Best of both worlds

"I AM 25 today", says Shanthala offering some sweets. But she looks not more than 18. Her forehead shines with kumkum from a temple. She does not even look like a modern city girl leave alone a successful international artiste. We sit down to talk about her experiences in dance and theatre. Shanthala is a Kuchipudi dancer who brings a rare passion and freshness to her dance and a theatre actress working with the likes of Peter Brooke.

Shanthala speaks Tamil like a native despite having a Malayali mother and a Kannadiga father. Living in Paris since she was six months old, French is native too.

She knows Malayalam because her mother spoke to her only in that language. She picked up a bit of Kannada while visiting cousins in Karnataka.

Besides English, she has studied Spanish for seven years in school, and Spanish made learning Italian easy. She learnt Tamil while visiting Chennai, Telugu while learning Kuchipudi from Guru Vempati Chinna Satyam, Hindi out of her own interest... Whew...

"I have a passion for languages", says Shanthala. She was just 14 when she was selected to take part in Maurice Bejart's ballet commemorating France's bicentenary. Peter Brooke chose her for "Tempest" where she played Miranda. Now exactly ten years later, she is playing Ophelia in Peter Brooke's "Hamlet".

As a child, she learnt Bharathanatyam from her mother Savithri Nair, an alumni of Kalakshetra. Shanthala performed Siva's role in her mother's dance production for London's Dance Umbrella. It was the story of Bhasmasura and to show the difference in movements, Savithri sent her daughter to Chennai to learn Kuchipudi from Guru Vempati Chinna Satyam.

"I was floored by the grace, movement and energy of Kuchipudi", says Shanthala. "I decided to learn it seriously". She gave her arrangetram in Kuchipudi at the Kalakshetra auditorium in 1993.

I ask her about working with Peter Brooke. "Oh! It is magical", exclaims Shanthala. "He directs each one differently. He made us sit together and told us the story of `Tempest'. He made me understand Miranda's role. He said I should be truthful to Miranda and tell her story to the world through my portrayal of her and not my own story. Being in the troupe was a great education. I was the youngest and there were actors past 60 too. `Tempest' happened after `Mahabharata' and Sotigi, the African Sorcerer (who acted as Drona in `Mahabharata') used to regale us with stories. He would beat the drum and make us dance. I taught them some movements of Bharathanatyam. Life behind the screen was thrilling. It was this life that gave life to the play".

Now Shanthala feels being an adult makes her see things in a different perspective and whatever Peter Brooke says makes more sense to her now. "I had the same difficulties in theatre as I had in Bharathanatyam. Peter Brooke taught me how to shift from one emotion to the other. What we call Sthayibhava in classical dances. Peter Brooke also encourages people to try difficult things."

I ask her about the training for the play. She says rehearsals went on for three months. Morning sessions were meant only for exercises while the text was taken up in the afternoon sessions. Musician Toshi, also a martial artist taught martial movements to the actors and Shanthala being a dancer could do them easily. The problem area of each artiste is identified during the rehearsals and worked out.

"Hamlet is an amazing play" says Shanthala. "It is so modern and one can relate to it completely."

After the rehearsals when Shanthala got a short break, she performed with the Pina Bausch company in Germany.

"It was nice to go from one world to another". "Hamlet" was staged in Paris and Stroudsburg from November to February. And will again tour from April to September. Performances are scheduled in the U.S., Japan and Europe.

"I am very proud that there are three Indians in the play. There is Naseeruddin Shah and one from the U.S., who is originally from Sri Lanka but I consider him Indian too."

Amidst all these, there is Kuchipudi too. Shanthala had a performance in Bangalore in the second week of March and there were performances for the World Dance Festival in Germany in early February.

"I was totally lost in Germany because of the language. But I have picked up some German now. When I went on the stage for the first time with the dancers of Pina Bausch, I had goose bumps. I could not believe I was with this group of finest dancers in the world. Their stage presence, their energy and performance are incredible."

"When I am in Chennai, that world seems so far away. Next week, I will be in Seattle far away from Chennai, playing Ophelia. I think I am more Indian than most Indian girls I know. I was raised very traditionally."

V. R. DEVIKA

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