| Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance : Outdoor Festival |
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nytimes.com
In Praise of Hindu Gods, With Sharp Turns and Barefoot Rhythms
By ALASTAIR MACAULAYAUG. 21, 2014
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Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance: Sanjukta Sinha performing a dance in the Kathak style at Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park in Battery Park City on Wednesday evening. Credit Julieta Cervantes for The New York Times |
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Krishna was evoked, Ganesha was praised, the 10 avatars of Vishnu were illustrated, seven of the eight classical dance forms of India were demonstrated — and the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were on the horizon throughout. Passing runners and cyclists slowed down to gawp at the costumes, steps and gestures. Even yachts in the harbor veered in their course to get a better view.
Because the Battery Dance Company always gives one day of its Downtown Dance Festival to the
Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance (which is organized by the Indo-American Arts Council), the juxtaposition of the South Asian dances and the outdoor spaces of Lower Manhattan has become an August fixture. And since the Downtown Festival this year is taking place close to the water in the Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park, the setting ought to be more tourist-perfect than ever before.
On Wednesday, only in the second half of the Erasing Borders Festival did the magic start. Because the performance started at 6 p.m., the first half was marred by over-bright sunlight behind the dancers. To some degree, the performers were turned into silhouettes; it was hard to make out details of eyes and gestures. The runners, cyclists and yachters — watching from behind — had the better view. The turning point came with the fourth of the program’s six items — a dance in the Kathak style by Sanjukta Sinha.
Ms. Sinha’s mere entrance onto the raised stage was an event, because, with her back to the audience, she opened her arms gloriously to address the harbor itself. (My mind flew back to 1988, when Merce Cunningham presented a preview performance of his new “Five Stone Wind” in an open-air plaza at the World Financial Center. In his own solo, he seemed to aim one gesture proudly at the Statue of Liberty.)
Ms. Sinha, barefoot, was dressed in a glorious shade of deep pink; dancing to taped music, she almost immediately burst into one of the series of rapid single turns on the spot that are a Kathak specialty. Dance fans liken these to the notorious 32 fouetté turns of ballet; I prefer them because of their more percussive nature and especially the exciting stillness with which they end.
Jumps were another feature of Ms. Sinha’s solo; and these — bent-legged but heroic — made a particular impression in this open-air space. For the passages of presto footwork, she advanced (as Kathak dancers often do in larger spaces) to the microphone at the front of the stage, so that the slapping sound of her soles on the floor became part of the soundscape, as in tap dance. It’s fascinating how Kathak takes these various aspects of virtuosity and wraps them into a larger elegance of style; some of the most memorable features of Ms. Sinha’s dancing were those in which she knelt in profile to the audience and slowly arched her head and spine backward.
Magic of a different kind came simply when the stage side lighting — gentle — was switched on for the final two items: a Sattriya number and one combining the Odissi and Bharatanatyam genres. Costumes and jewelry in Indian dance always make an impact, but now the way in which certain fabrics, gems, metals caught the light was sensational. At the start of the program, performers had been dim shapes before the shining sky and harbor; but now, it was the dancers who glowed.
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I hope one day to see examples of Sattriya (from Assam) other than the three dancers of the
Sattriya Dance Company, the only troupe to appear both in this Erasing Borders event and in last week’s Drive East festival of Indian dance at La MaMa. The dancers were more poised and musically exact on Wednesday than they had been on Saturday, and the various lemons, golds and greens of their apparel registered 10 times more beautifully. Still, I’m disappointed by the anodyne waltz meter and massed-strings sound of one of the tunes to which they danced, and I find the style, so far, genteel.
The Erasing Borders evening ended with “Dashavatar,” in which five women of Srishti Dances of India performed Odissi and Bharatanatyam styles in counterpoint. The gleam of their belts, the luster of a marigold fabric registered splendidly, but so, too, did the interplay of rhythmic traveling and richly sculptural stillness. This was the dance chronicling the 10 avatars of Vishnu; you could see the dancers seamlessly switching into drama and out of it.
I’m sorry that the examples of Kuchipudi, Kathakali and Manipuri dance were reduced in impact by the awkward light. The Kuchipudi solo was about Ganesha; the Kathakali solo was a long monologue for none other than Lady Macbeth, costumed with the rich colors, trailing head scarf and multiple garlands of this genre; and the Manipuri dance addressed the beauty and glory of Krishna. Each added to my knowledge of each genre, but in a small way. I look forward to seeing them more clearly in other conditions another time.
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URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/22/arts/dance/erasing-borders-festival-focuses-on-indian-dance.html?_r=0 |
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