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wundermonk
15 December 2011, 04:50 AM
Here (http://www.dailypioneer.com/vivacity/27753-i-connect-civilisations-with-my-performance.html) was an article in today's Daily Pioneer.


When she first saw Yamini Krishnamurthy performing Bharatnatyam on stage, she felt “as if a sculpture has come alive on stage”. The fascination with the stage and the dance form began then and there. She pestered her parents to let her learn Bharatnatyam but her requests went unheeded given her young age as learning a classical dance form takes immense seriousness and strict discipline which her parents thought a young mind at that age wouldn’t fathom. That thought changed soon. When she was eight, she got the name of Bharatnatyam exponent and Guru Thankamani Kutty scribbled on a piece of paper, along with the phone number, and placed it front of her parents. And then went on to study for 12 years with Guru Kutty. This was where Sohini Roychowdhury began her foray into the world of mudras ,ghungroos and rasa .

Born into a family of illustrious classical musicians in Kolkata, Sohini was exposed to ballet and Western classical music during her travels abroad ever since she was a kid. But it was Bharatnatyam that attracted her which saw her getting trained in the Tanjore style by Guru Thankamani. She later learnt Mohiniattam from Guru Kalamandalam Venkitt. Her intense training schedules led her to perform internationally at an early age in her career. Soon she started performing in Innsbruck as a solo Bharatnatyam dancer. Ever since, she performs there for 10 days every year on the invitation of Cultural Council of Austria.

The acclaim and appreciation she has received globally is the result of pure hard work. “The classical dance form of Bharatnatyam is a very sombre and serious affair. When I was a disciple, the dance classes were intense and pure hard work. As a dancer, one has to push oneself harder and harder, and suddenly you reach the moment of epiphany, ‘that yes I’ve mastered it’. Then everything falls into place, the ananda, the joy of the dance, begins then,” she shares.

Sohini began performing since she was 16, and has always loved a good audience as “they are the most important of all aspects of a performance. Any performance should appear effortless to the audience. If they see the effort behind it then it’s worth it. They need to feel the joy, the ananda with the artiste and it’s only then they will sway with the performer.”

When asked where does she like performing better — India or abroad? she says, “An audience is an audience, be it in India or abroad,” says Sohini who loves striking a unique relationship with her audience. “I’m primarily an entertainer who wants to entertain everyone. Be it a five-year-old or an 85-year-old, they both have to be treated the same way. When I’m performing, I want everyone’s attention on me,” says the dancer.

Not afraid to break free of convention and setting new trends, her life took a completely new turn when she moved to Spain with her banker husband. Once there, Sohini found a new world waiting to be explored. The world inhabited by Flamenco, Spanish guitars and afternoon siesta. It was in Spain that her inner artistic self was challenged and hence, Sohinimoksha was born. In Spain, she noticed that Bollywood was the only thing that was synonymous with India and Indian culture. “The people in Spain thought Bharatnatyam was an ancient art form that was boring, something to be revered but not to be learnt,” says Sohini who would often get offended and upset at such references and comparisons. Later, she reached a breaking point when a film producer at a film festival in Madrid saw a group of Bollywood extras dancing to the latest hit number from the film industry and replicating the gyrating moves including taking off their shirts in an imitation of a well-known star. The producer turned to Sohini and asked, “You are a classical dancer, how would you ever compete with this”?

Offended and upset, Sohini stewed for two days. She couldn’t get over the fact that how a Bollywood number and its moves would be compared to a classical art form and then compete with something like Bharatnatyam. After a grief stricken period of two days, she composed a video, set it to the beats of mridangam, sitar and violin, and with vedic chantings in the background. This video was the birth of Sohinimoksha — “a consumer-friendly Bharatnatyam, an art form which could be taken to the masses, and not just kept to the select few of the critic community,” says Sohini.

The dancer infused Bharatnatyam with Flamenco,the gypsy dance indigenous to Spain. The dance forms of Bharatnatyam and Flamenco were set to world music and Sohinimoksha was complete. Explaining the thought behind Sohinimokhsha, she says, “I don’t call my dance group a Bharatnatyam dance troupe. I call it Sohinimoksha for a reason. I fused the music of Mozart, Japanese percussion with north Indian classical music to the beat of the mridangam and added the African Kora with some jazz. To this music, I added the dance form. Even Bharatnatyam that we perform with leaps and jumps and is raised to a speed of six. The Flamenco additions provide an extra flair. Even the influences of ballet can be seen in my dance compositions,” says the dancer with an illustrative hand movement.

In the six years that she has been in Spain, Sohini has experimented within the dance forms and with more forms of music. The “Flamenco Natyam” shows the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh and Durga defeating Mahishasura. It was followed by a fusion of Gregorian chants and Latin verses. Sohini next wishes to elaborate on the closeness of world religion and how many different religions and cultures are similar. “Connecting civilisations is what my performance does,” adds Sohini.

Riding high on the success of her experimental dance form, she says, “It’s only the encore upon encore that you get from the audience — that’s all that matters. It’s the feeling you get when you fell in love for the first time.”

Not scared to break classical cannons that are paramount to Bharatnatyam, she feels her dance form “does justice to the versatile and ancient art form of Bharatnatyam. This way Bharatnatyam can reach out of the masses and break away from the selected audience of the classical community. It’s my way of expressing me, it’s my language, and as language evolves and is dynamic, so is my dance. I don’t care if it offends the critics.”

Sohinimoksha, she says, was evolved out of lot of grief and moksha for her is Flamenco Natyam. “That’s the tsunami in my soul and the ghungroos, that’s what moksha means to me, is the oxygen that I breathe.” Her personal attachment to the dance form clearly visible, as her voice shook with emotion when she says these words.

Sohini was appointed as a European brand ambassador of Incredible India campaign in 2010, and a special felicitation by Union Minister for Overseas Indians and Civil Aviation Vayalar Ravi during the minister’s September 2011 visit to Madrid, as a recognition of her path-breaking work in taking India to the world through her pathbreaking innovation and art. Sohinimoksha has performed all over Europe and Latin America. Numerous festivals in Spain like the Casa Asia have been graced by the performance of her troupe.

Right now, Sohini is working on a performance in January to be staged in Madrid where she is using Tagore’s poetry from Gitanjali and will be set to the score of live Spanish guitars. On a final note, the dancer wishes she could take Sohinimoksha to the Broadway in New York and London and would love to showcase a performance influenced by the Greek muses.

It is good to know that actual Indian art (instead of Bollyweird-running-around-trees flicks, holy cows and snake charmers) finds takers outside India.

Believer
15 December 2011, 10:17 AM
Namaste,

From the various gypsy Flamenco dance performances that we viewed in Spain, it was obvious that (besides being fast and furious), it is a very expressive dance form just like Bharatnatyam. So, it is very logical to fuse the two to create something new that would captivate the audience and keep them entertained. Sure, the puritans would probably be aghast at this marriage, as they should be. But, this creation is one person's inner calling, and she should not have to limit herself to one particular genre. A performer needs an appreciative audience more than anything else. And if the performer is on somebody else's turf, the performance has to be somewhat tailored to suit the taste of the local gentry. In the final analysis, even this altered form of Bharatnatyam is a much more suitable introduction to the Hindu art form than the gyrating Bollywood numbers.

Pranam.

charitra
16 December 2011, 07:52 PM
good to know some creative fusion attracting positive attention. We all wish her luck. Good post. Namaste.

rainbowlotus
17 December 2011, 08:05 AM
I'm also excited to hear about some fusion. I am currently learning Bharatanatyam Tanjore style. When I am ready I would love to share this art form to others.