Geeta Chandran, who has worked in television, video, film,
theatre, shared her views and life’s experience in a freewheeling online
session with danseuse Shinjini Kulkarni of Ehsaas, Women of Noida, and was
joined in by attendees from across India. Geeta Chandran has been experimenting
by collaborating with cross arts like puppetry and martial arts and also within
Bharatanatyam, drawing the ire of many from the traditional schools
of Bharatayam.
“Earlier, all the audience were for kathak. Bharatanatyam used to be given
a time slot like1 o'clock or 2 o'clock at night after all other artists had
performed. It used to be like that in those days. I had fast paced my dance and it
paid off. Getting non-dancers as an audience was a trade off,” Geeta said.
I think people have really slogged to work for an audience in
Bharatanatyam. My humble pranams to those who paved the way for us to come in
so easily and have an audience. Bharatnatyam is
deeply enmeshed in the culture of Tamil Nadu and completely rooted in the
tradition in it's not so structured form because after that it got very
structured and institutionalized teaching happened,”
Geeta Chandran said.
“I started teaching in the 90s by Guru
Dakshina Murthy sir. Initially I was just helping him in his Academy and he
used to make me sit and watch me teach his students and he used to correct me
as you get along so I was very blessed to be taught to teach,” Geeta said.
Referring to the style of teaching Bharatanatyam and her school Natya Vriksha,
Geeta said, “I realised that children in metropolises were chasing a dream to
become International citizens yet grounded in their own tradition. So I had to
think of a pedagogy that clicked with the new generation and overcome the
disconnects at many levels. So we created space using a lot of colours, texture,
myths, music and form, because I feel the aesthetic qualities cannot be taught.
It has to be experienced. All these things have been built into the pedagogy
which triggers curiosity.
“We must give our young generation dancers
a lot of freedom as they are under a lot of pressure and go about like robots.
Teacher-student dialogue is very important and my teacher had never had a
dialogue. It was a one way very strict kind of thing. I didn't want that, I
wanted to be a friend to my students.”
Responding to a question if it was necessary to be spiritual to
learn dance, Geeta said, “I don’t think so. I think every soul is different,
every person is different; everybody is different; and everybody is equally
valid. They bring to the dance what they think is their own. I have had
students who are non-believers and I think they danced beautifully bringing in an
intensity which is different.”
Performing Seva at Vrindavan’s Radha Raman Ji temple was a
life-altering experience for Geeta, “I was part of the Seva, I was not dancing.
I just want to
be a part of the Seva at Radha Raman ji and he just took over my whole being
and he has that power there and after that there was no looking back I used to
go almost every year for Seva that is a completely new experience for me I had
read so much of dancers doing Seva in the south because Bharatanatyam was very
much apart of the ritualistic tradition in the South Indian temples. Every
piece, particularly from a Bharatanatyam tradition, addressed one temple deity
or the other. It almost came alive when you were actually doing Seva in
the temple.
You are not
bothered about your audience. It was like one to one with your ishta devta. You are offering your entire
being through your art to the divine. So. Yes! It was a completely different
feeling.”
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