For Jayachandran Palazhy, founder and artistic director at Attakkalari Centre for Movements Arts, life in dance has been a rather adventurous journey. From prancing wistfully in front of the mirror as a seven year old boy in Thrissur, Kerala, to being at the forefront of the contemporary Indian movement arts scene, Jayachandran has come quite a long way. With initiatives like the Diploma in Movement Arts and Mixed Media, the only programme of its kind in India, Jayachandran hopes to create a space where the young generation can learn multiple dance forms and become a composite totality of themselves, rather than a reduced derivative of their teacher.
“When we started in 2001, there were hardly any contemporary dances, yet alone training because training for contemporary and training for classical are two different things,” says 50-something old dancer. “With Attakkalari, I want students to tap into their memories and experiences and perfect a particular set of movements and aesthetics.”
Cut to Kerala in the 80s - the Kalamandalams echoed with promise as they were at the pinnacle of arts and dances. A young Jayachandran grew up around fantastic theatre and film productions in Kerala, shaping his formative years. “The film club culture was very strong around that time and I was surrounded by works of Federico Fellini, Yasujirō Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. My mother was a dancer so I went for several pujas and temple festivals where I witnessed many dance forms. I had to wait till I went to University to join classes with renowned mohiniyattam dancer, Kalamandalam Kshemavathy.” Jayachandran learnt bharatanatyam by default, as the only thing available at that point was classical dance. After his graduation, he came to Chennai on the pretext of going for computer classes for an hour in the evening, and in search of a teacher - that's when came to know about the Dhananjayans. “He was one of the first graduates from Kalakshetra and all of those inputs that Rukmini Devi had, had been instilled in him. Both, Shanta and Vannadul Dhananjayan are extremely knowledgeable people and generous with their knowledge too.” In the subsequent years, he joined Kalakshetra to study Kathakali as a part time student and also explore folk dances. However, Jayachandran had a constant nagging about the content of folk dances and wanted something that will resonate with his own life. He joined N Muthuswamy of Koothu-p-pattarai as well to experiment with martial arts like Silambam and Thevaratam but still couldn't find an answer. It wasn’t until he witnessed Mercier Philip ‘Merce’ Cunningham, an American dancer and choreographer, in Chennai in 1980's Chennai at Music Academy, that he realised what he wanted to do. “I asked my American friends what this dance was and they didn’t know how to explain and I knew then - I have to find out for myself.” Jayachandran then moved to London to train at the prestigious London Contemporary Dance School, where he lived for 14 years and also started his dance school named Imlata Dance Company. While in UK, he was awarded the Barclays New Stage Award for innovative work and was even selected to represent UK in an international forum. “It was a fantastic time that gave me a lot of opportunities. I remember going to the Regent Cinema, the home of repertory cinema where premieres, arthouse, international films and classics were screened for one pound with endless supply of coffee for company.” He went around Paris exploring arts by Arian Mnouchkine, the French stage director who founded the Parisian avant-garde stage ensemble Theatre du Soleil, and even travelled to Finland, Japan, Spain and Australia. “I joined a Brazilian martial arts class called Copoeira, which is where 21st century street dance forms like b-boying and krumping originate from.”
Jaychandran describes dance as the medium of the 21st century. We ask him why and he says that unlike other countries, India’s graph of progression from classical to contemporary was interrupted because of the colonial period. “Setting up a classical school wasn’t just about the arts, it was also a political project because there is resistance. Dance breaks those resistances and taps into the pulse of the society today. Good contemporary dance will always be a reflection of the pulse of the society.” As an afterthought he says with a smile, “Plus, dance keeps you young in terms of brain plasticity!”
When asked about the themes that he explores he says, “It can’t be explained in a story format. Contemporary dance is not prescriptive, but suggestive. It arises out of an aesthetic experience. It’s like listening to instrumental music and being asked to describe it. You just can’t.”
Attakkalari’s 12th batch of 50 students will graduate this year from all over India. With their Body Matters: Move to Transform festival slated to happen in August, they hope to teach, train and impart knowledge about the contemporary dances. In the pipeline is also their International tour of USA and Europe scheduled for September, and the Attakkalari India Biennial 2018 in February 2019.