Is retirement getting gender specific

The answer to the question of when or if a dancer should withdraw from the stage is both simple and complex. Many times I have heard people leave an auditorium saying “She really should have stopped performing by now”. Notice that I said I heard “she” I never heard “he”. Without question gender plays a role.

Why this is said runs the gamut from apt critical judgment to jealousy. It was said with jealousy when the Odissi pioneer Sanjukta Panigrahi was dancing brilliantly and in fine form. I recall more than one young Odissi dancer complaining that Sanjukta should retire “to give them their turn” after she had created interest in Odissi nationally and internationally. This was during the few years before her untimely death, still in her prime, when she was finally able to accumulate a bit of financial security through dancing after years of negligible earnings.

Because of the communicative ability of Indian dance, the decline of physical agility and appearance is not directly linked to the value of a performance. A master of abhinaya (dramatic expression) will draw an audience hungry for his or her art even if the dancer is unable to walk, let alone jump. Everyone knows that Balasaraswati was the Bharatanatyam queen of abhinaya. This was irrespective of her age or physical appearance. A critic of the time commented that her youthful beauty was gone post age 16 with her heavy arms but she deservedly continued to rise to the heights of her art. None of us who saw her would ever have wished her to retire.

However, without the intelligence and maturity that results in excellent abhinaya, the audience will naturally prefer physically fit and attractive dancers for pure dance. The sands of time run swiftly through an hourglass of impermanence as dancers strive to achieve the expressive ability to move their audience before their technical skills diminishes.

Margo Fonteyn was an exception to the general practice of classical ballet dancers retiring by the age of 35. She famously said that if she didn’t practice for one or two days she could see the difference and the audience could see it after another day or two. When, at the age of forty-two, she was partnered by Rudolph Nureyev after he defected from the Soviet Union, the powerful expressiveness and grace of her dance allowed her to extend her career span to the joy of audiences everywhere for another nineteen years.

Those classical Indian dancers past age 45 who maintain more than two hours of strenuous practice daily can certainly present a high caliber of pure dance along with mature abhinaya. Yet we sometimes see a senior dancer performing difficult footwork seemingly to prove to the audience that she or he can still do it. We don’t necessarily find it highly aesthetic and may even feel sympathy that they feel the need to do this.

Gradually reducing or leaving pure dance entirely to focus on the power of emotional communication can be a wise choice for a senior dancer. After decades of dedication and achievement, there is nothing to be proven to anyone except oneself. I don’t recall anyone faulting Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra for not choosing to perform any of his own brilliant choreographies of pure dance pallavis! We were all more than happy to have him leave this performance element to his disciples so that we could savor his abhinaya.

Similarly, with all the delight and counting of chakras in Kathak, I can’t imagine the packed halls for Pt Birju Maharaj wishing to see him spinning around the stage when we can experience the rasa of his anga sudha offerings. In her 80’s, Vyjayanthimala ‘s Bharatanayam is pure pleasure with simpler nritya satisfying the aesthetics of presenting a full margam in performance.

So far I have been speaking of dancers of excellence whose inner voice never told them to retire and we as rasikas are grateful for this. Other fine artists have withdrawn from performing while still offering lecture-demonstrations alongside teaching and choreography. After almost six decades, the Padmabhusan legendary dancing couple V.P. and Shanta Dhananjayan is a perfect example of this trend to remaining active off stage.

What of less than stellar performing artists When performing at the same uninspiring level they always have, some actually get extra credit for being older. Their dance now seems really “good for their age” on the assumption that they must have been better than this when young.

Conversely, a dance critic shook her head after a dance ballet created by an artist saying, “She really is too old to be dancing”. An incongruous remark to me as the dancer was attractive for her age and in good a form but performing the same mediocre standard of choreography, pure dance and abhinaya she always had. I wondered if the critic truly thought the disappointing effect of the program could be blamed on the dancer’s age. Perhaps she should have recommended her retirement for aesthetic reasons decades ago rather than now on the basis of age!

Second-rate performing artists obviously have built careers on other merits than their dance abilities. Limited capability was irrelevant to their desire to be in the limelight or else their narcissism blinded them to what is visible to discerning dance lovers. Advanced age and reduced capacity are as unlikely to induce them to retire from the stage as to have any bearing on the motivations of their audiences to attend. There are worse ways to pass time between birth and death than this and no need to stop as long they and their audiences are content with a bit of social deception in the name of art.

One amusing example of this sabotage of artistic values by influence and money is that I can’t recall ever seeing a production of Shakuntala where the heroine was not played by a middle-aged diva. None of the lovely nubile young chorus dancers who would fit the role of this “un-smelt blossom” have the clout to get the lead role. Unfortunately the lead dancer with the support for such a production is unlikely to have the dancing ability of the masters who make us forget age and gender. A bald Kelubabu makes us “see” his long curling tresses; so one need not look like an apsara to make the audience see one.

Audience members who think an older dancer should retire either only came to the theatre to see attractive young women or boys moving (and couldn’t care less about anything else) or they are watching a no longer youthful dancer who has nothing more to offer in terms of maturity, power, communicative ability or even charisma. If a dancer hasn’t developed a higher level in their art along with the years, why wouldn’t I prefer to see a young dancer’s rounded arms, slim waist and athletic energy

In my mid-thirties, I was taken aback by a friend’s perhaps slightly jealous comment that my dance was so well received only because I was beautiful. Aside from the fact that I never thought that I looked better than anyone else it totally undercut any personal achievement as an artist. From that day onward I looked forward to the time when age would remove any physical advantage and the value of my art would stand on how close it could come to my aim of communicating a transformative experience.

Eventually I sensed that seeing a post-menopausal woman embody the creative representation of a sensuous young woman was less palatable to audiences than seeing a man than do so. An exception that proves the rule would be Kalanidhi Narayan who became the most sought after teacher for abhinaya after a 30-year gap from a brief dance career. Her subtle nuanced abhinaya was shared in seminars, lecture-demonstrations and with students with no need or desire for a formal costumed performance.

In conclusion, anyone of any age who loves to dance should do so, for whatever audience finds pleasure in their offering. Whether that audience is one’s own affectionate friends and family or a much larger numbers of rasikas and general public should ideally be commensurate with their level of performance.

Only the individual artist should determine when they feel they can’t offer audiences what they wish to deliver or feel they would rather share their art in other ways. I personally have come to a stage where I happy when invited to give a performance and equally happy when I am not. If one isn’t afflicted with an addiction to the limelight, one can gracefully step out and remain active through teaching, choreography, lecture-demonstration performances, not to mention myriad other paths of personal growth and service.

Sharon Lowen is a respected exponent of Odissi, Manipuri, Mayurbhanj and Seraikella Chau whose four-decade career in India was preceded by 17 years of modern dance and ballet in the US and an MA in dance from the University of Michigan. She can be contacted at sharonlowen.workshop@gmail.com