EXODUS

Or if it is the majestic Dhrupad you crave, then did you know that Europe boasts six Dhrupad gurukuls, including one in Switzerland? Here, Dhrupad maestro Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar himself teaches the ancient Indian art form.

Of course, biggies like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Zakir Husain and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan in fact, we got to hear Khansaab after three decades in Mumbai this season live in the US full-time.

And so the exodus continues 8212; every classical artiste of calibre spends a major chunk of time abroad. Starting March, like nightingales they migrate through the Spring and Summer. Come Fall, and they fly off again. The US, UK, Europe, and Canada are prime targets. But Australia and Japan are fast becoming popular.

For the maestros, the invites flow freely. Not surprising as they usually attract a mixed audience of upto a thousand.

Going abroad didn8217;t always come easy. But now, all you have to do is whisper the word ICCR Indian Council for Cultural Relations and every major player is hooked. 8220;The ICCR loves to showcase Indian dance. So if there is a festival abroad, they will fly you there,8221; says Bharatnatyam dancer Anita Ratnam.

8220;Oh, so you8217;re a dancer, why don8217;t you send us a demo?8221; the ICCR official8217;s voice is music to an artiste8217;s ears. But you have to toe the organisation line 8212; the competition is fierce and blood pressures shoot up as age levels are lowered.

Some artistes prefer Net connections for zooming in on festivals overseas. Others network with friends, disciples abroad or NRI organisations like the Maharashtra Mandal or the Karnataka Sangha they can arrange a chain of concerts. However, the ICCR still continues to be influential, and ministerial connections can give you that deadly fillip, insist insiders. 8220;How is it that when you know a minister, age restrictions are thrown to the winds?8221; asks a dancer cattily.

To get a platform at some of the prestigious festivals abroad, like Etamps 60 km from Paris Theater de la Ville Paris, Womad Manchester, Glasburg Festival Glasgow, Menuhin Bath Festival Bath, Venice Festival Venice and, of course, the A-list venues Carnegie Hall US and the Royal Albert Hall London 8212; every artiste8217;s big dream.

Upcoming performers like Bireshwar Gautam usually get into a contract with troupes or a famous choreographer abroad. Places like the Nehru Centre in London, manned by Girish Karnad, are also popular. 8220;A three-month stint with the European Hebbal Theatre and I not only get to perform with them but it ends in an exchange of cultures. There were tears in their eyes when they saw me off,8221; says Gautam, who has done Kathak and Thumri with European director Michael Lauband and danced in European director Denis O8217;Connor8217;s Total Masala Slammer.

The modus operandi is standard. Big organisers set up artistes in style, but often they just camp with desi friends or students married to NRIs. In fact, most gurukuls are run by NRI disciples of leading Indian artistes. Holding workshops and lec-dems is often part of the deal. 8220;After three programmes in a city, we can8217;t just come back, organisers get greedy and urge us to do workshops,8221; says Gautam.

Universities also issue invites freely. Right from Harvard and Stanford to New York, they all love classical acts at their cultural dos.

Archival work is an artiste8217;s magic mantra for unlocking the gates to any Ivy League. 8220;If you have archived for Pennsylvania and Cornell as I have done, you8217;ll know what I mean,8221; says renowned sarod exponent Pandit Brij Narayan. He emphasises that almost every raga, gharana and artiste is recorded in the US and preserved for posterity.

8220;Sometimes, even a local embassy organising a get-together of 200-500 people flies in a classical dancer,8221; says Ratnam.

Satellite television, commercial cinema and disinterested audiences are all cited as reasons for why we are losing our best to the West.

Chennai reports dwindling audiences. During the season, one violin recital by a well-known artiste had 20 people in the audience! It8217;s the same story at many other venues, many other concerts.

A Mumbai organiser, requesting anonymity says that it8217;s difficult to fill up the halls in central Mumbai with essentially the same set of people rushing from one show to another. 8220;We8217;re lucky to see 200 at a concert,8221; he says. Cultural capital Delhi, and Kolkata, which once nurtured names like Uday Shankar, Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, have few recent celebrities.

