Dancers shake a leg emphasising environmental awareness

CHENNAI: Learning Bharatanatyam from the age of five, Geeta Chandran always wanted to explore and embrace unique aspects of classical dance. After her Master’s degree, Geeta reached a point where she had to choose between her career and passion or simultaneously concentrate on both. “As I was not good at multitasking, I shifted my focus to dance. I wanted to delve deep into the art,” Geeta starts.

She set up her institution called Natya Vriksha in 1994. “I felt the pedagogy of dance needed to be more responsible. It should also help the artistes, who are deserving, to connect the dots and make the art more interdisciplinary,” she says. Speaking about the path chosen by her student as an example, “One of my students, who has a Psychology background, is into dance therapy. Now they are linking Bharatanatyam with their profession. This is quite gratifying. Creating performers is our mandate but it is delightful to pave the way for new areas where dance can make a difference,” adds the 61-year-old.

Geeta has relatively supportive parents and her in-laws too make it a point to respect any kind of art form. For her excellent contribution to the field, she received the Padma Shri award in 2007. She is also the recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest award for dance in India. “I get inspiration from all my teachers to date. Now my life revolves around my children (her students) and their achievements,” Geeta smiles.

This Delhi-based dancer is coming with her group to Chennai for her upcoming show, Samagati. It is a Sanskrit word that means union. This is a group work of Geeta and six of her students. “It is a great and proud feeling to perform along with my disciples,” she says. In her choreography for Samagati, Geeta explores various environmental-related themes, as well as the four Purusharth of the Sanatana- Dharma, Artha, Kaama and Moksha.

“The context is that the composition should have some message for the audience. According to me, Bharatanatyam is extremely contemporary. It is up to us to put it into context and make youngsters look up to it as something new in the old,” believes the classical dancer.

The first piece revolves around Pancha Bootha and how things will be catastrophic if we do not respect nature. Through Dharma, the performers deliver that the planet should be passed on in a better form to the next generation. Artha talks about hard work and perseverance, and the composition has a traditional piece as a base with a new twist.

Kaama has a rare piece by Muthuswami Dikshitar, a south Indian poet and legendary composer of classical music. The concept revolves around Maya, how it holds and binds us and also displays the ways we can follow to release ourselves and find our path to continue the journey. The final piece is the ultimate Leela of Lord Krishna to attain Moksha.

Geeta feels that this is a great time to be a part of the field, “There was hierarchy when I started learning dance. Now, everyone has a stage and space to showcase their talent. It is completely democratised. Earlier, there were a lot of do’s and don’ts to be followed. But now it has changed. There is a platform for Jazz, Bharatanatyam, Hip-Hop and more. It is up to the dancers to raise the bar and attract people to their genre,” she remarks.

—Witness Samagati on January 8 at Madras Music Academy, TTK Road.