KATHAK - THE MOST EXPERIMENTED FORM

                Kathak - The Form Most Experimented

           

     The form Kathak which we see today is an amalgamation of various techniques and trends which emerged during the years of its development. It is the only form which is developed by the synthesis of two cultures – Indian and Persian. There are many twists and turns in the history of Kathak which have made the form more flexible and adaptable in order to sustain the changing times. Had not been for it’s all assimilating nature, Kathak would have lost its identity in the Persian courts. But how can an art form survive on its own? An art form can thrive and flourish in the hands of its practitioners and gurus who stand strong as pillars holding and strengthening its foundation. It is the immense contribution of these acharyas and dancers who are responsible to the sustenance of this art form.

          

     During the medieval period Kathak – the temple art entered the Persian milieu in the Moghul courts. This was the era which witnessed various changes like, place, space, music and patrons. The royal patrons had their own artistic sensitivities. Kathak dancers in court assimilated Persian dance technique and modified it to suit the aesthetics of Kathak. The content of Kathak in temples differed from that in the Moghul courts. The devotional and mythological themes in temples had no relevance for the Persian rulers. Thus, themes that were easily understood and appreciated by the patrons were developed by the kathaks.

The delicate and ornamental themes in Kathak were explored to give rise to various gats like ghunghat, jhumka, chhapka etc. Vandana was replaced by ‘salami’, where the dancer saluted the nobilities in court, and compositions depicting amorous themes were preferred to bhajans. All these novel dance pieces and themes were the result of creative experimentation by the Kathak artistes in court. In order to survive and preserve their art in the turmoil of times they had to accommodate new ideas that pleased their patrons as well as strengthened the tradition.

           

       In later period during the reign of nawabs, the female dancer – ‘courtesan’ became popular in the court. These were professional dancers who also learnt the art of Kathak from the male court dancers. They were excellent singers and expressed the bhav while singing. This was the era when thumri a new genre of music became popular as court entertainment. Courtesans were well adept in thumri singing. The prime sentiment of thumri was Shringaar – love and the courtesans gesticulated depicting srngar while singing. This was yet another mode on which Kathak continued its journey in the courts of nawabs. While the courtesan’s art emphasized on shringar and its shades, the male court dancers continued to dance and creatively add to the corpus of their traditional art.

           

    Maestros like Bindadin Maharaj, Kalka Prasad, and dancers of later generations – Acchan Maharaj, SunderPrasad, Jai Lal, Shambhu Maharaj and many more, contributed by adding new compositions in taal presentations as well as abhinaya. The concept of laykari was explored in footwork as well as rhythmic compositions. Apart from thumri various musical compositions like bhajan, hori, chaiti, kajri etc. were explored in abhinaya. Each dancer had created his own style and area of expertise. The royal courts of Lucknow, Jaipur, Bikaner, Rampur, Raigarh (to name the few), esteemed the artistic creativity of these maestros.

           

     In the modern era the British rulers who were oblivious about the art of dance, banned the courtesans and their art considering it to be vulgar. For many years Kathak suffered this stigma until the reformists like Uday Shankar, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Madam Menaka (to name the few), revived Kathak and restated its dignity. The Post-Independence era brought Kathak in institutions. This was a revolutionary stage in the history of Kathak. The independent India witnessed the dominance of female dancers in the field of Kathak.

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     In spite of the renaissance and revival of Kathak, the society still had the old notion about Kathak – as a defamed art. A female dancer was still considered to be of low virtue. In such an environment there stood many eminent female dancers and gurus like Damayanti Joshi, Kumudini Lakhia, Rohini Bhate who redefined Kathak with scholarly and artistic genius. They had to face criticism from society as well as Kathak field for their innovations, yet they determinately continued to work for the betterment of the art form.

           

     During the developmental stages till late medieval era, whatever changes were made in the art of Kathak were based on the prevailing circumstances. These were the experiments or prayoga done by the acharyas to continue their tradition in changing times. In Post-Independent era, the new generation of dancers had new challenges.

