During the Swarna Samaroh celebrations of India’s independence that the nation celebrated in 1997, the central Sangeet Natak Akademi organised a festival of Indian classical dancers. Mrinalini Sarabhai was billed as one of the top dancers; and I was the youngest on that list!
I will always cherish her mesmerising performance at the Kamani Auditorium that August. Dressed in her staple gorgeous kanchipuram silk saree that she had gracefully draped to let her dance, she presented a taut 40-minute performance in which she took the audience on a peep into the entire Bharatanataym repertoire from Alarippu to Tillana; sharply editing all the pieces, but dancing the whole margam as a single offering, Mrinalini Amma’s performance that evening was magical. Shanta Rao who had performed before her, and Yamini Krishnamurthi who danced after her were both completely eclipsed that evening by the sheer grace and poise of Mrinalini Sarabhai.
And now she is no more! With her death, a significant volume of Indian Dance History reached its last page.
In 2007, I had invited Mrinalini “Amma” Sarabhai to deliver the keynote address at Natya Vriksha’s World Dance Day Observance, which I organise every year. In her keynote lecture entitled “Bhootam – Bhavyam – Bhavishyam” Mrinalini Sarabhai presented a scintillating assessment of Indian classical dance through the prisms of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
The best tribute to her, I think would be to revisit her thoughts and let her voice carry the magic of her convictions. So here are some excerpts:
“The dance like the ever turbulent flowing sea keep moving and is never stagnant. There are many so called traditionalists who talk of keeping a form ‘intact’ and if new ideas are introduced are deeply critical. Yet, the programme of Bharata Natyam as is presented now, is only about two hundred years old, though the form is ancient. So, with many of the other dance techniques. From the beginning of time, nearly five thousand years in historical terms in India, the dance has been evolving, changing and exploring. For the dance is the basic expression of man’s aspirations. The fundamental source is the same, the motivation differs, as does the outward observable pattern.
In India, the dance structure is the tradition, the shape and style of the movements. Each region gave its own image to the dance, the people their inner aspirations; the individual teachers the longing within the depths of their hearts. So while the essential framework remained, the forms of dance changed. The great rishi Bharata who gave us the valuable treatise, the Natya Shastra, speaks of gurus before him, whose works he has collected as basic contributions to his own compilation.
Hindu philosophy with its focus on the arts as reflecting the exuberant outburst of the soul’s longing for God, became the background of dance compositions. In and around temples, the dance became an artistic expression of religious themes, and poets wrote songs extolling the deeds of the Divine Ones upon earth, pouring their own ecstatic suffering into melodic compositions.
Bodily movement in every detail of expressive feeling took on a special significance, and organised disciplines slowly became the classical dance, as it is known today. Temple walls depict sculptures that bear close resemblance to the postures of the dance it is possible to recognize and trace the origins of our rich inheritance. Gurus have constantly changed the patterns according to their own gifts of perception. Patrons like the maharajas and nawabs, added their need for entertainment and scholastic knowledge to the existing forms.
For me, from the moment I set foot on earth, dancing was my inheritance and I was possessed with the need to express my thoughts in Kinetic movements. It took many years of hard training, working ten to twelve hours a day to reach a point where I could create works of my own.
The first composition that perhaps could be noted as a personal experience was based on the life of man ‘Manushya’. Before that there were several, but they still clung to already known themes. ‘Manushya’ broke away from tradition though it used the basic technique of Kathakali, with new movements woven into the classical fabric. It dispensed with elaborate costumes and kept only the powerful simplicity of the style. Then came ‘Matsya Kanya’ the ‘Fish Princess’ a fairy tale, romantic and lyrical. No mudras, no elaborate abhinayam. Just dance. Music with now words, movement in all the beauty of the Indian dance form. It was perhaps created to show that the body conveys deep meaning without the need of verbal explanation.
Through the years, there were many more. The pressure of the world in which we live has tremendous repercussions on the artist. The dance on a woman’s ‘dowry death’ brought a contemporary theme to the dance world. It received an enormous amount of attention, even editorials referring to it and its impact on society. Suddenly, from being involved so much in social problems, I reacted and created the abstract Song of Creation, perhaps the first piece of its kind in India. It came from studying the Vedas and was danced in silence.
All my work naturally comes from the past. The technique, the heritage, the land, the environment; these are all within me. It is from this background, training, knowledge and experience that I draw. Then there is the present, which are our society, our culture, and our values. The artist spans the past and present and dynamically thrusts both into the future when she speaks. Often what is accepted as beauty by tradition is dynamited by an artist-in Manushya I brought death onto the state, not permitted by Bharata in his Natya Shastra. In Memory the woman jumps to her death with a child in her arms.
The dancer constantly with body, mind and spirit affirms the meaning of life as she sees it. The body fully trained, is a body that is free to express emotion. In India the detailed training of the dance technique is an extra-ordinary discipline. Years of hard work ‘sadhana’ means years of freedom, to be able to became aware of the potential of the body. To express. To think in movement. The summation of all experience. To use the inner and the outer vision in wholeness that is both passionate and spiritual. In dance, the entire person is involved. Dance is comprehensive. ‘Where the hand goes the eyes follow, where the eyes go the mind follows, where the mind goes the emotion follow’ says an old verse. Each work of mine, has sprung from some deep chasm within myself, beginning as a thought and ending in an explosion! The period between is one of ‘agony and ecstasy’. It is in this sudden moment of perception when all boundary lines of man and the universe disappear, that creativity is at its highest. It is a conceptualisation of the formation of the universe and its oneness with man.”
RIP gorgeous Amma!