Check it out here: http://blogs.journalism.cuny.edu/interactive2010/2009/12/07/kathak-in-the-city/

Aash

Let me tell you, I watched Ani’s Chennai’s performance in Chennai in winter. It was well-announced. I watched it for 15 minutes, with my 3 friends (dancers), we had a good laugh (they don’t have a regular circus in Chennai, you know), and when we were leaving, about 15 people were left (Nandini Ramani and the entourage). I feel pity towards those who have a social obligation to watch junk performances. It is the social obligation, not genuine interest, that drives crowds for the lame arangetrams.

About Ani: don’t tell me anybody used to dance so clumsily and with such horrible expressions in such a costume 200 years ago. Or 500 years ago? The remnants of tradition was lost with the death of Balasaraswathy, who was vigorously trying to defend the Sringara, and fought with Rukmini Devi who successfully replaced Sringara with Bhakti. In order to popularize it, that is. Now we have Bharatanatyam – a popular South Indian folk dance. Enjoy, and forget that 300 years ago all the temple devadasis used to perform the 108 karanas. Be a true desi. Eat pop-corn, don’t read the Natya Shastra.

Enough of the intro. Let me address some of your interesting writings.

Bitterlemons Exposing American audiences to shoddily danced Bharatanatyam is not doing anyone a favour in my opinion. I don’t see ballet schools putting unskilled learners on stage in public productions – why is Bharatanatyam any different? It is a classical dance form, needing years of training and dedicated practice, not a half-hearted weekend class.

I wish more desi or Chennai parents thought so too! Unfortunately…

Nayagan Most teachers are not anywhere near as strict and do not, in general, care to teach proper form (let alone posture!) as their gurus would have been in the Desh.

You think it is much better in Chennai? Come and see.

I did find that teachers were driven in large part by pressure from parents to put little Priyanka/Sarika/Radhika on stage within six months, with 18 costume changes so all their friends can come and watch an abomination born of little patience, overbearing parental desires to live vicariously through their child, and general keepin-up-with-the-Patels malarkey that produces the same kind of pick-it-up-and-drop-it mentality that accompanies so many forays into other extracurricular activities.

What a masterful and colorful description!!!!!!

And yes, Bharatanatyam is different because ballet/soccer/etc did not start out as forms of temple worship and the songs which accompany dancers doing classical items are redolent with references to devotion–is that really packagable into a 3-month, one class per week product?

Bharatanatyam started out as a form of temple worship? No. Read the Natya Shastra, educate yourself. At present, there is hardly anything left in Bharatanatyam of what was there 2000 years ago.

Bridging-the-gap Looks like old school guru-sishya parampara and the chance to do the arangetram only when you ready is clashing with the needs of instant gratification that is the American milieu for the cultural arts.

Well said!

History would say no–innovation was the name of the game from Rukmini Devi and the revival of BN as popular art form, right on through the 70s. Innovations since have come apace as instruction became the job of not only desis but the many foreigners who traveled to desh in the 60s, 70s, 80s to learn BN and other classical dance forms. Subject matter, music and what it is appropriate to portray have all changed over the years

Well, “revival” of… what??? Rukmini Devi, for those stupid foreigners, I guess, developed a simplified form of Tamil folk dance and called it… Bharatanatyam. Wasn’t it her Italian tailor who designed the contemporary (“traditional”) costume?

Malathi We laugh and are simultaneously outraged when we hear about an odd surgeon or two in India allowing his/her 15-year old gift-to-the-world to operate on some poor patient. We don’t practice medicine when we are only half a doctor either. So why do we expect less when it comes to an ancient dance form that has seemingly become casually accessible to all on a whim?

Art – like spirituality – in Kali Yuga lost its primary importance. People do not ask the temple brahmins if they understand the useless mantras they mumble.

HMF whether or not someone is “prepared to perform” is generally evaluated by the ability of an “average” audience, for someone a dancer to be “off-key” it’s not enough to miss a beat here or there, or be sub standard in their abhinaya, they need to trip and roll on the ground a few times and land in the front row for it to be really noticed. That’s just the nature of dance given the complexity and nuanced level of understanding one needs to correctly evaluate it, otherwise the evaluation is going to flow down to the lowest common denominator: face, makeup, costumes, jewelry, amount of money paid to artists, size of new jersey auditorium rented, etc…

Yeahhhh… But even in Chennai the number of “professional rasikas”, critics or professional dancers who attend Bharatanatyam performances is dwindling.

Some people in my family have practiced BN for 25+ years, in India, in the real traditional style. I’ve been to a few arangetrams and been bored completely out of my mind. but I know that it’s a highly refined art form, even if I can’t ‘figure it out’ so to speak.