In order to dissociate Kathak from its defamed state, Madamme Menaka and her disciple Smt Damayanti Joshi eliminated some practices in Kathak. They discarded the practice of doing abhinay in sitting position. They replaced thumri by devotional compositions. Madamme Menaka choreographed themes based on mythological stories. Damayanti Joshi introduced saree as the formal costume of kathak. All this was done to reestablish Kathak as a dignified art form, free from any stigma.

          

      Kumudini Lakhia had danced and toured with the legendary Ram Gopal and had exposure to the western world. She blended the western discipline, and principles of choreography in Kathak presentations. She introduced secular themes in Kathak which were relevant to the contemporary period.

         

      Rohini Bhate had to struggle in order to establish as a Kathak dancer as well as to teach Kathak in Pune. She carefully eliminated the sensuous aspect in Kathak movements and stances and created a scholarly foundation for Kathak. Her themes were based on ancient Sanskrit literature and mythology.

           

     The Kathak field owes a lot to these legendary dancers belonging to professional Kathak gharanas as well as non-professional families. It is due to their hard work and struggle that the tradition of Kathak has sustained till today’s times.

          

      From historical period till modern days the Kathak Gurus have constantly experimented and developed innovative concepts in order to make Kathak suitable to changing times. These experiments adhered to the aesthetic frame of Kathak. They widened the dimensions of the traditional boundary of Kathak thus enhancing the form. A performing art needs to be updated with the flow of time. Thus, there are still more experiments done in Kathak by veteran as well as upcoming artistes.

          

      In today’s times the major challenges faced by the Kathak artistes are: i) The growing western influence on society & ii) The dominance of electronic media. Due to the influence of western culture today’s younger generation has drifted away from the Indian languages as well as literature and music. The reality shows on television channels propagate the popular dance trends from Hindi cinema. The small kids as well as teenagers are given so much exposure nationwide that the audiences get attracted to the glamour. Classical dances which are presented in these shows are designed far differently than the traditional classical dance. These presentations are doubtlessly beautiful and attractive but they lose the core of classicism.

           

     Under such circumstances there are Kathak dancers who continue their work with classic aesthetic sensitivity, whereas there are some dancers who fall prey for easy popularity. Under the notion of innovation, they overlook the tradition and its values, the aesthetic frame of Kathak and also the legacy of legendary dancers.

Under the guise of experimenting, these dancers associate Kathak with popular genres of music and dance. This leads to instant appreciation from the masses who may not be initiated in classical genres but are familiar with the popular music or dance form. Secondly the dancer can effortlessly choreograph on a readymade composition unlike the efforts to be taken for a piece of classical music.

While employing Kathak with popular music, the dancers primarily choose songs from Hindi cinema. As said earlier, the popularity of these songs attracts audience from all strata. The lyrics of these songs are simple and the music is catchy to choreograph. This saves the efforts to understand a classical bandish and modify it to suit dance.  

Among the popular genres of dance, the lavani dance belonging to the folk theatre of Maharashtra is often associated with Kathak. The lavani dancers, in course of time have incorporated footwork and they claim to have some give and take with Kathak. Originally the lavani dancers used to entertain the soldiers as a relief during war times. The songs in lavani are full of erotic sentiment, and the dance movements also express the same. From the period of its origins till today the purpose of lavani has been the same – that of sensual entertainment. It has always been a form of folk theatre and, essentially it has nothing to complement to Kathak. It is the popularity of lavani that lures the Kathak dancers to fuse it with Kathak.

           

      The above stated experiments do not add to the tradition or the form, but are inherent with lack of responsibility towards both. To reinstate the lost dignity of Kathak, the veteran dancers in those days had extracted Kathak from its sensuous aspect, and experimented variously to dissociate it from the ‘baiji’ culture. Today when Kathak has established as India’s one of the seven beautiful classical dance styles, a question arises that is there any need to associate it with popular genres of music and dance? Kathak itself is a complete dance form which gives ample scope to the dancer to innovate and extend the boundaries within its classical tradition. It does not need such appendages to make it popular among the audience. This is very well proved by many dancers in India and abroad, who take forth the tradition in its true sense.

Below is a brief account of some of these innovative presentations in Kathak:

Fusion

          This is the key word in contemporary presentations in dance as well as music. A general notion about fusion is to dance with any musical genre apart from Hindustani classical music. Or dancing with other style of classical dance. But can mere dancing with other type of music or dance be termed as fusion? Or is there something more to it? Is fusion that superficial?

