In an age where dance is increasingly moving towards a mode of entertainment, it makes sense to take a step back, reflect on one’s roots and re-kindle the idea of spirituality. In order to keep pace with the present, it is also important to re-visit the past that makes poems of those times relevant in every age. The upcoming Mudra dance festival at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) interprets the timeless philosophy of the Bhakti poems through five leading dancers, several poets and a spectrum of modes ranging from performance to discussion, film screening to workshop. Curated by poet and writer Arundhati Subramaniam, the festival looks at recapture some of the original voltage of the Bhakti movement.
From Tulsidas to Annamacharya, the festival will see many works and thoughts of these legendary poets come alive on stage. Inspired by a line from Tukaram’s poem that was translated by Arun Kolatkar, the ‘title Stark Raving Mad’ brings out the essence of the festival. “Bhakti poetry is a great radical heritage to which we are heir in this country — sacred and sensuous, all at once. Personally, it is the search for the sacred. Most of the poems sound extraordinarily contemporary. What I wanted to highlight was that Bhakti poetry is not poetry of the past. It’s not like a relic, but poetry of now. The translations that I’ve sourced are colloquial, immediate, and startlingly contemporary. And we’ve urged the dancers to do likewise: to share their interpretations of these poems as living texts, not dead relics of a dead past,” says Arundhati adding, “Bhakti was a great counter-cultural movement that broke down barriers of all kinds. It broke down the divide between castes, classes, genders, languages, and above all, between the sacred and the profane. We wanted the festival to reflect this inclusiveness — bringing together artists across disciplines who are deeply touched by this theme in one way or another, and are keen to deepen their exploration of it.
Highlighting the importance of Bhakti poetry in dance, Arundhati says that it has been an important part of the repertoire of most classical dance styles. “Most poems are the backbone of various dance styles. For example, the Gitagovinda by Jayadeva forms an important part of the repertoire of Odissi. I was quite excited by the diversity, aliveness. History tells us that Bhakti poetry emerged as a way to accentuate the sacred part. It was more of an attempt to sanitise it. It was also to highlight that dance was not just a means of entertainment but it was deeply spiritual in its core. I wanted to highlight that Indian classical dance is extremely erotic and sacred at the same time. The two are existential. It is important to listen to voices periodically to tune into new voices that are uncomfortable and unsettling. We need to look at the aspects, spirituality and sensuality without any apology. They refused to be inseperable,” she says.
Since it was important to have diversity to bring alive the flavour, Arundhati says she invited dancers from different regions. “It varied from dancer to dancer. In the case of Rama, I invited her to present a production she already had on hand (on 2 women poets), but which hasn’t been presented in Mumbai. With Alarmel Valli, as I mentioned, she was so enthralled by the book of translations I gave her (of Annamacharya’s poetry) that she wanted to do an entire evening of it!
The experience has been exciting. Mainly because it’s a multidisciplinary festival and everyone involved — from the dancers to the theatre actors to the city poets — has been gung-ho about the theme,” she elaborates.
Well-known Bharatnatyam danseuse Rama Vaidyanathan’s work is based on the works on Janabai and Kashmiri poet Lal Ded. “I chose Janabai’s works because it is important for women today to know to live on their terms. She was a domestic help in Namdev’s house and she chartered her own spiritual path through her abhangs. These poets thought much ahead of their times. Initially, they faced great resistance but when people really saw their point, they started believing in them,” says Rama. It wasn’t an easy task for Rama as it meant sitting with language scholars and studying in detail. “It was difficult, but I was clear about the fact that I wanted to highlight the philosophy going beyond the religion. Bhakti poetry went above all those categories,” she says.
The other dancers to present their works are Sujata Mohapatra (Jayadeva, Tulsidas and Salabega) Kapila Venu (based on the poetry of Adi Shankara), Sanjukta Wagh (based on the poetry of Kabirand the Varkari Sampradaya), Prerana Shrimali (based on the poetry of Kabir) and Alarmel Valli (based on the poetry of Annamacharya).

From April 24 to 28, at NCPA