Dance India Asia Pacific showcases the life and art of legend Balasaraswati

After I returned from New York, I was invited to attend the eighth edition of Dance India Asia Pacific (DIAP), 2019, hosted by the Apsara Arts Institute in Singapore, from June 7 to June 16. In my last column I had discussed the paucity of facilities for preserving the records of Mohiniyattam dancer Shanta Rao. Well, as far as museums of performing arts go, the best one I have seen is the Dance Collection at the New York Public Library, located at the Lincoln Centre in New York.

By a happy coincidence, Credo of a Dancer, an in-depth archival exhibition of T. Balasaraswati’s life and art, curated by Carnatic vocalist Savita Narasimhan for the Museum of Performing Arts (MOPA), Chennai, in collaboration with the Balasaraswati Institute of Performing Arts, India, was mounted during the convention at Goodman Art Centre, the main venue for DIAP activities.

Savita has also prepared a film with excerpts from Satyajit Ray’s film Bala (1976) and additional interviews of Bala’s admirers and promoters in India and abroad. Her curatorial talk and the screening of the film threw light on why Bala’s legacy has to be preserved. Savita had brought panels having information about Bala, her ancestors, her relationships and other, little-known facts.

Herself a classical vocalist with an intimate knowledge of music, Savita was able to trace and explain Bala’s musical heritage spanning nine generations, including Veena Dhanammal, Jayamma, Mukta, Brinda, Bala, Bala’s brothers Viswanathan and Ranganathan, and how music flowed in their family whenever they were all together. Bala was an exceptionally gifted musician herself, besides being a dancer. Her early career when she was 16 and later received a boost and support from The Music Academy, Dr V. Raghavan, her tours to Japan and appearances in Edinburgh Festival and later on her visits to America and residences there, with interviews by several persons from within India and abroad, make the film extremely interesting. Its screening brought to the notice of young generation the greatness of Bala. The proposed MOPA will go a long way in preserving our cultural heritage and the art of legendary dancers and musicians.

The leading members in the field of culture in Chennai have lent support for MOPA, but it is still “a virtual museum”. It has not found a home yet. Bala’s grandson, Aniruddha Knight, has lent full support to the initiative. Along with the exhibition, he gave at the Singapore Indian Fine Arts (SIFA) a lec-dem with his two disciples and his own rendition of padams and nritta, and how it is different from present day Bharatnatyam. Aniruddha is a gifted musician, his team of musicians has fortunately studied the music of his grandmother’s bani, and he has in his institution nearly 300 students. The exhibition, along with his lec-dems, proved an excellent strategy to inform young generation the greatness of Bala’s art. Similar attempts for legendary dancers need to be encouraged.

Says Savita: “Chennai is the hub of Carnatic music, Bharatnatyam and a multitude of related classical and folk art systems, not to mention a rich culture of theatre. It is essential to create systematic archives of a cultural order that dates back centuries, so that future generations can trace the origins and development in an organised manner. The Museum of Performing Arts

Foundation  was established in 2017 to showcase the history, the content, periodic changes and external influences on every aspect of south India’s performing arts forms, as also to look at existing trends and the impact on subsequent generation.”

“I have drawn largely from the vast treasure house of archives carefully preserved by Bala’s family over decades,” explains Savita. This is MOPA’s maiden curatorial venture, a collaborative effort with Balasaraswati Institute of Performing Arts. It will be on view at various venues in Chennai and other cities in India and also abroad, spanning Balasaraswati’s centenary year, 2018-2019.  We are happy to bring it here in Singapore. We are more happy that it will be seen by young dancers and public for over a period of a week. It aims  to showcase the life and art of an artist who has left her imprint on dance for all time, with an engaging selection of photographs, articles, press clippings, and vintage audio-video excerpts. Also, on display are rare personal effects belonging to Balasaraswati.

The dancers who had registered for DIAP partook of all this during a guided tour by Savita who explained various aspects of Bala’s life. To the students’ surprise, the panels revealed that Bala’s partner was R.K. Shanmukham, 20 years her senior. He was independent India’s first minister for finance, appointed in 1947. He was protective of the devadasi community. Devadasis are bound by custom not to marry. Lakshmi Shanmukham was Bala and Shanmukham’s only daughter.

