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Contemporary expressions
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Madhu Natraj Heri and Amit Heri from Bangalore performed at The Other Festival, held recently in Chennai. They share their experiences...
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HOW DO you portray love? It's not tangible, says Madhu Natraj Heri, the lissom dancer/choreographer from Bangalore. She is extremely aware of her responsibility as a dancer and will in no way depart from anything aesthetic — even if it finds contemporary expression. Apart from learning Kathak from her mother Maya Rao, Chitra Venugopal and Munna Shukla, she was trained under Karen Potter (Jose'Limon) and Sara Pearson in New York in the contemporary style.
Clad in a simple outfit she walks in with Amit Heri, her partner in work and life. Madhu runs The Stem Dance Theatre, a contemporary dance company, known for its lyrical and explorative performances. The company has performed all over India and conducts design programmes for educational institutions, corporates and NGOs. It has done considerable work with street children, women's organisations and the `differently-abled'. Amit Heri is no less an artist — in fact he is a guitarist, composer and music director in his own right. One of the few Indian musicians to perform at major international music festivals, Amit's unique music is a result of his study and experience of both western and Indian styles. With qualifications from the prestigious Berkeley College of Music and the University of Massachusetts, he is at present working with Carnatic and Hindustani musicians in India. Besides, he has also performed, recorded, and toured with internationally renowned artists such as Zakir Hussain, Trilok Gurtu, Charlie Mariano, Salif Keita, Angelique Kidjo, Mathew Garrison, Ranjit Barot, Louis Banks, Shankar Mahadevan, Karl Peters and Shivamani. He has also scored the music for Mahesh Dattani's film "Mango Soufflé", and several dance theatre productions and over 200 ad films.
Madhu and Amit performed together and individually at The Other Festival, held in Chennai recently.
Madhu here talks about "Moh", a feature about love, which she presented at the festival. "The first thing that struck us about this venture," she says, "is the union of the soul with the Infinite. We portrayed different shades and textures of love. That's why we chose this Sufi philosophy, which looks at God as a lover and also because the Sufi tradition has Hindu and Muslim cultures merging, which is interesting. And then we chose the thumri."
It was very beautiful. Who has sung it?
Sangeeta, a singer from Dharwad. It was initially made popular by Begum Akhtar. It speaks about the nayika. We also took ideas from the Indian miniature love paintings, because in India, love is integrated with the arts. Then we had the duets with two women in love. Finally, it ended with dance itself as a manifestation of love — the take-off point being the Maha Raas, where Krishna is the central figure symbolising love in the Dhamar beatSo these were the few things we selected instead of doing the usual love poetry. That's how the whole production came about and from the beginning, Amit was involved; he scored the music.
Says Amit, "In the dance, I played solo. Most of the pieces have been composed earlier. I play the acoustic guitar. Improvisation, integral to Carnatic and Hindustani music, has to be there and the only music that really allows that in a developed format in Western, I think, is jazz. That's how I was attracted to jazz.
So you stick to jazz when you play?
Not really, a lot of Indian music comes in, classical as well as others.
Madhu, as far as contemporary work goes, how popular is it in places like Bangalore?
In Bangalore, we are performing almost all the time. We do a lot of work at festivals like this and also for the corporate sector, where there is a big demand now as there are so many expatriates living in Bangalore and there are launches and things like that happening all the time. I came back from America thinking that we need to evolve a contemporary Indian idiom because in the West you have the Martha Graham style, but in India we don't have a particular style. And there is this misconception about the word fusion. For me, it's a continuous process of trying to create a new idiom, which is strongly influenced by the Indian physical disciplines. You see a lot of yoga, Kalari, Manipuri, and Kathak of course. It might not be done in the traditional Kathak style, but incorporates the footwork and abhinaya. In fact, what is most interesting about our work is that it has both traditional and contemporary influences.
You do this on a sustained basis?
We are running a training centre. In fact, my mother's Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography is the only institute for choreography in the country and it awards degrees in choreography. Stem Dance Theatre is a contemporary dance unit.
When you choreograph a piece, how do you portray a particular idea?
Sometimes we decide on a rhythm. For example, Dhamar was decided earlier. Sometimes music comes in first and then choreography. Design is important, and in this production, we have used multimedia. And the costumes made a lot of difference. Wendell Rodricks, a big name in the fashion industry, designed them. The style is almost like the angaraka that you wear in Kathak, but in lycra, which gives a soft feel. Because as dancers, we can't dream of wearing pastels. But it really works well for the production. Images were by Yusuf Arrakal and John Mathew.
What are the productions that you are working on?
We are planning to do a new production next year. Meanwhile, Amit and I have been commissioned to do a project in London, choreograph and compose music for some dancers there. It's a conference, which is going to take place in February-March.
Have you ever thought of setting up a school in Chennai?
It would be fantastic. I would love to, if someone takes the initiative; something is happening here all the time culturally.
Have you ever felt the need to bring in a little bit of Bharatanatyam into your dancing?
The motifs of Bharatanatyam are there with the mudras or the aramandi. But the treatment is contemporary.
What are your future plans?
Basically keep evolving, come up with new things. Both of us are keen on learning all the time and reinventing ourselves. That, I think, will keep us going.
CHITRA MAHESH
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