Lack of local enthusiasm has, in turn, led to smart packaging. 8220;A raga often gets short shrift, with elaborate concerts becoming fewer and fewer,8221; moans another connoisseur, citing how, at the Banganga festival in Mumbai earlier this year, Dhrupad singers, the Gundecha Brothers, performed 15-minute capsules.

Though artistes still say that India is the greatest high, in the same breath they swear by their interested audiences abroad. They ask: How many of us would drive 200 kilometres to take our children to a Bharatnatyam class? Indians abroad do.

Obviously, money is another big lure. 8220;Of course it is,8221; says flautist Ronu Majumdar. 8220;Even a mediocre artiste gets 1,000 per concert. It8217;s all become a part of the business. We have to accept the changes.8221;

Performing abroad is clearly lucrative. While some artistes get 500 a show, leading artistes can collect upto 5,000 a show. So, for 25-35 shows in a year, the earnings work out to anywhere between six lakhs and a whopping 80 lakhs! Contrast this with the Rs 15,000 including performance fee, travel and stay a dancer gets here, and you know why everyone8217;s Westbound. As Gautam puts it: 8220;If artistes are cared for in India, they wouldn8217;t go abroad.8221;

There8217;s money in teaching too 25-50 per class. And leading artistes get an all-expenses-paid trip, when an NRI parent insists that he/she should be the chief guest at his child8217;s arangetram. 8220;As for accompanists, they are parked for months in the US. I cannot afford my mridangist or my flautist any more. Dance is a phenomenal export,8221; claims Ratnam.

Bhartanatyam dancer Alarmel Valli says appreciation, not money, is driving the trend. 8220;Our classical dance has the potential to become a means of communication between soul and soul, to communicate what is too fine and too deep for words,8221; she says poetically.

Agrees dancer Geeta Chandran, 8220;In Berlin, an 80-year-old ballet dancer greeted me backstage with flowers, saying that the dance had touched her soul.8221; She8217;s convinced that just because leading dancers go abroad doesn8217;t mean the art dies here, 8220;There are enough artistes here to keep the home fires burning.8221;

Ratnam feels the lure is the insatiable international appetite for Indian culture. 8220;You go to Alaska, or Yukon in the Artic, and there8217;s a Bharatnatyam dancer there,8221; she says. Satish Vyas looks at the phenomenon as a way for the artiste to maintain himself. 8220;The season in India now traipses through three months starting November 8212; between April and September there8217;s a lull.8221;

Not everyone can be like Chandralekha classical dancer who experiments with new themes in Bharatnatyam who lives in India but hardly dances here. Shovana Narayan, who juggles Kathak with her duties as a senior Indian Administrative Services officer, plans vacation performances abroad. Denying that audiences in India have dwindled, she says seriously, 8220;It has nothing to do with the artistes. Spending more time abroad is a way the artiste has of celebrating her art.8221;

Audiences here only tune in when organisers use their imagination, insists Vyas who8217;s known as an ace organiser of the Gunidas Sangeet Sammelan in Mumbai. Ask P G Burde, veteran critic and organiser of Kalabharati, a respected cultural organisation in Mumbai, how it has affected the art and he stresses that artistes with increasing foreign connections are not readily accepting Indian concerts. 8220;And then we have the other side of the coin where an artiste like sitarist Shamim Mohammed whose livelihood is music, is told suddenly by All India Radio to get a sponsor if he wants to perform! So if he has contacts abroad, he will use it.8221;

Ironically, now it8217;s time for India to get a dose of our own music from the West. Many foreign players come to India regularly for concerts. Sitarist Daniel Bradley a disciple of Nikhil Banerjee, sarod player Ken Zuckerman Principal of the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music in Switzerland and sitarist Danish Haib Schippers are all international artistes inspired by Indian maestros. 8220;November to February, India is Mecca to these people,8221; says Burde.

Burde is cynical about the global performances. 8220;With the exception of our leading artistes, audiences abroad find the fare mediocre,8221; he says. Meanwhile, back home, even the top five cannot command that big a fee. The only exception is the flamboyant Zakir Hussain.

8220;Every concert is planned around him. He8217;s the star attraction he stays away nine months in a year,8221; says Burde.