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Devi:
The Mother Goddess
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APRIL 16, 1999 NEWS INDIA-TIMES PAGE 41
Devi: The Mother
Goddess
by Jane Goldberg
Mallika Sarabhai's March 29 opening performance
of a two-day engagement at the Museum of the American Indian in downtown
Manhattan was a tour de force of Bharathanatyam with a contemporary
social message.
Often, understanding Indian classical dance's gestures, deep plies,
mysterious eye symbols and broad sweeps of the arms is tough going,
like studying a foreign language as an adult. Taking a Bharathanatyam
class, with the late Indrani Rahman, did not make Indian dance accessible
to me. Nor did going to India twice. With Sarabhai, I appreciated how
she interpreted ancient movements to tell topical stories. Known in
India, and internationally, for her feminism and activism, Sarabhai
re-interpreted and de-constructed ancient Indian parables about would-be
"goddesses", the chances of goddesshood, the accessibility to goddessness
for all, and yet the raw deals that some goddesses could and did get....
,
In one fable, even a one-eyed monkey was amazed that he couldn't convince
a husband, whose wife's hopes to attain godhood had been thwarted by
rape, that the one who was her, not him. India offers ample source material
regarding the position of women in society. To that, she added a terrific
sense of humor.
For instance, in a two-minute synopsis of The Mahabharata", the Indian
epic that Peter Brook brought to the Brooklyn Academy of Music with
Sarabhai as the main actress, she gave Arjun's role in the Bhagavad
Gita a good guys/bad guys Interpretation.
I appreciated Sarabhai's rhythmic Intensity too. She did wonderful trades
with her four musicians, V. Balagurunathan, K. Jayan, Dinesh Kumar and
Rathinam Kaliya Perumal, demonstrating accessible timing as well as
good feet, though less than I would have liked.
Ultimately, this was a concert about Sarabhai's activism as a dance
artist. She is from one of the great families of dance and science in
India. Her Ahmedabad-based family helped Gandhi's Freedom Movement.
She could have easily slipped into a life of "pure art'. Instead, her
mother, the renowned Bharathanatyam practitioner, Mrinalini, and she
set up their Darpana Academy as a center for different art techniques
as well as a socially relevant institution. The best pure dance movement
of the evening's performance came, ironically, at the end. In Chaplinesque
fashion, Sarabhai shuffled along a white scrim laid to cover a blue
one on the floor.
Like a gosling following her mother goose walk, she traced tiny patterns
as she covered the center of the old Customs Houses's gorgeous wooden
floor. At the end of her minimalist journey, aides lifted the cloth
to reveal, voila, a drawing of a lion.
When the concert ended, many in the audience
thought it was Intermission. They wanted more. Instead, we were all
treated to Indian sweets and liquid refreshments and the opportunity
to linger and discuss what we had just seen, a rare feature that dance
audiences are rarely offered.
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