Therapy/ Dance: Tripura Kashyap: Healing through dance

Tripura Kashyap: 'We are all born with movement in our bodies' "Most people don't nourish their body with movement, as much as they do their minds. Why is that?" asks Bangalore-based Tripura Kashyap, one of India's first trained dance therapists. "We're all born with movement in our bodies. Yet we tend to neglect or negate it. Could it be because of Indian society?" Kashyap's questing mind and the questioning body initially led her to engage in therapy with schizophrenic adults at Atmashakti, and hearing-impaired children at Hamsadhwani (both in Bangalore), and mobility training programs at the National Association of the Blind. That was on returning to her roots in 1990 after two years of American dance therapy training at the University of Wisconsin's Hancock Centre. Kashyap - widely recognized as a Kalakshetra-trained Bharatanatyam dancer, who blossomed into contemporary choreography via a stint with breakaway dancer Chandralekha's troupe in Chennai - rewinds to her most precious encounter as a therapist. This was at the Baldwin Opportunity School in Bangalore, where she worked with eight children who were moderately mentally challenged. They were very mobile, and full of energy. What made the experience valuable? "Each child had different problems. One had a short attention span, another could not coordinate with rhythm, and a third found relationships difficult. They could dance on their own, but not with the group. I took each problem and made it the goal of therapy," says Kashyap. "One day it was social skills, such as holding hands and moving them. Or placing their palms against each other's, and pushing playfully. Gradually, their coordination improved. We finally choreographed three dances incorporating mirroring, sculpting, and other exercises we'd done as therapy. Even their teacher Ruth got involved, correlating dance to their learning problems. When they had perceptual problems with drawing a circle, we'd walk in a circle, getting it into their bodies. My three years with them were very rewarding." What brought Kashyap into dance therapy? Around 1988, after a stint with Chandralekha, she was working as a librarian at the Institute of World Culture in Bangalore. "I vaguely wanted to start a dance group. But I was equally keen on dance for handicapped people. Maybe because my late brother was differently-abled. I had no idea how to go about it. That's when I met American dance therapist Grace Valentine and she invited me to the US," Kashyap says. On her return, Kashyap set up her own dance troupe, Apoorva, best known for its pieces, 'Chayangika' and 'Aranyakiran'. Many non-dancers signed on. Then came an Ashoka Fellowship in 1992, during which she travelled the length and breadth of India, training special educators to use movement therapy. In addition, she compiled a handbook with 40 activities they could use as starting points. Kashyap feels special educators need dance therapy more than the handicapped. "They're out of touch with their own bodies. They earn a pittance of what normal teachers do. It's almost voluntary work, yet their inputs are much greater," she stresses. "Often, I do follow-up workshops, so that they can come back with their problems. Word is now spreading that movement needs to be a part of the curriculum." How does Indian dance therapy differ from the US? "The American Dance Therapy Association has a thousand members, who work in prisons, at de-addiction centers, at halfway homes. In India, we're s till at a nascent stage. When trained therapists return here, they're both underpaid and unappreciated, though our need is so great. They're constantly battling with the system. So they return to the west," Kashyap notes. "In the US, treatment is almost like a private psychotherapy session. Even visitors can only watch through a one-way mirror. In India, visitors to the school just walked into our sessions. And we've got it into our heads that dance is a performing art." "In India, we have so many classical and folk dance forms which were intrinsic to our community," argues Kashyap. "Then, why are people so distanced from their bodies today? Except for disco bhangra or disco garba, it's no longer a part of our everyday lives. So, I have to use more structured exercises to get people moving here. Often, we use kolattam sticks or cymbals as props or try the bamboo dance." Within this context, she lauds Sohini of Kolkata's Sanlap, who presents performance-oriented therapy with girls and women from the red light areas. "They're brilliant dancers. You're in tears when you watch them on stage. Their equation with the public has changed. They bring forth how they feel about their origins, the problems of living in cramped Sonagachi, or the way men look at them. They now earn money through dance," says Kashyap. Kashyap was recently in Argentina, where she teamed up with another Ashoka fellow, an artist named Veronica, allied with a musician and a theatre-person. Over three weeks, they experimented with therapeutic inter-arts modules, which yoked together esoteric elements like meditative Tibetan chants, Bharatanatyam mudras, shadow play, and communing with nature. An English-Spanish 'Moving through Art Rituals' handbook is slated for the future. A fervent believer in inter-arts therapy, Kashyap is currently working with 20 mentally challenged adults at Pune's Sadhana Village, along with Anand Chabukswar, a drama therapist, and music therapist Zubin Balsara. "Our goal is to make them come out of their seclusion and isolation," explains explains Kashyap. "If we can challenge them, if we can all work with them as therapists in a single session, that would be exciting for me!" Is the Indian approach to dance therapy too casual? The need, according to Kashyap, is for trained therapists. "If you're just a Bharatanatyam dancer, to what extent would you understand the movements of spastic children? Unless you work with a special educator and a physiotherapist, how can you be sure certain movements are not detrimental to the child?" she says. What is it then that sets dance therapy apart? "As dance therapists, we don't use just one form or style. We're trained in at least five forms, so that our bodies move in eclectic ways through creative movement. It's unfair to superimpose a formal style on a disabled person. It might prove dangerous," Kashyap opines. "Even with mentally-challenged kids, you need a psychoanalytical background to understand what they're going through. An ordinary dancer is not trained to cope with that." As dance therapy gropes for a foothold in India, Kashyap will require reserves of courage and determination to stay the course.   (Originally in Women's Feature Service, 2003)