Bala’s father was Modarapu Govindarajulu, who was from a prominent dubash shipping family with land in Roypettah, where Jayamma, Bala’s mother and the rest of the family lived. In the later years, Bala’s relationship with Govindrajulu became strained and Bala was not allowed to meet her father. The detailed history of the devadasi system and other events which resulted in the abolition of devadasis dancing in temple were well explained at the show.

The rare photos and career of Bala as a world-renowned dancer with her performances in the United States is another noteworthy chapter. The biography of Bala by her son-in-law Douglas M. Knight gives a detailed account of Bala’s art and life. Recently, a Tamil translation of that biography has been also released.

The two major agencies in India for  preserving performing arts are Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), both in Delhi. Another institution is the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai.  If I am not mistaken, the late Mr Jamshed Bhabha, trustee of NCPA, had planned a Museum of Performing Arts at Goregaon in Mumbai, but it did not take off. Whereas SNA continuously documents performances, their volume is so great and vast that in order to keep pace with it, one realises that such institutions would need an army of people to keep the preservation activities up to date with the latest state-of-the-art technology. Attempts are made to disseminate information but it still requires staff which needs to have interest, sensitivity and understanding of the preservation.  

The one major difficulty research scholars find is to avail of what is documented. The rules regarding giving excerpts of documented material are so stringent that it defeats the purpose of documentation. Only one and a half minutes of documentation is given to a scholar for a lecture to illustrate the art with the result it discourages scholars and researchers to approach these agencies. I understand that there are cases where misuse of the given material has caused embarrassment to the institutions. However, I am sanguine that in genuine cases the permission should be given to scholars to use the material for lectures and screening of documentary films in possession of the institution.

In the DIAP convention last year I had screened the film made by Mallika Sarabhai and Yadavan Chandran for the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) and it was much appreciated. Many senior dancers had also not known that Mrinalini Sarabhai had created so many contemporary choreographic works on social issues of dowry death, untouchability, women’s empowerment, the sciences, and the environment. This year I was invited to speak on a legendary dancer, a contemporary of Uday Shankar and 12 years younger, who put Indian classical dance forms like Bharatnatyam and Kathakali and creative dances on the world map.

Thirty-seven years ago I had interviewed Ram Gopal for the archive of Sangeet Natak Akademi when he was visiting India. The interview is of more than an hour. I was lucky that the chairman of SNA very kindly permitted to have excerpt of seven minutes. I had another rare film with me which was produced by Ayisha Abraham, a designer, artist and daughter of celebrated cartoonist, Abu Abraham.  I have mentioned in detail about it in my column when I screened the film at the New York Public Library opposite MoMa in New York. The film tells the story of Ram Gopal with the help of interviews from the SNA Archive. Ayisha’s editing gives us a clearer picture. Ram Gopal’s performances of Bharatnatyam are filmed. They are at the Jacob’s Pillow festival in Lee, Massachusetts, and also in the Dance Collection at the New York Public Library. The young generation of dancers at DIAP convention had not even heard of Ram Gopal, leave alone seeing him dance in a film. The screenings of films on Bala and on Ram Gopal were much appreciated. It goes to emphasis that there is this urgent need for a Museum of Performing Arts which would provide the missing links in the history of our performing arts.

One appreciates that within their constraints and restraints these agencies are doing their best to document the performing arts. However, there is no awareness among the public that these agencies have priceless material of great historical value. These could be used for study and knowing our cultural wealth. Of late, dancers and dance institutions are providing context during such conventions. Besides the dance and music institutions, valuable service is being rendered by the SPIC MACAY movement. If the film is screened at the forthcoming International convention of SPIC MACAY 2020, it would reach out to various sections of the society and expose them to the performances of great dancers and musicians during the international convention. We have witnessed the pin drop silence as they watch and listen with awe and reverence.   

Those enthusiasts who are enterprising are also able to trace on YouTube some of the material and bring it to the notice of others.  However, with advanced technology such cultural wealth must be made accessible. The Museum of Performing Arts is a timely initiative.

The writer is an eminent dance historian