Dancer Madhu Nataraj on the organic process behind dance

Dancer Madhu Nataraj talks about the organic process behind dance and how Bangalore city is inherent to its evolution…

The performing arts in India, especially dance, are competing with the popularity of Bollywood, reality shows and the entertainment industry, in general. Compounded by the fact that the quantity of dancers and dance schools has shot up, quality is an ignored area. We live in a time of mediocrity where everything goes if marketed well. I think the future of dance lies equally in the hands of the dancers and their audiences.

The dance community has to ensure that it creates an organic bridge between the artistic and entertainment industries and makes its art more accessible to today’s audiences. The audience today needs to realise the importance of live interaction and create the enthusiasm to be part of a ‘moment’... dance is ephemeral.

Bangalore symbolises a symbiotic meeting of intellect and soul to me; therefore, it makes for a perfect fertile scenario where technology and the arts can co-exist. The city, with its many festivals, is truly setting a precedent. We are sending a message out that culture unites and that dance is an integral part of our cultural ethos. It is time that the city reclaimed ownership over dance and recognises its power.

Given the city’s basic essence of being cosmopolitan, the audiences here are open to various genres of dance. I often interact with world class performers from around India and internationally, who find the city’s audiences to be very receptive to their work. I remember starting the STEM Dance Kampni way back in 1995; it was Bangalore’s first contemporary dance company, and was met with a lot of opposition from purists in the dance world. But the audience was the other end of the spectrum. They welcomed this new dance vocabulary with great enthusiasm and a movement was born. If one presents their work with honesty and high standards there will be support from audiences in Bangalore.

And just as the audiences are important, it is vital that the city offers space in its most literal form to celebrate an art form. The conventional proscenium venues that I find conducive for dance in the city are Chowdiah, Ravindra Kalakshetra and Chitrakala Parishat. But I personally like taking dance out of its stereotypical venues and creating site specific work...so malls, public parks and heritage sites in and around Bangalore make great performance spaces. Whether it is a traditional repertoire or a post modern choreography, an artiste can create a magical ambience in spaces seemingly not conducive to dance. And Bangalore affords us that space.

My familiarity with the dance industry in the city extends to the last seven decades through the career graph of my mother, Dr Maya Rao, who pioneered the revival of Kathak in independent India and also put Bangalore on the global dance map.

From my father MS Natarajan — one of India’s first impresarios — to the hugely celebrated dancer Ramagopal, way back in the 40’s to those who’ve brought to fruition the more recent Bangalore Habba, Namma Dance Utsav and Bangalore International Dance Festival, artistes have assiduously worked towards expanding viewership and appreciation of dance in this city.

There is a long list of dancers who have taken on the mantle of presenters to popularise dance. To name a few, take Lalitha Srinivasan of Nitya Nritya Festival. She was the first to introduce seminars on dance-related themes. Then, there are Nandini Alva and Padmini Ravi of Bangalore Habba; Veena Murthy and Suma Sudhindra of Bangalore International Arts Festival; Pratibha Prahlad of Prasiddha Festival, Ashish Khokar of Dance Dialogues, who also edits India’s only dance magazine annually — Attendance; Nandini Mehta and Murli Mohan of Nadam Festival; Attakalari; Natya Institute of Kathak & Choreography, which is India’s only and Asia’s first college of choreography offering a bachelor’s degree in choreography. One must also talk of the contributions of Satyanarayana Raju, Sai Venkatesh, Vyjayanthi Kashi, Anuradha Vikranth and Dr Raghavendra.

The government organisations like the Directorate of Kannada and Culture and Sangeet Nritya Academy conduct many festivals in the city and across districts of Karnataka, apart from funding projects. One must also mention the contribution of visionaries like Ramakrishna Hegde, Jeevraj Alva, I M Vittalmurthy who brought in governmental clout and funding to create an awareness of dance, too.