Dance is prancing on razor’s edge

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 20

Sharing interesting anecdotes and giving a glimpse into the history of dance in India, dance historian and critic Ashish Khokhar was at his candid best during the virtual session hosted by the Majha House. In conversation with former IAS and noted scholar Chiranjiv Singh, Ashish talked about the past, present and future of dance forms in India in context to the current times.

“The first ever PhD on Indian dance was done not in India but at Sorbonne in Italy. This conveys the popularity Indian dance forms enjoyed globally and this was decades back. Today, we just might have compromised on our traditional forms of dance in the name of experimentation,” he said.

Talking about the earliest influences on traditional dance forms, he said classical dance forms gained mainstream popularity when they were used in cinema. “The curious fact is that since classical dance was used in cinema, initially the training of dance took place in Madras and the South Indian touch can be discerned in films like Kalpana. Indian dance and its popularity were not limited to India alone. Of course, it spread to Lahore, Pakistan and featured in cinema there. South Indian influence is clearly present in Hindi cinema when Sandhya danced with Gopi Krishan in V Shantaram’s Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje. South Indian stars also featured in cinema and became everyone’s beloved icons like Vyjanthimala, Hema Malini, Sridevi and many others. If we talk about contemporary dance then stars like Rekha, Meena Kumari and Sridevi were all trained in one dance form or another.”

His house is a museum of sorts with memorabilia and dance-related literature. As a custodian of dance’s history, Ashish said that originality of traditional dance forms needed to be revived and preserved. “Countries like Japan have carefully and painstakingly maintained and upheld their traditional forms of dance. I think where India falls behind is that people do not have the required time or patience. Earlier, the trainee would go to villages and spend years there learning the art but people today just don’t have the dedication and time so they make do with what they pass off as ‘experimentation’.”

Ashish touched upon rigidity that has come to play in our lives which wreaks havoc upon dance and its popularity. “Earlier, dance was openly performed, viewed and learned in open public spaces like temples and chaupals and no one minded. But nowadays, we have become rigid in our outlook and dance has been secluded to private spaces. A limited view of religion also limits the spread of dance. That has also restricted the learning of dance.”

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