Page 58 - English Tehelka Issue 3&4

column
Culturati
ArshiyA sethi
Dr. Arshiya Sethi writes
on cultural issues.
After a rich career of
working on tangible
and intangible aspects
of the ecosphere of the
arts, she runs the Kri
Foundation that
promotes arts,
activism in the social
and development
sector, especially via
‘artivism’, and the
generation of knowl-
edge on intersecting
issues.
Classical dance
is beautiful, but
in the current
setting of
capitalist markets
it becomes an
easy beauty,
seductive and
plastic
Tehelka / 28 february 2018 58 www.Tehelka.com
58-59 Column-Arshiya Sethi.indd 2-3
dance
Ananya Chatterjea: “Using enacting songs about class and
feminist struggles. “By the time I came
Dance” for Social Justice to this country I was already a feminist.
Here I was to lose my Brahminical caste
privilege. Quite definitely the seeds for
my social justice work of today were
A dancer took her quest for social justice to the West where she laid in Kolkata,” reminisces Chatterjea.
radically reframes the ground on which she dances, inspiring and philosophy. “I make a big distinc-
She is clear about her concepts
audiences through visual and emotional engagement tion between social justice work and
political work. Social justice work is an
guess you are just not what I to scholars from science and humani- immersion in a process- in all stages
want to see,” said the Professor to ties in alternative years. The interesting of the process, from who is involved,
Ananya Chatterjea when she was aspect is that while all recipients this far how does the involvement play itself
in her Dance MA class at Columbia have spoken about their scholarship, out, how the ideas are collected, how do
University which she had joined in Chatterjea danced her acceptance at the we engage with the community whose
I . “I was up against a particular award ceremony last fall. “I worked in a stories we tell, where the fabric is com-
1989
white western aesthetic and my work hybrid model of research and choreog- ing from, what scenographic material
just spelled trouble,” admits Chatterjea raphy, where choreography articulated is used, and how responsibly we carry
as I speak with her in the city she has the theoretical concerns at the heart of respect for it all.” For instance, in one
called home for almost two decades my work and scholarship was refined of her productions called ‘Morichhika’,
now — Minneapolis. This continued into through the embodied knowing that created soon after she received the
her doctoral studies at Temple Univer- came from the choreography.” prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship
sity, where she created a choreographic Breaking stereotypes is what Chat- for Choreography, about human greed
piece around Draupadi’s multiple terjea has done all her life. For instance, go through different routes of injustice, we deconstruct the technique. Yor- with respect to the earth, she used “old
marriages. “It was not exotic enough, after training in Odissi, which she learnt inequity and inequality.” She pursues chha allows me to be feminine and rice, for a blinding storm, to show the
because it was not traditional, yet they from Sanjukta Panigrahi, she was able to social justice work in her choreogra- feminist, deconstructive and located. devastation in the contamination of
objected to my using my face, and then, move away from the creating of beauty, phies, not like ‘nukkad nataks’ — street I come from Bengal that boasts of the food sources. After every performance
because I had questioned the claim of which she described as “an easy beauty, theatre, but “work, always with an eye seemingly contradictory concept of we would collect every grain and
her choice and called it out to be marital seductive and plastic,” before clarifying, to excellence”. the Goddess as the Gentle warrior and reuse it. At the end, we composted it”,
rape, my Professor charged me with “I think that classical dance is beautiful, “We are in the business of creating a the Dakini or vengeful feminine spirit described Ananya, testifying that treat-
‘using dance’ for different agendas,” but in the current setting of capitalist groundswell in the minds of our audi- from Tantra and Vajrayana Buddhism, ing the gifts of the earth responsibly is
recalled Chatterjea exasperatedly. markets, this is what it often becomes”. ences, for only then can we shift mind- and that is why you see so much woven into the DNA of social justice
From those New York days when She moved towards the creating of sets. You can do that only with powerful upsidedown-ness, women’s intimacy, activists.
she was a part of the Asian American hard hitting social justice work. Actually, work that cannot be dismissed. The flying arms, open mouth, untamed hair, In the series of works that her
Dance Theatre in China Town, and was at one level, social justice work is not pursuit of excellence is part of that a severe rejection of established canons Company has produced every year,
compelled to sneak in a contemporary very different from the goals of clas- striving,” explains Chatterjea. The of beauty — but very powerful visual her inspiration has been global. From
choreography as an epilogue to her sical dance, which is the savouring of website of ADT says clearly — “We radi- imagery — for our work is a treasure of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa,
billed traditional dance performance, rasa — the sentiment. A recent piece cally reframe the ground on which we feminist meaning making.” Explaining whose work in organizing the Ogoni
Chatterjea has come a long way. In July that ADT danced — ‘Just Breathe’ — to dance, inspiring our audiences through further about how her politics engage people against the encroachment of
2017, her Ananya Dance Theatre, a com- draw attention to how developmental visual and emotional engagement”. with her art, she says, “It is the interac- Shell is legendary; from the thoughts of
pany of women dancers of colour with decisions are always taken without care teachers in India “who were committed language, with Shawngram, our phi- Vandana Shiva on seed sovereignty, to
She credits her classical dance
tion of Yorchha, our unique movement
for the underprivileged- saw power-
‘River walker’ native American activ-
a few male dancers of colour now and
then, won the National Dance Project ful choreography that within a run to a particular line and aesthetic, mak- losophy of resistance, which generates ist Sharon Day’s concerns about the
grant that supports the creation and period of twenty minutes created a ing sure that we delivered it each time, power”. sacredness of the waters of the rivers.
Here is a dancer who defies the glam-
In Kolkata, where Chatterjea grew
touring of new dance works across USA. sledge hammer sentiment of disgust for
even if it meant that we practiced well
The second award that came to her inequitable policies. It was performed past midnight even after a programme”. up, she danced classical and Tagore our and glories of the West and prefers
The cogency of her dance comes
in July, with links to both her academic in the open with many distractions, but from a new movement language that dances. With Hemango Biswas, IPTA’ s to take her work to festivals in distant
work as well as her artistic efforts,
Ethiopia, Trinidad and Zimbabwe. “It’s
for those twenty minutes and more the
iconic song writer and theatre legend
was the Ada Comstock Distinguished audiences were riveted. This was an she has created to counter what she Shombhu Bhattacharji, young Ananya our endeavour to inspire audiences
Women Scholars Award presented by example of her social justice work and it calls “the white aesthetic of con- went from village to village in a rattle- everywhere to ‘Dak’— the call to action,”
says Chatterjea, energetic and raring to
trap bus, carrying over long distances
the University of Minnesota, where
spoke eloquently.
temporary dance”. Called Yorchha, a
Chatterjea teaches, to honour the schol- “What classical dance gives is an portmanteau word, it emerges from her costumes and kit, to perform in go the many more miles of her mission.
arly accomplishments of distinguished assurance of beauty. But we live in dif- her training in Yoga, Odissi and Chhau. field clearings, as part of the Govern- letters@tehelka.com
ferent times. Our access to beauty has to
women faculty at the University, going
ment’s interstate cultural programmes,
“I want a home for our bodies even as
Tehelka / 28 february 2018 59 www.Tehelka.com
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