Vertical limits

Artistes from kathputli colony rehearsing their acrobatic skills

With his feet firmly on the ground, Ajay assumes a wide stance. With one swift move of the arms, he lifts Maya by the waist, above his shoulders and pivots on the floor mat, gradually lowering her after a few seconds. “That went off well,” he says. Ajay is a performer from the Kathputli colony, in West Delhi, who on most days plays the dhol at marriage processions, for a few thousand rupees. But for the past two months, he has been learning Western acrobatic skills. “It is scary in the beginning, but I have picked it up. Although I don’t remember the names of the lifts, I know what to perform based on my cues,” says Ajay, 21, who also teaches Bollywood choreography at a nearby private school. He has been attending a programme run by an Australian artiste organisation called Vertical Circus, which works with people from low-income families and empowers them through circus skills and forms of physical theatre.
Ajay is not the only performer from the colony at this workshop. At least 20 performers in different age groups, the youngest being 11, have been learning and improving their performance skills at Kathputli colony. “Most of the people we work with already have the skills and know how to conduct themselves. We just build on what is already there. They can stilt walk, but I give them a little more inspiration to develop their skills,” says Catherine Daniel, co-founder of Sydney-based Vertical Circus, who have partnered with the Kalakar Trust, an NGO, which has been working with the performers in Kathputli colony for many years. Daniel had been teaching and mentoring these artistes for over two months, and their effort culminated in a performance called Aakashan in Delhi. They have already performed a few times at schools and private shows across the city.
Most of the performers are descendants of families with a history of traditional folk dance, such as kathputli, nath (from Maharashtra), malkhamb, bhangra and other forms. While Ajay comes from a family of traditional kathputli performers from Rajasthan, Maya’s family and relatives are Nath performers from Pune, Maharashtra. “I have trained in Indian acrobatics such as malkhamb but these stunts are new for me. I feel it adds another dimension to my performance,” says Maya, 22, who usually performs at weddings, private shows and is also a dance instructor at the Trust. The 50-minute show, will comprise various routines that blend the performers’ knowledge of traditional forms with Western aerial and acrobatic stunts. Some of the pieces for the performance will include a drumming piece, which incorporates dhol beats reminiscent of a wedding; Triple trapeze, which involves three artistes suspended from a stationary trapeze; silk and malkhamb, which is a fusion of Western and Indian aerial art forms; and puppets and dance, which blends Rajasthan’s kathputli traditions with contemporary dance.
“Besides technical skills, the performers also pick up soft skills of team work, empowerment, confidence and how to make a livelihood from their newly acquired skills. Because there is no point really teaching someone to be an expert at backflip, trapeze or any other form without teaching them sustainability,” says Daniel, who has trained as a circus performer in Australia for 13 years. In 2011, she conducted a programme in Berlin with students dealing with alcohol and abuse related issues and another programme in Nairobi with acrobats from underprivileged communities.
For Rahul Bhat, 22, who has been performing contemporary dance since childhood, learning the silk, was exciting, but he prefers the former any day. “I was trained for two weeks on the silk and trapeze. In contemporary dance there are a lot of improvisations and spontaneity, but in silk, it is a choreographed routine. I prefer the fluidity of contemporary dance,” says Bhat, who belongs to a family of traditional kathputli performers.