No, no, no! Did the dancer have a waisteline? Your mind is not fooled: it is boring. These “traditional styles” are hardly older than 150 years! Please don’t make me laugh. Look in Silapadikaram – what kind of dances did they performed then? What is left of THAT tradition? Nothing. Zero.

From what I’ve seen BN seems to be one of the ‘less fun’ dance forms out there

It lost its attractiveness and entertaining nature because it lost most of its elements. Shringara was replaced by Bhakti. How many karanas can the dancers perform today?

It (tae kwon do) is a bit different, if you go “on stage” before being ready, you end up with a black eye or a broken nose. That’s certainly more motivation to wait rather than havinng some purist folks (like some of the contributors here) rant at you.

In Natya Shastra, they describe that the rasikas (or rivals) used to throw cow dung and other things at (bad) dancers. Someone here wanted to seem very traditional. We need to revive the tradition. Yes?

And, tkd tournaments are nothing like arangetrams. but maybe they should be, it would certainly make the arangetrams more interesting to watch.

Dance competitions are like tournaments.

portmanteau There is no harm in kids learning dance as a hobby or exploring it as a creative interest before moving on to something that fits their personality and interests better. Dance teachers could cater to two audiences — separate those students who are hobbyists and are willing only to make a limited commitment from those who are serious dancers who look at dance as a calling or a vocation. This reduces reduces hypocrisy in the parent-teacher interaction — both agree that given the child’s commitment and promise she might benefit more from a less intense and less selective environment. The teacher then is completely justified in being selective about the more ‘serious’/elite students she chooses, and impose much more rigorous curricular requirements.

What a well-balanced suggestion! I wish more gurus adopt this approach!

Manvantara Seems to me that 9 out of 10 desi parents (no, I have not done research on this – just what I have seen in several dance schools) in the US seem to be fixated on the notion that their child (mostly daughter) has to go on stage in the earliest possible time. Everyone wants to claim that their daughter is the best out there, or shows signs of being a prodigy – it’s just ridiculous.

It is rajasic (American) pride that pushes them to compete, compete, compete with the Patels! Clowns!

payal Unlike ballet, indian classical dance is a form of devotion and deserves respect and dedication from students at every level. If you want your kids to learn about this particular aspect of our culture then you need to understand this. If you want your kids to dress up and shake it on stage there are plenty of bollywood dance classes around. Indian classical dance is not soccer or martial arts.

Most people think martial arts are just boxing. Many people think Bharatanatyam is just dancing. Bharatanatyam, it seems, will follow the destiny of Kung-Fu: while most people practise it half-heartedly, thinking “What if it helps me in a street fight one day?”, few take it as a sadhana and explore its spiritual dimensions. “I studied Kung-Fu in my younger years, told me a 40-year-old Chinese businessman. My teacher’s teacher lives on a mountain hill and can even levitate. I stopped my Kung-Fu studies and went abroad to study business”. Within 5 months of saying this, this Chinese businessman was knifed to death by his Chinese “business partners” who refused to return $100000 worth of leather jackets. The Chinese businessman is dead. He did not know life can be short. If he knew it, would be have made the same choices?

Amitabh So…is high quality bharatnatyam going to survive in the long-term or is it in trouble (like so many other Indian arts)?

Quality was sacrificed for quantity. Bharatnatyam is in trouble, like spirituality in Kali Yuga.

Also, has it always been called bharatnatyam or is that coinage relatively recent?

What was called what?

a Tamil girl born and raised in Houston is not necessarily in any better position to ‘get it’ than a Gujarati girl from Queens or even a French girl in Paris.

No, here you show your materialistic viewpoint. From a spiritual point of view, for example, the influence of Ganesha is limited (approximately) to the physical boundaries of India. Now, the smaller, semi-gods, apsaras, also have limited areas of influence. However, you are right in one thing: we don’t know how deeply a particular dancer will be influenced by a particular emanation.

And as the society that created the dance itself changes, the dance runs the risk of running out of suitable candidates…and perhaps becoming fossilised.

It is possible as a short-term (1000-2000 years) effect, but, there will always be new incarnations of those who will restore it. Don’t worry: it is none of our business. Natya, unlike ballet, is not of human origin.

melbourne desi high quality – certainly. However it will become more niche. In Madras for a few years it was an art form with widespread participation

“Participation”? Number of rasikas? Yes, the drop in quality resulted in the drop of interest, especially among the younger generation here. Besides, Chennai has grown, and, with all the traffic jams the rasikas prefer to watch it on TV, DVD and…. YouTube!

but these days it is a lot less. I think the diaspora will keep it alive

Diaspora has a great role.

