Sangeet Natak Akademi, (the apex body of the performing arts) National Akademi of Music, Dance and Drama-an autonomous body of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India under the Chairmanship of Dr. Sandhya Purecha  Bharatanatyam dancer, exponent, scholar trained by Acharya Parvati Kumar, has a vision with a mission, which makes her take long strides  in the field of Sangeeta, which include dance, music and drama. A workaholic to the core who follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s adage  “The importance of a journey is not measured by the distance covered but by the destination reached”. Armed with a strong team of soldiers from SNA and her brilliant Chief of Staff Raju Das-Secretary SNA, she embarked on her mission to hold the International Festival on Indian Dance and the path-breaking Photographic Exhibition- “Heritage Gems of Indian Dance”.

Nattuvanars, Scholars, Gurus , Practitioners, Young Talents and observers from the different states of the Indian Union gathered at A.P. Shinde Symposium Hall, NASC Complex at Dev Prasad Shastri Marg at the behest of SNA to honour the artistry and legacy of Indian Dance through the ages. The salubrious climate of Delhi from October 16^th to October 21, 2024 lent itself brilliantly to the meticulously planned event with a-place-for-everything-and-everything-in-its-place. The festival had a smooth run. Minister of Culture and Tourism, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat inaugurated the Festival. He compared it to the ever-flowing Ganga which connects Indians in spite of their diverse culture. Ancient wisdom of India and its deep-rooted culture in this turbulent world  are legacies to reckon with. Uma Nanduri, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Culture  congratulated the Sangeet Natak Akademi for organizing The International Festival of Dance.

Sandhya Purecha, Chairperson, Sangeet Natak Akademi had envisioned  uniting the rich and diverse dance traditions of the country under one roof to explore the many dimensions of Indian  dance, which was why she had conceived this unique festival. The International Festival on Indian Dance brought together every one connected with dance from around the world under one roof . Very significantly discussions covered Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funding and sustainable livelihoods for performers.

Besides the seminars and performances two exhibitions were featured at the Lalit Kala Akademi highlighting the history of the Sangeet Natak Akademi and another at the A.P. Shinde Symposium Hall showcasing the achievements of participating artists. Aims and objectives of the festival was, sustainable careers in the arts and promotion of institutional support for Indian dance, creating a platform for collaboration and cultural exchange.

Thirty sessions with thirty experts delivering opening addresses and about five speakers in each of the sessions, speaking on their given topics built up to a mammoth number of speakers, each of whom scholars, well versed in their respective subjects, was indeed phenomenal. Six days gave little scope to all that could be said and heard by both the young and the not so young, who were all ears. However it was a good start and may be the treasure chests of our arts would, in the future, reach-out in a multi-fold way and reach out to the world as a soft-power.

The topics chosen by the chairman herself held great scope for cogitation and deliberation. Questions asked were insightful as were the answers. The range of topics were mind boggling. If  the first session of the first day -all about the “Past and Present of Odissi”  asked for attention, the second session on “Roots to Routes” out did it, the third session on “Indian Dance Past and Present (Kathak)” was not far behind and what about “Youth and Audience Engagement” of the fourth session of the same day, which stood out in the pageant as did “Continuity and Differentiability of folk and Tribal Dance Forms” in the fifth and concluding  session of day one.

The first speaker Sonal Mansingh of the first day addressed the house and chaired the proceedings. She coined the phrase “Maha Kumbh” and called the festival “Nritya ka Mahakumbh”. She spoke on her pet topic “The Gita Govinda” , which speaks of “Timeless Time”. Her first performance of an Astapadi of Gita Govinda was at Bangalore, she said, where she has performed Chandana charchita taught to her by her Gurus E. S. Krishna Rao and his wife Chandrabhaga Devi.  Later she danced Lalita labangalata in Odissi style. From then the realisation came to her that what is it, she did not learn from Gita Govinda? She went further to state the greatness of Gita Govinda, where the Lord himself came to touch the feet of mortal Radha - Dehi pada pallava to ask for forgiveness.

