Dance and Dancers

An Article By Smt. Arpita Sen

So we dance…
With all the love and devotion,
With all the doubts and apprehensions,
Bracing against all fires,
Braving against all demons,
Constantly lost and found,
Finding ways through the maze,
Guided by the halo of the ‘guru’,
So we dance…

The world keeps changing,
So does life, keeps altering,
Spinning at one moment,
A standstill in the next,
Shrouded in uncertainties,
The future is a mystery,
Bleak or bright, after the befallen night?
Unanswered questions, silent prayers,
So we dance…

Why do we dance? What is it about dance that keeps a dancer or a dance practitioner going, in spite of the apprehensions of success or finance or survival in the future? I remember reading somewhere that if one wishes to have an easy life, one must not be an artist. However, putting all collateral hardships aside, the heart is pulled to do that which pleases it the most. According to the Natyasastra, “na tatha gandhamalyena davatyusyanti pujitah, yatha natyaprayogajnaistusyanti stutimangalaih”, that is, the Gods are never so pleased with other offerings as the offerings of dance and music, of drama.

In a world which has evolved into more of a mercenary existence, where money and making money seems to be the very objective of living, is it a comfortable decision to make to completely devote a life to dance? Well, many would agree that the power of dance, a soul-calling to those who can feel the invisible pull, which draws one deeper and deeper into itself, evading the practical considerations, the very facts of uncertainties pertaining to survival. Is it not thus, this all-pervading power of music! So we dance…

A common constant pressure on dancers seems to be, to be out there, in the eyes of the world, the phobia of not doing enough and thus being forgotten. What is enough… enough knowledge, enough performances, enough fame, enough money? In the circumstances that we are in presently, dance practitioners have already started getting used to the digital or online format for performances. Within the confines of our homes, getting our rooms, phones, laptops and cameras ready, we deck up for online performances, and the entire hustle is perhaps akin to the enthusiasm and interest which we are used to having for the stage performances, thus adapting quickly to change, like donning a different costume for the second half of a solo recital. It’s out there, in the digital world and with a click on links, a viewer can go back to watch the performances at their own convenient time.

The beloved stage, the warm lights, the resonating music, the darkness before the eyes and beyond the stage, the plethora of emotions piling up within and the rush of adrenaline… amazing! Even when that has been taken away by such unforeseen, unfortunate circumstances, dancers are dancing! The world is working from home and so are dancers, who are dancing from home. But what about the livelihood? The very profession which is providing the ‘essentials’ of everyday life to countless families is not facing a promising path in the foreseeable future.

Help is needed to build something together, something that is strong enough to hold together, something that can provide the shelter needed whenever we are doomed to inessential and sent off to the margins. What are we without our culture, our history, our roots! We need a collective thought, a collective approach, guided by the Greats, an atmosphere which can help provide to all dancers and to those associated with stagecraft.

“Anganam anganam antara madhavo
Madhavam madhavam ca antare angana”

Living a blessing everyday, in spite of the accompanying hardships, being a part and partaking of something that is, has been and always will be greater than us, also puts a great responsibility on us to take forward responsibly, what has been handed down to us. There is no end to the limitlessness of art and the greatest learning that one can derive out of it is utmost humility.  This should be borne in mind, always. The terms ‘artist’ and ‘guru’ cannot be used so loosely as seems to be the trend these days. The reverence to the Gods, the guru and to mankind at large, is then superficial and shallow if it is accompanied by an inflated ego. What you are within gets reflected in your art without. That is the beauty of art, a genuine reflection of the order or disorder within.

We are all here to learn, do our bit and leave when the time comes. We are doing no favour by trying to be a part of art. On the contrary, we are the favoured if we have been granted access to witness a realm of such magnanimity, therefore, we must understand how grateful we should be and keep clear heads to enable us to be a student forever. To quote the great musician, the late sarod maestro, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, “If you practice for ten years, you may begin to please yourself, after twenty years, you may become a performer and please the audience, after thirty years you may please even your guru, but you must practice for many more years before you finally become a true artist- then you may please even God”.

Some moments of Smt. Arpita Sen

Smt. Arpita Sen – disciple of Guru Dr. Thankamani Kutty and Smt. Girija Balagopal, is a Bharatanatyam performer and teacher. Her parents, late Dr. Swapan Kumar Sen and Smt. Tapati Sen, being deeply interested in music, put her into training at the age of six, at Kalamandalam Kolkata. She performed her Arangetram in 2003 and received the National Scholarship from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, in the years 2005-2007. She has been a recipient of awards and accolades. She performed as a part of the Kalamandalam Performing Wing and as a solo performer, in prestigious dance festivals in India, Australia, San Francisco, Kuwait, Singapore. She has worked as a dance teacher in Kendriya Vidyalaya AFS Ojhar, Nasik. She was off the performing field for a few years in between and came back to her vocation in the recent past. She pursued learning Mohiniyattam, and pursues her Western Classical training in Violin from The Calcutta School of Music, under Shri Subhashis Dey. She is a Masters Degree holder in English. Her sources of constant support are her mother and her younger sister Miss Aranya Sen.

Website: www.arpitasen.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arpitakrishnasen

youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzL1g_hMfHerMuRHn2AAWRQ

“I am ever so grateful and deeply indebted to my parents, my gurus, my friends and well-wishers, my dearest sister and my greatest friend, Lord Krishna. I am because you are. I sincerely thank Shri Parichay Chakrabarti, whom we lovingly address as ‘dada’, for thinking of me to give me the opportunity to put some of my thoughts into words for his website. I feel truly honoured and my best wishes to dada in his relentless pursuit of capturing works of visual art and in his endeavour of digitally archiving the work of innumerable artists, for future generations.”