Dance: Turning point ~ contemporary dance in Bangalore

(Copyright: Goethe-Institut eV, Online-Redaktion, May 2009. Published in its 'Art and the City' e-journal. )

The year 2001 must count as a turning point in the cultural life of Bangalore or Bengaluru. Before that, the former pensioner’s paradise and Garden City, morphing into an IT hub, was torn between its City and Cantonment cultures. It offered little to match the classical dance traditions of the Mysore court, or the literary and musical legacies of Dharwad.

As the most westernised, cosmopolitan, and multilingual of Indian metros, Bangalore – where Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, English, Malayalam and Telugu are spoken on the streets – threw its doors open to radical cultural change from the mid-’90s. Its population had climbed dramatically from 1.5 million to 7 million over just three decades, introducing large disposable incomes from the IT and BPO sectors, novel cultural visions from globe-trotters, and cutting-edge technologies into its mainstream. 

Today, Bangalore counts as the premier city of Indian contemporary dance. Among myriad reasons why, one stands out – the relocation of theAttkkalari Centre for Movement Arts (ACMA) to the city from Alwaye in Kerala in 2001.

Upto that point, Bangalore was home to Bharatanatyam stalwarts like U.S. Krishna Rao, U.K. Chandrabhaga Devi, and Usha Datar, besides Maya Rao’s Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography. 

 

The impetus towards new idioms probably surfaced when dance therapist/choreographer/ dancer Tripura Kashyap set up the Apoorva Dance Theatre in Bangalore in 1994. Trained in Bharatanatyam in Kalakshetra (Chennai) and dance therapy at Wisconsin (US), she did a stint with Chandralekha's Chennai-based dynamic dance troupe. Tripura – challenged by the lack of trained local contemporary dancers – included lithe non-dancers, such as C. Vasudev (an artist) and Balaji (an engineer). Apoorva is best known for two remarkable pieces, ‘Aranyakiran’ and ‘Chayangika’, the latter based on shadow play. On one memorable occasion, Vasudev and a month-old puppy danced in perfect tandem, at an Apoorva evening at the Alliance Francaise!

In 1998, Tripura joined local visual artists in' Territory, a site-specific installation that challenged manmade boundaries, at the Shankara Arts Centre on Kanakapura Road. Emerging from a deep pit, Tripura (to quote her) made “dance an extension of the landscape, peeling off its decorative layers. Like a child discovering movement, I explored the contours and possibilities of stones, sand, cloth, leaves, even a 14-foot-tall haystack and a lone tree with snaking branches.”   

On a parallel track, Madhu Nataraj – trained in Kathak by her mother Maya Rao, then in contemporary dance at the Jose Limon Centre at New York – set up Natya STEM (Space. Time. Energy. Movement.) Dance Kampni in Bangalore in 1995. In her words, its signature style melds “Indian dance movement motifs, original music, experiments with rhythm, and interactive design.” Interfacing the traditional with the contemporary, she incorporates elements from martial arts like Kerala’s Kalaripayattu, Manipur’s  Thang-Ta, and Japanese Ninjitsu with folk dance and even mime, defying the spartan face palette of contemporary dance. Her work has travelled to New Zealand, Canada and even Kazakhstan.

Bharat Sharma, who trained with his father Narendra Sharma’s contemporary dance troupe Bhoomika in Delhi, arrived in Bangalore in 1994 for an administrative stint at the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA). Bhoomika, still extant, was founded by Narendra Sharma, who trained at Almora with the father figure of Indian contemporary dance, Uday Shankar. As a youth, Bharat had taken the Delhi dance world by storm as the Wolf Boy in a Bhoomika production.  Dance workshops in the US and collaborations in Europe formed the frieze of his footsteps. Over time, he evolved into a choreographer, teacher, lighting designer, and composer.

In 2000,  Mayuri Upadhya – who studied contemporary dance with London’s Shobhana Jeyasingh Dance Company, and later with Bharat – set up the Nritarutya Dance Collective as its principal choreographer.

Brilliant dramatis personae were, thus, waiting in the wings when Attakkalari arrived in Bangalore. At its helm was dancer-choreographer  Jayachandran Palazhy, who believed in big dreams and inter-arts experiments. His personal movement vocabulary stemmed from Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, and Kalaripayattu, Capoeira, ballet, even African dance. Today, pan-Indian audiences flock to Attakkalari’s own repertory multi-media creations such as 'Purushartha' (2006), which garnered standing ovations at the Munich Festival of Contemporary Dance and the Venice Biennale. 

