says that it still needs to find its own identity. “People have these ‘intellectual’ aspirations and we should certainly encourage that. I believe Indian contemporary is now finding its shape and identity,” she says. She reiterates the need for more innovation and style. “The fizz in dancers seems to be missing. Also the recklessness to take risks in life isn’t there. Sometimes you do need it,” she says.