           

      Manasi Deshpande (Mumbai), one of the senior most students of Guru Shama Bhate and a Kathak exponent has danced in many choreographies based on fusion which were choreographed by Guru Shama Bhate. Taking this knowledge and experience she has attempted to choreograph various fusions with different musicians and musical instruments. “Collaboration only with western music or musicians is not fusion but working on our own music and with Indian musicians is also in a way fusion”, says Manasi. In her opinion fusion is that, when two forms collaborate with each other and create an end product as a whole. The dancer has to select and understand the piece of music as per its genre, speed and the emotion or the feeling. The dancer needs to decode the notations of the music in order to interpret in Kathak.                                                      

                                

          One of her choreographies in fusion is based on a musical piece ‘Mahadeva Suta’, composed by the renowned musician Shri Ranjit Barot. The composition is in praise of Ganesha the God of wisdom. In this she incorporated Ganesh parans which are the traditional compositions in Kathak. The lyrics of the composition were descriptive and thus ideal to be interpreted in Kathak. The fusion with the contemporary music gave a rare impact to the Ganesh stuti choreographed in Kathak.

  
Another choreography of Manasi was based on an abstract instrumental piece composed by the renowned sitarist and musician Shri Ravindra Chari. It was a ready piece on a commercial cd, which limitated the scope of improvisation in dance. For this reason, Manasi acquired permission from the composer to perform the music pieces live. With the live music she had the freedom to execute the piece by complementing with suitable toda-tukdas, footwork and padhant. The musical phrases were interpreted and complemented by footwork and rhythmic compositions in Kathak. It was an ensemble that created a harmonious experience and aesthetic pleasure.

          
      Kaveri Sageder (Austria) is also one of the senior most disciples of Guru Shama Bhate. She has been one of the leading dancers in most of the works of Guru Shama Bhate. Initially a resident of Pune, Kaveri continues her dance career in Austria. The two places have different cultures, environments, audience, an altogether diverse atmosphere. It would have been a valid reason for Kaveri, to dilute her form in order to capture foreign audience. But with her thorough foundation in Kathak and experience with her Guru in India and abroad Kaveri has not detered from the tradition of Kathak. She has been teaching foreign as well as Indian students in Austria.

          

   

                                   
   

Her recent innovative performances ‘Bells of Time’ and ‘Kathak 2.0’ are inspirational to dancers in India and abroad. ‘Bells of Time’ is a confluence of percussion, vocal and dance. Bernhard Schimpelsberger – a western percussionist creates different sounds and grooves using a variety of instruments, Anuradha Genrich – a Carnatic vocalist sings on these sounds and Kaveri Sageder performs footwork and rhythmic compositions in Kathak with padhant. In this concept none of the artistes have their own set of music or percussion instrument. They try to accompany each other. This is a rare type of experiment where the artistes of different genres come together and create a beautiful wholesome musical performance. It is enjoyed and appreciated by all types of audience irrespective of their culture or knowledge of music and dance. ‘Kathak 2.0’ is yet another innovative experiment with different musicians -  pianist (Sebastian Schneider),  guitarist (Mahan Mirarab),   percussionist (Bernhard Schimpelsberger) and western singer (Philipp Sageder). Kaveri says that performing with the instruments which are not traditional Kathak accompaniments gave a contemporary flavor to Kathak. Though she employed traditional Kathak movements, the collaboration with new instruments created a contemporary effect. The Austria based Indian dancer proudly presents her tradition in the foreign land with all its glory. All the above stated choreographies present Kathak in its traditional form without diluting it.

           
     These examples are illustrative of the fact that an artiste can intelligently and creatively innovate or experiment keeping the tradition intact. It definitely needs lots of efforts, a sound knowledge of music and confidence in one’s own tradition. Finding easy ways to attract audience can cause potential harm to the tradition. People who are not initiated in the classical form Kathak, will wrongly consider the deteriorated image of Kathak to be the true form. It is the responsibility of every artiste to carry the legacy of our legendary Gurus with its true essence. Else the struggle of all the veteran dancers will go in vain.

Some more experiments in Kathak will be discussed in later article.

Dr. Varada Pandit.