What triggered this dramatic, future-directed change? Jayachandran initiated two mega-events in 2002 that set Bangalore up at centre-stage: the free-thinking international Facets experimental dance workshop and the Attakkalari Biennale, India’s only contemporary dance festival. Besides, Tripura led Attakkalari’s educational outreach programme through schools to nurture future promise, aided by ACMA’s 2007-launched unique Diploma course in movement arts and mixed media.

 

Jayachandran’s breakaway trajectory was evident in ' TransAvatar' with the Imlata Dance Company he formed while at the London Contemporary Dance School. Diaspora-spawned, coloured by the 2002 Facets workshop, it charmed Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai in 2003, after a 25-venue tour of the UK, Germany and Switzerland. Its tawny, androgynous bodies on individual trajectories behind translucent screens had universal appeal, yet questioned multiple identities. Homing in, Jayachandran observed, "The performance reflects a deeper involvement with digital technology and research on telematic performance. Today, cyberspace is often western-dominated. I wanted our expression, our images, to inhabit that space."

Meanwhile, Tripura set off on a less tech-inflected route in 2003. Joining hands with visual artists C.F. John and T.M. Aziz at Visthar at Doddagubbi Post, on the outskirts of Bangalore, an abandoned rural well became the laboratory of their art, ‘Walls of Memories.’ Through her exploratory movements, linked to John’s art forms and Aziz’s photographs, a powerful construct surfaced – that the well was now devoid of its very soul, the water. To encourage feedback, the urban audience was taken to the semi-rural venue by chartered buses. 

Since dance without an audience approximates to a journey without a destination, in 2001 Bharat initiated a Bangalore-based highway performance circuit through the Indian south, called Chaali. In its first year, the 37-event circuit over 5,000 km took two contemporary soloists and two troupes along coastal Goa, Karnataka and Kerala, then through inland Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Over 8,000 people attended their performances at formal theatres, open air spaces, black boxes, makeshift stages, an art gallery, even a tourist complex. He proved indisputably that a sustainable alternate, non-urban audience infrastructure was viable. 

A year later, Facets in Bangalore infused true grit and latitude of ideation into an art form in search of redefinitions. At each biennial choreographic laboratory, 30 to 50 international dancers, choreographers, musicians, digital and multi-media artists from countries including Norway, Japan, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Hungary, elasticized and revitalised notions of dance. Both Tripura and Bharat attended Facets, as participants or facilitators. While the 2002 laboratory explored the nexus between dance and digital arts, in 2004, designated facilitators explored select ideas, free of performance pressure.  

Performance proved the crucial test, though. Attakkalari’s ‘Chronotopia,’ premiered at the Biennale in February 2009, broke new ground. Though loosely based on the Tamil classic Silappadikaram, it explored the depth of Jayachandran’s physical vocabulary, through layered landscapes of time and memory, through multimedia inputs and infrared lights, allowing Indian classicism contemporary nuances, both expressively and philosophically.   

The result? Jayachandran’s proved to be among the most outstanding choreographic pieces at the Biennale, holding its own alongside ‘Murder in the Elevator,’ the frenetically agile, totally with-it, narrative drama by South Korea’s Dance Theatre CcadO. Equally, it challenged the scenically vital, electrifying ‘Extended Teenage Era,’ by Samir Akika, formerly of Germany’s Pina Bausch company. 

The Attakkalari Biennale celebrates cultural consummation, offering the stage to Madhu, Mayuri and other global talent, though Tripura and Bharat have recently shifted to Bhoomika in Delhi. For instance, ‘Chronotopia’ yoked together Frenchman Mathias Duplessy’s score with interactive scenography by American Chris Salter, video design by German Chris Ziegler, lighting design by Dane Thomas Dotzler, with costumes by Jason Cherian and Anshua Arora Sen from Bangalore. Using today’s communication tools, the team collaborated online through chats and video clips, finally meeting in real time to fine tune the overview.

The Biennale, looking outwards yet reaching deep within, explores edgy potential within an international movement arts framework. It proffers Bangalore as a city of creative synergy, of belief in futuristic dance, unleashing other energies. In January 2009, Abhilash Ningappa, once with the Attakkalari repertory, set up the Bangalore Dance Collective – comprising dancers, actors, singers, mime artists – after two years at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. He taps artistically into the demographic dividend because 40 per cent of the Indian population is currently between 18 to 35, their energy impacting Bangalore’s culture.  

Between creative interstices, Bangalore’s dance scene has explored these issues: Can truly contemporary forms evolve from the land of Bharatanatyam,  Odissi, Kathakali and Manipuri? At what point can high-tech and traditional techniques cross over to co-exist without distortion? Have contemporary dancers evolved a common language they can share?   

Such vital questions have realised but tentative answers. As technology zooms into the unknown and funding for the arts proves difficult, who would dare to second-guess the unfolding scene? Yet, Bangalore has undoubtedly articulated contemporary dance directions, especially since 2001, when Attakkalari offered practitioners a homegrown Indian base. This city of possibilities now nurtures dancers ready to leap into the future, unfettered by tradition.