It's been a long process to cultivate an audience, says Seeta Patel

Bharatanatyam exponent Seeta Patel recently enthralled the audience in Delhi with her performance ‘Something Then Something Now’. Eye-catching light arrangements by Guy Hoare juxtaposed with Seeta’s gracious moves and striking expressions created beautiful visual drama.

Born and brought up in the UK, Seeta made her India debut with this performance. Held at Sri Ram Centre, the performance was presented by the India Heritage Desk.

“I visit India every year, to watch classical dance and music performances. But I was very excited to give a performance here because the audience is familiar with the dance form,” says Seeta.

The act, composed by Seeta, tells a divine story of love and separation. The performance focuses on the relationship between three characters: the youthful heroine (nayika), the god Krishna, and her friend (sakhi) who will bring Krishna to her.

“The varnaam (central piece) has been one of the most elaborate and intricate works I have done. My teacher Mavin Khoo and I have worked together on this,” says Seeta.

While she enjoys performing to Indian audiences, Seeta feels that classical music is more established here than classical dance and has a better audience.

“There are certain trends that I have noticed here and I feel it is challenging for performers to engage the audience and keep their excitement up till the end of the performance. For classical dancers, the struggle is much more than classical musicians.”

Elaborating on her journey, she adds, “One wants to be a better dancer and learn more in life to be successful. But at the same, one also has to work on trying to engage the audience with the dance form to gain more prominence.”

“In the UK, when people think of Indian classical dance, they put everything under one banner and don’t usually relate it with other contemporary dance forms. If you go presenting a classical dance performance, you are bound to disappoint the audience. So I try explaining my act like classical literature. It does take time to make people relate to it but people have definitely engaged better with Bharatanatyam now as compared to when I started,” says Seeta.

Speaking of her experience in India, the 36-year-old feels that there is a financial burden that performers face here, and this is more for the inexperienced artistes. “I have been wanting to perform in India for a few years. But it was only after I could afford the musicians and got invited by a former colleague that I could perform here. Also, it depends on how much one has performed and been seen,” says Seeta.

But getting a chance to perform in India has not been Seeta’s only struggle. Managing to have an audience for Bharatanatyam in the UK has been the biggest challenge for the danseuse. “In the UK, one has to provide the audience with enough information about the act so that they enjoy the performance. So it has been a long journey and a long process to cultivate an audience for Bharatanatyam,” says Seeta, who now looks forward to her second performance in Chennai.