The Ramayana is one of the greatest epics ever written, with an enormous influence on cultures of Asian countries mainly India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Bangladesh and South-East Asian countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia.
While it chronicles the story of Lord Ram, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king of Lanka, Raavan, it also interweaves a set of teachings based on the ancient Hindu Vedas that are represented in a narrative metaphor and interspersed with philosophical and devotional elements.
This traditional and mythological history of India has inspired dancers for centuries now. Many Indian classical forms have depicted these stories in many ways. I have always believed that as a dance school, we have the social responsibility to teach and educate people about the culture of different countries.
A few months ago, I was at a seminar, where I was giving a talk on Latin American culture and traditions. During the lecture, I happened to talk about a few similarities between the Indian Ramayana and Latin American history. I was a bit amazed when I realised that the youth sitting in front of me were not fully aware of the Ramayana. They knew a few stories from the epic, but not the details. I felt ashamed; these youth had been so taken up by the West that they even forgot their own culture.
It is good to learn and educate oneself about the cultures of different places, but one can remain grounded and grow up as a complete human being when you know your own roots and tradition well. Keeping this thought in mind, I took up the challenge of recreating the Ramayana using Latin and Ballroom dances.
When I decided to do it, I bounced the idea to a few dance lovers and let me inform you, they all discouraged the idea. In my plan, I didn’t have too many people dancing; it was just Jesse Randhawa and me doing different characters in different episodes.
Despite caution from many, I decided to go ahead with what my heart said; I built the story and the mood of the Ramayana by using dances like Cuban Rumba to explain love, Spanish Paso Doble to demonstrate fight, Brazilian Samba to show celebration, Argentine tango to show seduction, English Waltz to illustrate romance and am glad I did it.
Last week, I launched the show in India and it opened with a grand premier. Actress Raveena Tandon came for the evening and was enthralled. “I have never seen such a stylish depiction of the Ramayana,” she said. There was also Neila Devi, the elegant wife of late Shammi Kapoor, who praised the act of the Mareech turning into a golden deer. She said, “The golden deer act looked so magical…no wonder Sita wanted to take the golden deer.”
At the time of curtain call, designer Rohit Verma ran on stage and touched my feet — almost embarrassing me — saying, “Only Jesse and Sandip could have depicted the Ramayana to perfection,” adding, “Now, I want my next show to be based on the Ramayana.”
I feel humbled to hear such praises from people. I have always believed that if the thought is pure and done with sincerity, it pays off in the end. Depicting the Ramayana was not an easy task at all. In Indian classical dances there are beautiful mudras to represent, with different expressions and forms. Unfortunately, in Latin and Ballroom dances there are none, and for Jesse and me to make an Indian story come alive on stage was a hard job.
We will now be taking this dance drama of the Ramayana to different cities; Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Delhi, Surat, Ahemdabad, Chennai are all booked. I hope we will be able to educate people about the greatest Indian epic and spread awareness of International Latin and Ballroom forms.