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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  Here a swan, there a bull
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Here a swan, there a bull

An ongoing NCPA festival features traditional dance performances that narrate tales of animals from mythology

Bhavana Reddy will present a dance inspired by the swan. (Bhavana Reddy will present a dance inspired by the swan.)Premium
Bhavana Reddy will present a dance inspired by the swan.
(Bhavana Reddy will present a dance inspired by the swan.)

NEW DELHI : It’s easy to identify a scorpion, but difficult to portray one through dance.

Natya Shastra, a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts, consists of 20 nritya karanas, or dance movements, derived from the movements of birds and animals. One of them, vrchikkriditam, is inspired by the upward movement of a scorpion’s tail. “Every time the foot is lifted in a kunchitam (a dance pose), in which the toe is stretched out like that in ballet, it is called vrchikkriditam," explains dancer and scholar Jayashree Rajagopalan.

There are other movements. One, inspired by the bull’s sideways prance and turn, called vrshakridatam; another, inspired by the movement of a peacock’s neck, called mayuralalitam. Rajagopalan will deliver a lecture on the nritya karanas on 24 April, the concluding day of the four-day NCPA (National Centre for the Performing Arts) Mudra Dance Festival in Mumbai.

Her lecture is one of the highlights of the festival, which includes dance performances inspired by bulls, swans and snakes. There will be Kathakali, Manipuri and Kathak performances, as well as a talk, “Pashu" (Animals), by author and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik on 23 April.

There will also be a 2-hour workshop by dancer Santosh Nair on Sunday, on the animal movements in Mayurbhanj chhau, a martial art form practised by tribals and later patronized by the royal family of Krishna Chandra Bhanj Deo. The form improvises and borrows from its natural surroundings—the movement of water, birds and animals. The workshop will start with the basic positions, postures and chaals, or walks, inspired by animals.

Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, the head dance programmer at the NCPA and festival curator, says their aim is to highlight the multiple roles of animals in our lives. “Politically, socially, culturally, we associate and dissociate ourselves with animals. At the same time, through this theme of animals, we aim to make Indian classical dance forms, which people seem to find difficult to understand, more accessible," Dasgupta says.

An Odissi dancer herself, Dasgupta, whose guru was the late Kelucharan Mohapatra, adds: “He used to observe animals like ducks and peacocks and used their movements in his style. For example, he brought the pecking action of a peacock into the dance."

This, in fact, influenced their choice of theme.

One of the performances, to be presented on Friday, is Manasa Charitam—The Tale Of The Snake Goddess. A Kathakali recital of a Bengali folk tale about the snake goddess Manasa, believed by some to be a daughter of Lord Shiva, it will be presented by Probal Gupta. “Often, when we go to see Indian classical dance, we encounter regional dance forms. Through this act, we have tried to break that regionalism, and what we have is truly an Indian classical dance," says Gupta.

All the performances focus on animals from Indian mythology. In Hamsohan, a Kuchipudi performance by Bhavana Reddy, a swan plays matchmaker for Nala and Damayanti, princess and king of the mythical kingdoms of Vidarbha and Nishadha, respectively. “We are trying to show animals in various roles in Indian mythology. You can see animals not only as the companions of humans but as possessing human qualities themselves, and their place in the social order," says Dasgupta. While Garuda is depicted as a composite of human and animal forms in Flight Of Garuda, Nandi is shown as the vehicle of Lord Shiva in Nandi The Divine Bull. A Manipuri dance performance, Nirvak—Realm Of The Unspoken, tells the tale of animals causing the downfall of a kingdom.

The festival will culminate with Nartan Priya (Peacock), by Vishal Krishna. “How can there be a dance festival on the theme of animals without a dance of the peacock?" says Dasgupta.

The NCPA Mudra Dance Festival is on till 24 April at the NCPA, Nariman Point. Tickets, 200, 300 and 400, available on in.bookmyshow.com. For details, visit www.ncpamumbai.com. To register for the Mayurbhanj chhau workshop, write to sdasgupta@ncpamumbai.com

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Published: 21 Apr 2016, 09:51 PM IST
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