The Elegance Of An Indian Dance, In Motion And Stillness

I have generally favoured India's classical music over its dance, and within the realm of music, favoured Hindustani (North Indian) music over Carnatic (South Indian). But over the years, I have had occasion to watch snippets of classical dance as well, and I have gradually begun to appreciate one particular dance form.

The style I am talking about is Kuchipudi (pronounced koochi-pooDi), native to the Telugu-speaking state of Andhra Pradesh in South India. It's entirely subjective of course, but I find that Kuchipudi dances are more graceful and pleasing to the eye than any other classical Indian dance form, Bharatanatyam and Kathak included. Interestingly, the accompanying music for Kuchipudi is based on the Carnatic style, and I find I can appreciate this more when it accompanies the dance than when it is played by itself.

A recent piece I had the pleasure of watching was a short invocation to Ganesha performed by Sandhya Raju. The raaga of the accompanying song is 'naaTa' or 'naaTTai', a uniquely South Indian one. (I am not aware of any Hindustani equivalent to 'naaTTai'.)

At just under three and a half minutes, this scintillating piece leaves the viewer wanting more

Around 55 seconds into the piece, the dancer momentarily holds a pose, and this struck a sudden chord with me. I have had a passion for maps since my childhood, and can recognise most countries' maps with a fleeting glance. The pose she held reminded me strongly of the southern coast of India. Sure enough, when I took a snapshot of the screen and compared it to the Indian map, the contours lined up perfectly.

A little work with The GIMP, and I had created a minor, but pleasing work of art.

Now that's a dance form that captures an element of Indianness

How Young Is Too Young?

It's not often that I think disturbing thoughts after listening to classical music or watching a classical dance performance, yet I must confess to having a few misgivings after watching this highly talented 9 year old girl perform a marvellous Kuchipudi dance piece.

Alekhya Ennamsetty's expressive performance can make one forget she's only a child. Is that a good thing?

I'm not an expert on Indian dance, but I know just enough to understand that among the essential components of a dance are its rasa and bhaava (which together mean "mood"). The rasa of this dance is Sringaara (love/beauty/attraction) and its bhaava is Rati (love/attachment). The girl does an excellent job of conveying the mood of the dance, which is why I'm somewhat disturbed. Should little girls be schooled in emoting with facial expressions that (let's face it) denote flirtatiousness and coquetry?

This is related, although not entirely analogous, to child beauty pageants in the West where children are hypersexualised. The similarity is that in both cases, pre-pubescent girls are encouraged and rewarded for behaving like adult women. I guess the difference is that a beauty pageant is unabashedly about physical appearance, while the classical dance is primarily about mastering a set of skills. It so happens that some of those skills require the adoption of expressions and actions more suited to adults. I still find it disturbing, though.

Cute or disturbing is in the eye of the beholder

This isn't a moralistic rant against beauty pageants or classical dance in general, just a plea for children to be allowed to be children. The British government has even published a booklet called Letting Children Be Children, a "report on the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood".

I'm sure I'll earn the ire of many for daring to criticise a cultural icon like Indian classical dance, but it's an authentic opinion that I'm willing to stand up for. The doyens of the art should evolve a 'G' rated version of classical dance that is safe to teach to children, and progress to the unadulterated version when the students are older.

On the other hand, teaching classical dance could be seen as the new way to raise your child's EQ! (Stampede of Asian feet heard in background.) Sigh.