Aruna Mohanty spoke about the expansion and shrinkage of the allied forms and traditions of Odisha particularly about Pala and Rasleela tradition of Odisha. Madhavi Mudgal spoke about her inclination towards dance in spite of belonging to a family of musicians. Trained by two stalwarts Birju Maharaj and Kelucharan Mohapatra, it was the latter’s style of Odissi to which she was finally drawn.

The opening session of day two started with the ‘Past and Present of Bharatanatyam’. Who can question the depth that was gauged within that short period though one cannot rule out that more time would have yielded more results. In this session Nattuvanar Kalyan Sundaram Pillai’s formidable opening address was full of knowledge, while Ananda Shankar Jayant as the Session Chair organized the group deftly with time management. Speaker Sudharani Raghupati shared her experience with Tanjavur Vani. “I am only a link in the long chain which goes on and on forever”, she said. At age 14 she had attended the first conference at Vigyan Bhavan where there was present Priyamvada, daughter of V.R.Raghavan - the great scholar. The Tanjore Quartet paved  the structure of Bharatanatyam to  what it is today. She referred to the history of the form. Chitra Visweswaran spoke on the aesthetics of the form. She was inspired by the painting of Cezanne and confessed that one can never know what can move her. Vasundhara Doraswamy spoke on the Mysore Bani. She developed the discipline of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in her Bharatanatyam style and her own subdomain in Vasundhara Style. Her profound statement was “Art is greater than the artist”. Pandanallur style Nattuvanars Chokkalingam Pillai and his son Subbaraya Pillai were the teachers of Meenakshi Chitharanjan. They were sticklers to keep their style unchanged to distinguish it from others.  

Premchand Hombal who is also from Kalakshetra like Ananda Shankar Jayant said that, whatever changes one may bring about in the style, they should not forget its grammar. Ananda Shankar suggested levying a cess tax on culture, like the Sports cess tax, besides making a few other suggestions to the finance Ministry for a better deal to artists for their sustenance.  

The advantages of Guru-shishya-Parampara over University Education was delineated by Sandhya Purecha who is a product of the former.    

If you thought that “Trends in Dance Industry” would interest only a few, you would have to think twice, because it was made interesting by the speakers. The Session was chaired by Nand Kishore Kapote. He pronounced that many changes have come about. Social media and reels have made dance more popular. A lot of good work is being done by the Ministry of Culture. A plethora of lec/dems is disseminating a lot of knowledge about dance. Folk dancers should be able to make a life on their own. The youth should be more alert towards spreading their art.   Kumkum Dhar who is a powerful speaker said that there are a lot of arts in this grand vast land of our country. She spoke on the influence of cinema on the lives of people.  In terms of uniting people cinema plays a big role.  A few excerpts from films were shown to prove her point that films were great influencers in showing “Classical” dance. Speaker Urmila Satyanarayanan laid out the things that needs to be done for the improvement of dance. Too many do’s and don’ts were advocated. If noted down and followed would make Bharatanatyam perfect. Mohini Attam practitioner Gopika Varma has been delving into unpublished Kritis of Swati Tirunal and publishing them to encourage choreographers of dance forms other than her own genre to popularise them. Bharatanatyam dancer Priya Murle President of Abhai (Association of Bharatanatyam artists of India) left a powerful impact with her statement that it is not just enough to be a dancer. She emphasized the importance of social work.        

Speakers of ‘Indian Dance: Past and Present (Kuchipudi)’ followed one after the other after the address of Kuchipudi exponent, Dr. Raja Reddy, said that Kuchipudi Natyam is poetic. Its melodic gestures and facial expressions are lyrical. The background of Kuchipudi is ancient. The elements of Purusha and Prakriti is distinguished by its Tandava and Lasya dance. Kuchipudi Natyam narrates universal stories, its source being ‘Yakshagana’ - a person who can sing and dance and can tell the story through the night. Yakshagana is the route of Kuchipudi dance - where the artists sang and danced. As a young lad many a times he has slipped out of his home in stealth to take part in the village Natyamelas.  

