MOVE IT!
Indian dance is stepping out of the shadows of its rich tradition, and taking fledgling steps towards turning modern. Contemporary dance is slowly and steadily growing in the Indian dance scenario and taking to it are many young dancers who have been trained in classical dance forms. For many it is about exploring the contemporary vocabulary in the Indian classical dance language.
Veena Basavarajaiah, a young contemporary artiste who has been trained in Bharatnatyam, Kathak and martial art forms such as Kalaripayattu, says the terminology of Indian contemporary dance doesn’t exist. “The nomenclature has come from the West. The language here is still being explored,” says Veena. She says impulses and stimulus are the inspiration from classical dance. “Bharatnatyam itself has undergone so many changes. Its relevance has a different meaning today from what it was 100 years ago,” she adds.
Exploration drives Chitra Arvind, who has been trained in Bharatnatyam, Kathak and has worked with Shobhna Jeyasingh’s dance company for seven years. “Contemporary dance for me is about exploring a movement. I am often moving in the way I want to and not as I have been trained to. We keep doing what we know and then there is a stage where you know that your body can develop another technique. The ideas that evolve a new movement require contemporary technique,” says Chitra.
Taking a different approach from her is Rukmini Vijaykumar, who believes classical and contemporary shouldn’t be mixed, and says, “Their vocabulary is extremely different. The idea of contemporary dance is very raw and basic in our country and we have a long way to go before we can come up with something which is a distinct Indian contemporary style.”
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