The Other Shankar

“I am just flowing and doing my work,” said Shankar,who feels her work is like her father’s — it looks effortless,but is intricate. She follows the style evolved by the late Uday Shankar,which has the inherent grammar of classical dance,yet it is contemporary in theme and not burdened with rigidity. The idiom of folk dances,with graceful body movements and subjects which the audience can feel,give her performances a lyrical quality.

Feeling forms the ground for the dance,admits Shankar,and it’s not just the coordination of body and mind. “It’s about what the soul can do. I don’t repeat what I have done,for I remember my father telling me that he has shown me a path but I need to constantly create and move forward,” said the artiste,who trains more than 1,500 students in the Udayan Mamata Shankar Dance Company. Many of them have grown up with her and are taking forward Shankar’s legacy.

Mamata and her troupe travel all over the world and language has never been a barrier. It’s expressions and feelings that Shankar relies on to communicate with her audience. Unlike modern dance,which,according to her,is like a “circus on stage”,she works to say something that can be translated on stage and the audience can relate to and appreciate.

“It should not go over one’s head. The use of language is minimal and we don’t use too many mudras. We have performed in front of great dancers in remote villages and even in factories. I believe dance is for everybody and not just a class of people. We have reached out to wider audiences with rhythm,imagination,improvisation,without compromising on the essentials of dance,” said Shankar,adding,“I choreograph pieces that stir the soul.”

Over the last 29 years,Shankar has choreographed dance-dramas on a range of themes — traditional as well as contemporary. The dancer admits the world around her inspires her — with globalisation,environmental degradation and the status of women as the themes in her vocabulary. These days,it’s the character of Sabri from the Ramayana,and a role of a blind woman in a new movie that’s occupying Shankar’s mind.

Having acted in films directed by the likes of Satyajit Ray,Mirnal Sen,Rituparno Ghosh and Buddhadev Dasgupta,the question she faces the most is whether she is a dancer first or an actor. “Both are complementary to each other. Dance has taught me to take light in films and films have taught me how to use my body in varied ways on stage. All the directors I have worked with have been wonderful human beings and I have learnt a lot from them,” said Shankar.

Faith,focus and a constant endeavour to move forward with truth,she admits,have given her internal peace. “I belong nowhere. I am on a different platform,for I know you have to compete with just yourself,” said Shankar.