May, 2011
Nupura School of Bharatanatyam recently conducted the 20th edition of Nitya Nritya, an international dance festival in Bangalore. Being the pioneer of such festivals in Karnataka, the festival boasts of iconic dancers as participants. This year, dance enthusiasts of Bangalore were treated to three whole days of dance, covering different styles, featuring artists from all over the country and even feeding their intellect with a though provoking seminar.
Handicapped by my busy schedule, I managed to attend two days of performances and I loved every minute of it. I was immersed in a world of glitter, glamour, beauty and art. As I sat there, allowing myself to be transported from one fantasy world to another, a small thought occurred to me – a little voice asking a little question. But this little question has just been getting several of my grey cells to jump around with excitement. The question was “why?” Let me elaborate.
It all started as I watched Sujata Mohapatra strike the sculpturesque poses so typical to Odissi. She was effortlessly creating beauty of such magnitude on stage that I was just in love with humanity for our ability to create such beauty. I thought of when it might have started. Now, while the age of Natyasastra might be a topic of heated debate, one of it's messages is undisputed
– we are obsessed with our dance, our art and the beauty created thereof; and this obsession goes back a very long way. So the little voice asked the little question: Why? Why do we indulge in art?
Some say that art brings joy. Gowdara Malli, the concluding piece of the festival, told the story of the life of a village girl. It was not a fairy tale story and did not have a Walt Disney ending of “they lived happily ever after”. Malli struggles to gain acceptance into the family she marries. She suffers the loss of her children and her husband. It is a realistic story filled with real moments that perhaps many of us relate to. Some might relate to her struggle for acceptance. Some might relate to her internal quest for strength to cope with the tribulations of life. I am certain that Gowdara Malli struck an emotional chord in the hearts of many in the audience, but joy might not have been the one for all. Joy as the sole purpose of art, does not seem so convincing. Moreover, in our current age of retail therapy & spa therapies, there does not seem to be a dearth of sources of joy. So, there is that little question again: Why do we put so much effort into art?
These days, emotional outlet seems a popular reason cited for the raison d’etre of art. As I observe co-workers spend their coffee breaks, watching YouTube videos, I am in no doubt about the empathetic emotional evocative power of these videos. Just a cricket match alone can evoke a plethora of emotions. Then we have videos of cute children doing cute things, of natural calamities, of the wonders of nature...no matter how stoic one claims to be, I doubt there is not a video on YouTube that might elicit an emotional reaction. So, as it turns out, anyone with a decent camera phone and a decent internet connection could create an emotional outlet. So, there is that little question, still hanging in the air and taunting me.
One might suggest that dance was an effective tool for education and story telling in the yester-years. In our current age of state of the art educational tools, would dance then not render itself out-dated? And yet, there I was, at Nitya Nritya, watching Gayathri & Balagurunathan unravel the tales of Narasimha. The audience watched spell bound Sujata Mohapatra bring to life the tale or Mareecha and Jatayu. Why is that we are not content with Cartoon Network tell our tales and fables? Why do we spend years perfecting our adavus & mudras and fine tune our abhinaya? Why do people leave the comfort of their couches, brave the Bangalore traffic, to attend such festivals, to watch the stories that they are so familiar with?
There is no doubt in my mind that art is still alive and thriving in this age of animations and YouTube. Take a look at the burgeoning number of dance & music festivals around the country and, as they say in marketing parlance, there is a growing market for art. Take another look, this time at what is being presented in these festivals, and it will lay all doubts to rest about art being part of the modern day world. Atah Kim was a piece presented in Nitya Nritya, by Kumudini Lakhiya’s group of Kathak dancers. The piece was modern in its choice of music & costume. It is an attempt at an onward journey in dance, towards modernity. Atah Kim, loosely translated means “where do we go from here”. Forward looking pieces like this stand at the vanguard of this artistic journey and assure us that, regardless of technological advances, regardless of the multitude of recreational options, regardless of state of the art educational tools, art will still forge on, creating beauty all along. But why?
Is “beauty” in itself an end goal? Do we, as humans have an inherent need to experience beauty, irrespective of the emotions it evokes, of the lessons it teaches, of the stories it tells? People dedicate their lives to several causes: poverty, environment, education etc. While art might not, in any obvious way, seem as grave as any of these, it still manages to find people who dedicate their whole lives it. I watch my guru, Smt. Lalitha Srinivasan, as I practise in class. I see in her eyes an ardent dedication to dance. I watched as all her students come together to make Nitya Nritya happen. It was evident that their love for their guru motivated them. But their love for dance was unmistakable. A lifetime dedicated to art! How does art elicit such dedication from us? It is perhaps because, as humans, we need beauty to feed our soul and remain human.
As I drove home after Nitya Nritya, I wondered. We might perhaps not know what exact need art meets in us. But it is more than evident that we need it. And this revelation in itself should be enough for us to consciously bring art into our world. Learn & practice more of it, expose ourselves to more of it, learn to appreciate more of it. While I busy myself with more practice and more learning, this question will continue to linger in my mind: Why? Anthropologist the world over might continue to ponder about the exact need that drives our unrelenting efforts to promulgate art. It might make for interesting discussions among intellectuals. Even if we never know what exact need in us that craves art, we do know that, in some in-explicable way, art leaves us happier and more content.
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