The Session Chair Manju Bhargave of the film Sankarabharanam fame, almost always impersonated male characters, while in the days of yore it was the reverse.  

Speaker Smita Shastri spoke about her dance journey and how in spite of being a Bharatanatyam dancer she took to Kuchipudi after seeing a performance by Yamini Krishnamurthy.   Her Kuchipudi Guru asked her to spread the knowledge of Kuchipudi in Gujarat, as his Guru Dakshina.  She lived up to his expectation and today there are many Kuchipudi dancers in Gujarat.

Speaker Rajyalakshmi Seth spoke of her learning and teaching experience. P. Rama Devi spoke at length about Golla Kalapam written in the 18^th century in a remote place in Kuchipudi village, by a Brahman, Bhagavathula Ramayya by name.  The basic element of ‘Golla Kalapam’ is about the conception and birth of a child.  Vedanta Ramalinga Sastry spoke about his journey in Kuchipudi Natyam.  He is credited with having written at least 40 dance ballets in all. Speaker Alekhya Punjala said that Bhama Kalapam was always there and will be there and threw much light on the warrior Queen, Rani Rudramma.

Opening address of ‘New Direction Emerging within the Traditional Choreography’ was delivered by Padma Sharma and also Chaired by her. Speaker Bharat Sharma, Daksha Seth, Sharon Lowen and Th. Chaotombi Singh was enlightening.      

The last session of day one dealing with Tribal and Folk forms was watched with great attention. The audience was able to identify their roots with the sons and daughters of the soil.

If you thought you could indulge your mind to wander and waver you were mistaken, because day three (18^th October) started with the ‘Past and Present of Kathakali’ - the complete theatre of Kerala, where the speakers were all stalwarts in the language and vocabulary of their form. Margi Vijaykumar’s clarity in explaining the intricacies in word language at every step was a saving grace. It was heartening to see a hall full of eager and sincere listeners in all attention to each of the topics which were more thought provoking than the other. “Innovative Technology Integration: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Media in and for Dance” with Gautam Bhattacharya as the Session Chair was surely favoured more by the techno savvy young rather than septuagenarians and the above. Gautam Bhattacharya’s inputs on stage lighting was of special interest for dance reviewers like yours truly, who is often at a loss with dazzling stage lights in a dance performance. Lata Surendra’s clarity of expression, Shagun Bhutani’s verve and energy was interrupted by the arrival of Honourable Minister Law and Justice and Parliamentary Affairs who regaled the audience singing popular Meera Bhajans. Many lent their voices to his Pada ghunghroo baje. The other speakers of the session continued their short presentation after that, interrupted at every step when their time span was over. However some continued till they had finished. The third session was devoted to Mohiniyattam where speakers-all dancers of repute-Bharati Shivaji, Sunanda Nair, Mandakini Trivedi, Kalamandalam Kshemavati, Kalamandalm Sughandi spoke of their humble and graceful journey in their chosen genre.

“Human Rights, Ethics, Legality, Policies, CSR Funding and, Creative Economy” were lofty ideas, which needed immediate attention to lift dance from its unstructured status, was a noble topic worthy of deliberations. It was applauded. Darshana Jhaveri’s opening address launched off the talk. While Session Chair Uma Nanduri urged speakers -the very vocal Shobhna Narayan, Narthaki Nataraj (who read out the English translation of what she wanted to say), Ratikant Mohapatra, Vinduja Menon, and Gayatri Kannan - spoke our their minds about the issues they strongly felt about.

