Reduction and Updating

Author: Franz Anton Cramer

Padmini Chettur is a dancer and choreographer who has developed the classical Southern Indian dance-style Bharatanatyam into a reduced contemporary style with fresh potential. In India her efforts have been rejected by conservatives for breaking too openly with tradition, so while living and working in India, she would hardly be able to implement her projects without support from Western cultural institutions.

In an almost exemplary manner Padmini Chettur embodies in her work the alternatives of local tradition and global innovative culture. She trained for about ten years in the classical solo dance-style Bharatanatyam, which emerged about two centuries ago in the South of India, but her own work has moved on from this repertoire of gestures, posturing and mythical tales by shaping an alternative no less strict but very condensed. It is also distinct from the style she learned as a dancer in the company led by the 'mother of modern Indian dance', Chandralekha, who deals with themes like women's liberation or industrialization and is the only choreographer thought widely in India to be of national and international importance. But anyone who, like Chettur, wishes to break out of the rich but narrow corset of the many traditional styles is sure to have a hard time in India.

Chettur is taking this step with determination. She has withdrawn from not only traditional forms but also traditional contents to rely wholly on the refinement and magic of movements. In 'Fragility' (2001), her first full-length work, she trod the narrow line between motion and stasis, confidence and vulnerability, reflection and communication. She began with the question : "Why should we do only what is deemed normal?... With 'Fragility' I wished to show vulnerability and to move away from the image of perfection and prettiness in dancing. I wished to extend the vocabulary of dance to the point of posing a new challenge to my body. I was in search of moments which would cause even the public to hold its breath", she said in a talk.

This piece, whose performance in India caused a scandal then a debate among critics, could arise only thanks to numerous affluent co-producers from Europe like the Schaubuehne in Berlin, the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and the 'Theater der Welt 2002 in NRW'. In India itself Chettur has virtually no support.

The work 'Fragility' is not, however, a trans-cultural mishmash or "stooping to a Western festival taste", as claimed bitterly by her critics in India. Rather, in the almost viscously slowed phrases of movement, which are mainly geometrically clear with angular arm-poses and an abstract play of verticals and horizontals, standing and lying, there are manifest traces of classical spatial composition. Even the dominance of solos derives from Bharatanatyam, as does the relish taken in the precision of each movement, and 'Fragility' is far from the norms of modern dance in its subtle footwork with varying degrees of contrast between the contact of the heel or the ball, the flat sole or the level toes, a sweeping pirouette or one with the arms folded. The whole legendary earthbound quality of traditions of dance and movement is luminously clear in the scrupulous footwork.

The four dancers present a form of the deepest concentration, of very precise movement and of classical detachement from their personal backgrounds in art. At no point do they betray their classical heritage by being diffusely modern. Chettur defines the specifically modern in the sense of Geeta Kapoor. This Indian cultural critic vehemently rejects such generalizations as modernity: All cultural expression is contemporary, and if modernity is to be discussed, one should talk about 'several modernisms', according to the traditions they are based on and depart from. Chettur is not concerned with marketing existing styles but in developing them further towards a new classicism.

Padmini Chettur was born in 1970 and began her training in the traditional Indian dance-style Bharatanatyam as a child. In 1991 she joined the dance company run by Chandralekha, India's most famous choreographer, and worked with it for nine years before presenting her first solo work 'Wings and Masks' (1999). This was followed by 'Brown' and the duet 'Unsung', 'Fragility' (2001) and 'Solo' (2003) in three sections. She has been artist-in-residence in England and the Netherlands and elsewhere.

The Hindu – Online edition of India's national newspaper

A new experience

FRAGILITY, CHOREGRAPHED by Padmini Chettur and danced by her and three other dancers, Krishna Devanandan, Sujata Goel and Malini Srinivasan was a totally new experience for the Chennai audience. Chennai has had limited exposure to contemporary dance, especially by the young experimenting Indian dancers. The venue was Museum Theatre, the occasion was the annual The Other Festival and the date was December 6.

There was only the dancers with their slow movements and the pre-recorded music score which was fragmented, disjointed and using a combination of instruments such as the saxophone, the Indian percussion instruments and spoken gibberish by the well known Theatre actress, Kalairani. Maarten Visser composed the music score which enhanced the quality of the dance.

There were no sets, the lights were more or less flat, and the costumes were in neutral colours, white and beige. The lights were operated by Natesh and allowed the viewers to view the dance without any distraction. Four dancers with their movements exploring the concept of Fragility. To give credit to the audience, they observed absolute silence.

The only sound that could be heard was the occasional clicks from the photographers. This dance was a slow, reflective and meditative exploration of movement in silence. Padmini's definition of her concept Fragility helps a little in making the experience clearer. Fragility — a temporary state of being we have all experienced. Those times when we abandon our strength to confront our weaknesses. Moments when we are caught off-guard. When emotions are spontaneous. When we reveal who we really are.

Fragility is to do with walking on edge. With being vulnerable. But, it is not a literal exploration of the concept fragility. If the audience expected to see a narrative, associative, explanatory exposition of the concept, they were in for a great disappointment. The exploration was very abstract and was not directly linked to the mode of exploration. To begin with, the dancers were dancing in isolation, each following their own path of movement.

Slowly, they start connecting and towards the end, they met and leaned on each other in a movement of trust and dependence. To quote Padmini, "The work interprets fragility at a conceptual and formal level. Fragility seeks to break the myth of the strong, beautiful dancer, an impenetrable creature that we idolise. That body which is eventually objectified. Instead we explore the human aspect of physicality. We push the boundaries of movement to the point when we are left suspended in space. We search within those aspects of movement that have nothing to do with form. What happens when a dancer is stripped of all physical tools? Its time to demytify. To decodify." It is a new dance language, very personal and individual and to the uninitiated it might create a problem. But, to this writer, it was the opening into a new dance world, an intense experience. The music was a parallel strain, not interpretative but suggestive and enhancing the quality of the movement.

A mental and emotional shift from understanding to experiencing. A stopping of seeking guidance from elements other than dance. An inward movement seeking an awareness to the essentials of dance. A search for the beauty and aesthetics of dance in movement in space which is the center or core of all dance.

The tautness of the body, the preciseness of movements, the suspension of limbs midway the movement, an elevation through levitation and groundedness; a transcendence which comes after a mantra like repetition and utmost concentration. That is fragility a fragile and inexplicable feeling of getting to know something new.

VASANTI SANKARANARAYANAN