You mean a dance company? My cousin morty runs an aspirin company, he’s looking for some headache people.

If Nayagan is an example of a traditional BN teacher, then it is clear that the disdain of the paying consumer is widespread.

The knowledgeable and communicative consumer is always respected. The incurious and silent consumer is not. Both consumers’ money is technically of equal value but a good relationship is possible only with the former. See the difference? If a teacher knows that a relationship will potentially be long-term, and most definitely depend on frequent honest communication, why would they develop this relationship with an incurious consumer who doesn’t communicate needs/wants?

there are individuals i know in my professional life who are complete wastes of space and don’t make my company any money–only headaches–and when it reaches a breaking point we sever the relationship in no uncertain terms. When the relationship is good–both of us make money and we wine-and-dine each other. Teacher-Parent relationships in the BN world are often either very good or very bad. Inevitably the very bad relationships end before any individual’s time is wasted.

And as the society that created the dance itself changes, the dance runs the risk of running out of suitable candidates…and perhaps becoming fossilised.

History would say no–innovation was the name of the game from Rukmini Devi and the revival of BN as popular art form, right on through the 70s. Innovations since have come apace as instruction became the job of not only desis but the many foreigners who traveled to desh in the 60s, 70s, 80s to learn BN and other classical dance forms. Subject matter, music and what it is appropriate to portray have all changed over the years–you can find a great deal of this innovation right here in the US as instructors stretch the means of expression available to them to portray the stories/mythologies/morals that resonate most strongly with their kids/kids’ parents.

globalizing instruction has thrown the gates open…with the results mixed…there’s really no danger of ossification.

high quality – certainly. However it will become more niche. In Madras for a few years it was an art form with widespread participation but these days it is a lot less. I think the diaspora will keep it alive – indian kids have other things to do like playing XBox.

Also, has it always been called bharatnatyam or is that coinage relatively recent?

Since we’re talking all this arangetram stuff I thought it would be cool to see some actual bharatnatyam (not sure if this dancer is good or not).

My thoughts, looking at a few bharatnatyam clips on youtube… it’s a product of its culture. So, if you don’t belong to that culture I don’t think you can capture it (as a high-level practitioner, not as an audience member). Because you’ll just be going through the physical motions without understanding the emotions at a visceral level. And belonging to that culture doesn’t mean merely being South Indian or Tamil or what have you…it means imbibing the whole ethos of the society that created the dance, and being an organic part of that society. So a Tamil girl born and raised in Houston is not necessarily in any better position to ‘get it’ than a Gujarati girl from Queens or even a French girl in Paris. And as the society that created the dance itself changes, the dance runs the risk of running out of suitable candidates…and perhaps becoming fossilised.

Just some musings…NO OFFENSE MEANT TO ANYONE.

If parents want to enroll their kids in Bharatanatyam as an extracurricular activity that exposes them more to Indian culture or that connects them more to Indian culture, then shouldn’t they make sure that the kid has that experience? We’ve all been discussing the parental side of the issue, but we haven’t really looked at it from the kid’s perspective. When you’re dancing, even in class, you know whether you would feel comfortable enough to perform. I’ve been pushed on stage to perform when I don’t feel comfortable doing it, and I absolutely hated it. I’m the type of person who wants to give the audience the best performance possible, and if I think the performance is going to be lackluster (for one reason or another… perhaps I don’t know the steps perfectly, etc.), I’ll make my feelings heard. On the other hand, when allowed to work at my own pace, and take the time to perfect steps and abhinaya, I got on stage and had a great deal of fun performing. Another effect of parents trying to push their kids into performing, to get their “money’s worth,” is that if the kid doesn’t feel that he or she is ready, it’s going to be a traumatizing experience, and may even put them off dance. If you want your kid to dance to feel more connected to Indian culture, then make sure that they’re connecting. That should be the most important thing, not performing. When the kid feels connected, the performances will be so much better. From my experience, that sort of connection only comes with long-term practice, which was why I was emphasizing that. That may not be the case in everyone’s experiences. Some children may connect straight away, which is great. Others, however, need time.

And speaking of long-term practice, it doesn’t have to be something that takes up all of your time. I was in middle school and high school while I was dancing, and while it did get tough, with the commute to dance class and juggling homework and practice, it’s no worse than juggling another demanding activity. If you truly want to learn, and if you truly connect to the stories and the beliefs and the culture behind it, then you’ll find a way to do it. Parents shouldn’t be pushing their kids to do it, the kids should want to do it.

who’s defensive now? this is ridiculous. I guess floridian operates under different standards.

i was being facetious, nayagan. but yeah, i assumed you read what i wrote when you typed #89