 The last session of the second, third, fourth as well as the fifth day  was devoted to folk and tribal forms of dance.  It was the far-sightedness of the Chairman to have given enough space to our indigenous cultural wealth of the country along-side the other traditional forms. The title ‘Continuity and Differentiability’ was the nucleus which poured forth its content that revealed thousand truths about what exists beyond the known forms “Classical” Dance, which needs the attention to flourish and survive, with the extended hand of the apex body. The fourth day dealt with Manipuri, “Interdisciplinary and Intersection of Dance” with Kathak Exponent Sunayana Hazarilal’s opening address with interesting inputs by Rajasree Sirke, Bhaskara’s find of the Pythagorus theorem applied to dance by Jhelum Paranjape, Suchitra Mitra’s choreography of Rabindranath Tagore poem about the Sikh warriors on the banks of the five rivers in undivided Punjab using innovative movements and Yashoda Thakore’s research works on Kalavantulus (Devdasis) of Andhra was  commendable.

Opening address of Jatin Goswami in the third session of day four dated the ancient nature of Sattriya dance which started 500 years ago during the time of the Medieval Saint Srimanta Shankar Dev. Manik Borbayan, Ghanakanta Bora-were the two stalwarts, who gave us a glimpse about the form, which was nurtured in the Sattras of Assam. They put forth its intense bhakti element. Divine Krishna the saviour of the universe meditated upon, through dance was remarkable. Manik Botbayan’s demonstration of Sattriya was greatly appreciated.  Session Chair Pradip Jyoti Mahanati did an excellent job.

After a very meaningful address of Nandini Ramani the segment which dealt with Journalism and Documentation heard much about magazines on performing arts – Attendance, Sruti and Nartanam. Asish Khokar had much to say about his father Mohan Khokar’s collection of documents, books and paraphernalia through a video-facts not known to many. Sandip Soparkar was a star speaker. A project about writing on dance by SNA could be a silver lining in the field is my suggestion.

“Major Traditions and other Major Traditions”, “Breaking Barriers, Inclusivity and Empowerment in Indian Dance dealt with points that made the audience sit back and think. Shashadhar Acharya, the Chhau Guru added to our knowledge of how ‘Bhav’ (expression) was introduced in Chhau, when Rabindranath Tagore after seeing a Chhau performance had remarked about its absence. Kalamandalam Piyal Bhattacharya who has been reconstructing Marga Natya from The Natya Sastra and Abhinava Bharati, a commentary of the Natya Sastra drew our attention to three most important things: Understanding barriers and getting free from them; the idea of empowerment and the idea of inclusivity, to help us explore Indian dance and its tradition with a new mind. Then he went on to explain how each of them can be realised through Sastra, Sampradaya and Shaily for one’s empowerment.       

In the session dealing with ‘Transformation in the dance scenario’ Nandini Ramani spoke powerfully on “beauty and aesthetic appeal of Bharatanatyam”. She focussed on the evolving of Bharatanatyam from ritualistic dances of the South Indian temples; its journey to the proscenium stage; its aesthetic appeal and beauty of the traditional format codified by the Tanjore Quartet and the ultimate pursuit of devotion and intellect through Natya and Sangita. It was very educative.

In the session ‘Challenges of the Youth’ veterans - Urmimala Sarkar Munsi, Arshiya Sethi, Rama Vaidyanathan, Revathi Ramachandran and Gauri  Sharma Tripathi - weighed problems faced by the youth with suggestions for remedy.

On the final day ‘Discussion with Diaspora’ chaired by Sandhya Purecha was a good start. It opened a fruitful dialogue between aficionados and practitioners who live outside India. The need to reach out to them is of utmost importance.

Panel discussion on Youth Council was in the form of question-answers. The discussion was mainly on practical issues faced by the youth. Most of their problems were taken into account by the Chairman, who promised to help them.       

The subtopics of the six day seminar were hard to deal with till the scholar speakers removed your doubts. Time played truant and the listeners lost the full scope get the answers to the various questions that arose in their minds. Dissemination of knowledge and grasping of the all the nuances, before coming up with all their problems would be time consuming. Perhaps the chairman’s fertile imagination can delve deep in satiating the curiosity created.  The whole range of thoughts floated, smelled of positivism. The minds of attendees were filled with ideas. One idea gave birth to another and the flute of Krishna played through my mind.