Hello Arattarangetram viewers, here is the continuation of Season 2 Episode 2 of Arattarangetram, featuring Uma Sathya Narayanan, senior disciple of Chitra Visweswaran.
To listen to just the audio from the interview, you can download the mp3 from here (right click link and select “save link/target as”).
0:14 – Devil’s Advocate: Dance music vs. Carnatic music
9:18 – Discussing a musician’s ego when accompanying a dancer
13:06 – Communicating with musicians for dance orchestration
18:10 – Uma’s musical training with A.S. Murali Sir
22:14 – Chitra and Visweswaran’s relationship dynamic as dancer and musician
Pic by Avey Varghese, Courtesy – Uma Sathya Narayanan
Hello Arattarangetram viewers, this is the first part of Episode II of Arattarangetram Season II. In this episode, our special guest is Uma Sathya Narayanan, senior disciple of Chitra Visweswaran.
To listen to just the audio from the interview, you can download the mp3 from here (right click link and select “save link/target as”).
0:05 – Madhana introduces the booklet Sathya Narayanan
5:00 – Uma Sathya Narayanan answer’s Raj’s question on Chitra Visweswaran’s baani, Uma Sathya Narayanan’s interpretation of it and comparison of Chitra Visweswaran’s baani with other Vazhuvoor baanis
8:13 – Uma Sathya Narayanan talks about her initial days at Chidambaram Academy of Performing Arts
9:59 – Uma Sathya Narayanan answers Subha’s question about the idea of “abandon” in dance and how it comes with experience
12:22 – Raj asks Uma Sathya Narayanan about how her personal technique has evolved
Welcome to Season II of Arattarangetram. This is the third part of Episode I of Arattarangetram Season II. In this episode, our special guest is Anjana Rajan, Visiting professor at New Delhi’s National School of Drama and the Shriram Centre for Art and Culture, and Correspondent and Senior Assistant Editor with The Hindu from New Delhi.
Devil’s advocate
0:00 – Devil’s advocate question “How hard is it separate an objective self to a subjective self? Can we keep our personal opinions away from our writings?”
Literary criticism
Keeping the art/science of criticism alive
Closeness of artist and critic
Reason behind the opinion written must be qualified
Points of evaluating a performance
Responsibility of the writer
Arts are subjective, inherently
The art reaching out to the audience, the writer reflecting it in the writing
Avoiding careless writing or safeguards for honesty and integrity
17:47 – How do artists react to criticism? Do they take it in the right way? What parameters does the The Hindu have in place while recruiting dance writers?
Art criticism is lacking in India
Need for professional courses for dance journalism/criticism
There are very few who learnt dance and write and there are others who have observed a lot
There is a difference between review and publicity of the performance. Most of the time, the organizers/dancers confuse these two.
Expectation of a good review from dancers
Writing about non-dance things
Writers should have technical expertise and integrity
26:30 – What happens when the reviewer’s/critic’s view on writing was not the one shared by the entire audience? How can we look at those writings again down the memory lane?
How to check these and putting safeguards.
Transcribing three-dimensional dance to words is not easy
Cherry-picking from the reviews
Over used words and adjectives such as brilliant, good, bad, nice should be avoided at all costs
34:05 – Who is the critic favoring in the writing? The lay-reader or the dancer?
Usage and explanation of technical terms to the lay-reader
Writing should bridge the artist and the reader, who are not dancers
Increase the perception of the audience
39:30 – Dancers who are in the autumn of the career. How would their dance be evaluated as compared to young dancers?
Can be covered as an event.
The need for reviewing their performance
Young dancers need to be told how to view the dance of older dancers
Anecdote from Golden jubilee of Indian Independence, organized by Sangeet Natak Akademi.
47:26 – Do you think reviews today are hard or are bland, in context of the dance critic Subbudu? How do you react to reviews that border on rudeness?
Is the same yardstick being applied to dancers, of the same group, of the dancers with same approach to dance?
Dancers not wanting reviews
Being on the pleasant side of society
Care for the art
58:59 – When a critic is invited to review, how do you change roles and forget the things that happened during the day?
