Beating to an inner rhythm

Kalidasa was a shepherd. Since his wife, a princess, was a literary person and a devotee of the goddess Kali, he himself had to become on...

Kalidasa was a shepherd. Since his wife, a princess, was a literary person and a devotee of the goddess Kali, he himself had to become one. With immense devotion and dedication, Kalidasa later came to be known as one of the greatest poets. His first shloka was addressed to the goddess Kali, describing her form, grace and bliss. Kalidasa was bestowed with the skill after his uninterrupted sadhna. The shloka has now been interpreted in the dance form. Like Kalidasa, every dancer requires devotion to stage it, with perfect expression, movement and elegance.

When I was four years old, dance was a pastime. At a tender age I was admitted to a dance-school close to my house. A young budding dancer, cuddled in a corner, saw the mature dancers enacting words. Of what I had learnt, I could only identify Lord Krishna and Siva. Nor did I try to comprehend the meaning of the particular item being performed. My favourite god was Lord Krishna and I used to dream about him, visualise the Ras-Leela scene, where Krishna hadmultiplied himself to pair with thousands of gopis.

As time passed, I grew to learn certain pure dance sequences. The urge to learn abhinaya pieces were turned down. quot;You are too small to learn it,quot; was the constant reply. I still remember our group watching a dance piece, in hiding. A Krishna-based item, my dance guru had said: quot;It8217;s a bit erotic therefore you should not watch it.quot;

As sense started to prevail, I began to learn items, which talked about the love-life of Krishna, Vishnu and Siva. Love talks between Radha and Krishna were the most common ones. There were some items where the heroine or naika pleaded with her sakhis to find her lover. But who is this lover? The seniors could not reply. Finally the mystery ended. My guru explained the lover as God. He who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Besides there was another lesson to learn: quot;Believe in Him and think about Him in any form. Understand the meaning of the song, feel it and then perform. It adds character to dance and expressionsare natural, making the performance enchanting.quot;

It was not an easy task. To first imagine god as a lover and then enact your love for Him. For it meant expressing to an invisible person. And it was tough. I used to examine my guru for hours and try to copy the expressions. Alas, it did not work. The naturalism was absent and artificiality pervaded. I attended programmes and tried to understand why one dancer was great at her expressions and the other not up to the mark.

After 17 years of learning, today I realise what it means to express love for God. It is still a mammoth task for me. Yet, jokes apart, I am better than before. And the transformation has been a spiritual one for me. With time, I realised dance requires everything: dedication, energy, concentration. And if fully given, one realises god. You know, the world might label you as mad. But the fact remains: One who dances with intensity and realises god becomes immortal in this field. Therefore, no matter how old you grow, dance never leavesyou. Admiration and adulation become a part and parcel of life.

Once taken up as a hobby, dance is now more of a passion. It is my religion and duty. If one asks me whether I believe in God, I simply say: quot;Dance is my religion through which I experience Him.quot; People do make fun but it8217;s an experience to cherish. It is through this I differ from my contemporaries. There is no haste to achieve name or fame. Practising for hours and sweating it out amount to more than visiting temples or performing rituals.

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Kalidasa8217;s shloka is one of the dance sequences to be enjoyed. Performing with credibility means resurrecting her image. A challenge I accepted when I desired to learn it. Like Kalidasa believed, art is a form of devotion. If rendered genuinely and with humility, the art form becomes everlasting and the artist immortal. That is the spirit of art, which brings you close to spirituality.