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The audience needs to know the secrets: Justin McCarthy

Bharatanatyam exponent Justin McCarthy tells Heena Khandelwal why he started using props in his performances

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Justin McCarthy enters the stage at Delhi's India International Centre with long strings of used plastic bottles trailing behind. The plastic is an eyesore, but McCarthy begins his 20-minute performance nevertheless. At the end of 20 minutes, his troupe of eight covers the stage with plastic and wraps a performer entirely in bubble wrap. "It juxtaposes the Yamuna in its present polluted state with a poetic phenomenon," says McCarthy, about his piece 'On the banks of Yamuna'.

Plastic bottles on stage aren't unthinkable for McCarthy because he views dance as evolutionary, and bringing in props is part of an array of ideas that can be brought into traditional dance forms. "Bharatanatyam has multiple histories, with evidence of spiritual and secular themes in abundance," says McCarthy. "It is a misconception that the themes are entirely spiritual. They are often part of an ethos that did or does not differentiate between the spiritual and the mundane." He views Bharatanatyam as a modern and living dance form that uses the idea of creative historical reconstruction as one of its main axis. "Props are often essential to the work. They act as a bridge between the tangible and the intangible," he says, adding that he often uses curtains, paper flowers, picture frames, masks, etc.

Yet for all his comfort with using props, it took McCarthy time to deviate from the purist position. He's learnt Bharatnatyam under Subbarayan Pillai for a year and Padma Shri Leela Samson for a decade, and several Indian languages in the four decades he's been in India. When he teaches, he instructs his students in Hindi and Tamil. "Languages are very important if one has to understand music and poetry. The more you know and read, the more you can engage in aesthetic ethos about the dance practice," says McCarthy. "There are many beautiful components in the music, movements, expressions and poetry of dance, but to communicate the same to the audience and get them excited about it continues to be a challenge. Until a few years ago, I was against giving oral explanations because I believe the art should speak for itself," says the 60-year-old.

Over time, he has started giving oral and written explanations during his performances. "In my first choreography, I used a kind of Haiku projected in the background to explain the theme. In a recent performance of Mohini, I asked a Kalamkari artist to paint a chitrakatha. I now agree that the audience needs to know the secrets."

McCarthy and his moves

Justin McCarthy was born in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, US. He was 19 when he first watched a Bharatnatyam performance in 1978. "That inspired me (to learn this dance form)," he says. "The moment I landed in India, I didn't want to leave."

Although he is a noted performer, choreographer and teacher, he says it isn't possible to sustain on dance, and so teaches kids how to play the piano. "I have been supported by the piano my entire life," he says.

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