The Dancer's Perspective

Krishna Bharatham


Esplanade, 8 April 2012

As dancers, we sometimes wonder why we put ourselves through long, consecutive late night rehearsals that leave us physically and emotionally exhausted. We ask ourselves if it’s worth it when we have exams to sit for, readings to finish, or 12 hour experiments to complete the next day. But then you realize that your intrinsic love for the art form will always trump the Proms you miss, the recurring knee injuries, and the aches that make it oh so hard to stand in the train the next day.

I speak for myself here - the experience from Krishna Bharatham is unlike other productions that I’ve been involved in. It reinforced of the (lack of) discipline that we started taking for granted during our usual dance classes (suddenly we raced to be on time for rehearsals and started accounting for when we would be late for class); we put in extra effort to remember what had been taught the previous day. Our aramandis became lower than usual, and we discovered that our bodies could bend farther than we thought they initially could. Karvais were now of utmost importance – (as ashamed I am to admit this) it suddenly mattered whether that pause was a thaka or a thakita. Our feet were getting used to calculations we had not experienced before. On the whole, the experience has taught us to look past technical perfection and to embody a bhava with our physical forms.

Bharathanatyam fits differently on different individuals, and the inevitable challenge in a group production is to coordinate everyone’s movements. Bharathanatyam may be better known as an individual art form, but the challenge is in dancing in a group. The experience has been great so far, with all of us watching out for each other. (Admittedly, we are still struggling, but I’m sure we’ll get there by show time.) The best lesson one learns when dancing with others is that working as a team is key – this means abandoning that ever-present artist ego, and realizing that you only look good as long as everyone else looks good. Of course, group productions always mean that you have that much more fun getting to know your fellow dancers :)

It has also been an amazing experience working with Sheejith Sir – there is so much to learn from his years of experience. Even though he is twice our size and irrationally terrifying, we have been so fortunate to have this opportunity to work with such a renowned composer and choreographer. There is so much to learn from just observation – from his expressions to his thought processes and to his ‘instant’ korvai calculations. To be on the same stage as Sir is such an honour, and an experience that none of us will forget.

~ Anuja Varaprasad

Make sure to support the SIFAS Alumni in their performance of “Krishna Bharatham” on 8 April 2012 at 8pm at the Esplanade. Not only is the dance choreography worth the watch, but the music composition will keep even the dance-averse enthralled.