The energy and excitement envelop everyone present in the swanky new lab theatre of the Department of Indian Theatre, Panjab University. With state-of-the art lighting and sound systems, wooden flooring and a spacious area for students to rehearse, experiment and attend workshops, the lab theatre is a welcome addition here. The open-air theatre as well as the studio theatre of the department are getting a new look and feel, with many dramatic activities planned in the coming few months. The doors of the lab theatre were formally opened this week with a Chhau workshop by Bhumikeshwar, a renowned Chhau practitioner and facilitator, who has been teaching the dance and martial art form at theatre departments across the country as well as directing and choreographing classical plays, including Sanskrit dramas, which extensively use the form, “the music and body movements create so many possibilities for the interpretation of the text as well as help actors make connections between the body and mind, and also get them closer to this traditional form, which is now a dying art,’’ explains Bhumikeshwar, who comes from a family of pehlwans, and began learning martial arts, before focusing on theatre. According to Bhumikeshwar, both masks and military combat techniques form the two most important elements of this tribal art form. [related-post] “There’s no written history on Chhau dance; most of it has been passed on orally for generations, so, it’s difficult to validate anything. Research indicates its origins to Seraikela in Jharkhand, from where it moved to other states, with the major difference being in the use of mask designs,” says the dancer, who learnt the form for years at Seraikela. The various parts of the body, in the form, have to be used in varied ways, some in complete isolation, explains Bhumikeshwar, and the different movements improve the body flexibility, stamina and body balance, all necessary elements of theatre. “Theatre students understand their body and to use these movements to express their characters in a better way. What is needed is constant practice, hard work and dedication.’’ Bhumikeshwar says that Chhau dance owes most of its glory to a Seraikela king Aditya Pratap Singhdev, who created the first rules of the Seraikela Chhau dance, and also wrote most of the 200-300 stories that exist today in this dance form. “Most of the stories are short, and portray several emotions and messages. The unifying aspect of these physical gestures is that we can transform any theatrical text into physical motion, in which our body’s six parts are used and it has given new meaning to the ‘Angik Abhinaya’ described in Natyashastra,’’ Bhumikeshwar carefully watches the demonstration by the students of the department.
