She makes you dance to her tunes

Be it any dance form — Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam, Kathak or Manipuri — you cannot take away the mysticism and the power of the feminine from the art. “The cosmic dance we are all part of cannot exist without the divine power or Shakti,” says leading Kathak exponent Uma Dogra. “It isn’t surprising, then, that the celebration of the feminine principle or Devi is importance across disciplines.”

Beautiful, fierce, sensuous, innocent — all at once — the Devi makes her depiction in dance both difficult and overwhelming. Through mudras and abhinaya, it is most natural for an artiste to feel overjoyed at the scope of experimentation with the Devi’s many forms.

Odissi guru Jhelum Paranjape agrees. “It is this very notion that lends itself to dance in the most unique manner, yet keeping it universal in its reach and understanding."

The dancer, explains Paranjape, has to utilise all the physical tandav, lasya moves and nuances of expressions to depict the Devi in her full glory to the audience.Paranjape quotes a verse describing Laxmi to illustrate how the Devi comes to life thanks to the beauty of her many forms — Namastestu Mahaamaye Shripeetha Surapoojite/ Shankha Chakra gadaahaste Sri Mahalakshmi Namostu te. (I bow down at thy lotus feet/ Thou art the destroyer of delusion and the source of all prosperity/ who is worshipped by all the Gods/ who holds in her hands the conch shell, the discus and the club/ Oh, Mahalakshmi, I bow down to thy lotus feet.)

Divine yet sensuous
Few would associate sensuality with the Devi, but artistes believe that it is this element of surprise that makes her so unique. Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer Alarmél Valli says one cannot take sensuality out of the Devi’s persona and turn Her into someone rarefied and inaccessible. “From the subliminally spiritual to the vibrantly physical, from the purely intellectual to the intensely emotional — you can depict the entire gamut when you depict the Goddess. At its most intense level, it becomes a joyous prayer with one’s very being,” she explains.

In times when the festival of Navratri is synonymous with revelry and fashion, more than religion and tradition, one wonders whether these concepts are too esoteric and removed from contemporary reality. Artistes like Radha Reddy, a renowned Kuchipudi dancer, disagree. “I see Devi all around me. She is present in women like Mother Teresa, for instance, who I can look up to.”

Destroyer of evil
It must be part of the mystery of the Devi — how else can one explain the ferociousness that destroys even the greatest evil?
Dogra laughs at the question. “The ferocious form also seems to inspire the deepest reverence,” she points out. “There are many compositions devoted to fierce forms of Shakti like Kali, Durga and Chamunda. The fact that they vanquish evil always makes us respect them.”

In a culture where worship of the Shakti precedes even the Aryan civilisation, this overwhelming form is unlikely to fade away. Valli says, “The ‘consortification’ took place later and the only identity Goddesses assumed was that of being a God’s spouse. Before that, the times were matriarchal and it was the women who wielded power. They were worshipped for who they were,” she explains.

From all the different forms of the Devi, Valli has a clear favourite.
She always picks up compositions dedictated to her ishtadevta and speaks of one where the devotee treats the Goddess as her daughter: “Come to me she pleads as she tells her, I will not draw kajal on your lotus eyes, I will not put put a tika on your crescent forehead, I will not bedeck you in silken raiments and finery and refuse to play with you if you don’t come to me,” she says, and goes on to plead, “Oh toddler of the Himalayas you are the Mother of all that is, Why have you forsaken me so?” Valli explains how the transition from treating the Goddess as a daughter and then surrendering at her feet makes this composition from Sangam literature her favourite.

It is time. The ankle-bells are tied, the curtain has risen, the tanpura picks up, the flute joins in the first alaap. It is time for Valli to step from the wings onto the stage, to transform from a danceuse to the Devi…