Started in 2018, the National Centre of Performing Arts’s (NCPA) Spectrum — a festival of dances around the world, was held in Mumbai recently. This event brings together skilled dancers and choreographers from different styles, highlighting the variety and energy of the dance world. In the previous years, Spectrum’s stage saw performances of Flamenco, Jazz and Ballet. But this year, they decided to go around a different stream — classical.
Making classical dance more accessible to the audience today, renowned Odissi exponent Shubhada Varadhkar enchanted us with ‘Ram Ratan Dhan’ — a tribute to legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar. “The whole idea was to have Indian classical dances on Lata Mangeshkar's voice. So, it's not like the regular interpretations of our songs that we see. It's not Bollywood dance,” said Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, Head of Dance, NCPA.
She added, “Lata Mangeshkarji's music is definitely something which will hit nostalgia like crazy. We did classical on Lataji’s classics. So that the entire thing of ‘I don’t understand Indian classical dance’ does not stay anymore.”
“Most of the classical singers right from Bade Gulam Ali Khasa have said that Lataji is perfect. So we are giving a tribute to such a singer through pure classical art forms. We are taking up all the songs as beautiful poems and interpreting them in our own language of dance. That is what makes our music and dance more universal,” said Shubhada Varadhkar.
When talking about fusing Bollywood with classical dances Swapnokalpa mentioned that Indian classical dance is very flexible and if we keep to the aesthetics, we can match the steps with whatever music and create the rasa. “The reason why I am not saying that the way forward is Bollywood with Indian classical in general is that Bollywood is just some super fantastic songs, some mid-level songs, some not-so-great songs, a genre of music. Our Indian classical dances are storytelling traditions, so it makes us very powerful.”
Shubhada Varadkar is an exponent of Odissi dance form and a recipient of a Senior Fellowship by the Ministry of Culture. When asked why she chose Odissi as her form of expression, she said, “I started as a Bharatnatyam dancer. For some time, I used to do both the dance trials. Then I realized as a performer, when you’re two dance styles, somewhere you tend to mix both forms. So, to retain the purity of dance style, I thought I must continue with Odissi. Personally, I could identify more with Odissi.”
Spectrum provides a captivating experience for audiences, exposing them to the beauty of dance in its various forms, and giving them an opportunity to witness the power of movement as a form of artistic expression.