Try to make oneself neutral
Quality of a critic “One should really love the arts – Charles Fabri”
Passionate towards art has a quality to wash away the disturbances of reviewing
Checking if the reaction is from the moment of watching the dance or from the prior experience in the day.
Welcome to Season II of Arattarangetram. This is the second part of Episode I of Arattarangetram Season II. In this episode, our special guest is Anjana Rajan, Visiting professor at New Delhi’s National School of Drama and the Shriram Centre for Art and Culture, and Correspondent and senior assistant editor with The Hindu from New Delhi.
Raghu’s Segment – Dance history
00:33 – Raghu’s question: “In recent years, there has been a reduction in space for dance writing in print media. What are your thoughts on that?”
1:28 – Anjana Rajan touches upon the following topics:
Entertainment is given more prominent
Commercial aspect
In early days, the review was published the day after the performance and that was a norm, which changed to once a week publication.
Readership for arts and theatre writing
Editorial matters: who is listening to whom?
What are the other alternatives space for arts/dance based journalism?
Gyan Darshan event with live audience and audience calling in. The reach is from interior of the country.
13:34 – “What do you think the philosophical difference between acting and abhinaya? How do people in theatre react to emoting in dance?”
28:30 – “Some Dance compositions – prior to Margam”
Welcome to Season II of Arattarangetram. This is the first part of Episode I of Arattarangetram Season II. In this episode, our special guest is Smt. Anjana Rajan, Visiting professor at New Delhi’s National School of Drama and the Shriram Centre for Art and Culture, and Correspondent and Senior Assistant Editor with The Hindu from New Delhi.
0:00 – Raghu Introducing the special guest Smt. Anjana Rajan.
Raj and Madhana’s segment
1:39 – Video from Louis Malle documentary “L’Inde fantôme: Reflexions sur un voyage”
50:52 – Subha asks “People who have interacted with Rukmini Devi Arundale and those who did not interact: the change in polarizing views. What are your views?”
Subtlety in art
debate on adavus
The term “sanitizing the abhinaya”
Looking at why things were done at that period of time.
52:29 – UPDATE: It is the garuda mandala of the 2nd Tat tai tam adavu and not the 7th natta adavu as mentioned. Apologies for any confusion
Still from “Sibagamiyin Sabadham“. Image courtesy: Madurai R Muralidharan
Hi Friends,
Here is the Ninth episode of Arattarangetram. Our special guest is Shri. Madurai R Muralidharan, Founder-Director of Nrithyakshethra Dance Academy, Chennai (http://www.muralidaran.org)
0:11 – Madhana introducing the special guest, Shri. Madurai. R. Muralidharan
Madhana’s Segment
1:40 – Madhana’s Question “How and when did you start composing music for dance?”
12:11 – Madhana’s question “For composing dance music, what aspects do you keep in mind? What differentiates composition made for dance from others?”
Raghu’s Segment – Dance history
16:12 – Raghu’s question “As a dancer and choreographer, after reading a literature, how do you go about the process of choreography? How do you bring the spirit of the literature on the stage?”
Clockwise: Swamimalai Rajarathnam Pillai with Ravi Shankar and Kumari Kamala; with Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai; Smt. Jayakamala Pandian with SKR in a program(Images reproduced with permission)
Special Guest: Smt. Jayakamala Pandian, Artistic Director of Rajarathnalaya Arts Foundation, Bengaluru
Note to viewers: Due to technical difficulties the conversation about Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai got interrupted. We have continued discussing the same thread in this video.
0:00 – Continuing the conversation from Part I of Arattarangetram Eighth Episode.
1:08 – Students who joined under Swamimalai K Rajarathnam Pillai after their arangetrams.
Raghu’s Segment
2:59 – Raghu’s Question “How did you imbibe the teaching methods from your father? Also, how did your father imbibe from Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai?” Discussing about Swamimalai K Rajarathnam Pillai’s teaching, his humility.
13:46 – Vocalist turned nattuvanaar – How important is the inclination of music to teaching? Discussing about SKR and Lalgudi Jayaraman.
17:37 – Was Swamimalai K Rajarathnam Pillai choreography graceful due to his music?
18:10– Smt. Jayakamala Pandian sings a singati from Khamas varnam, emphasizing the musicality of Swamimalai K Rajarathnam Pillai.
19:35 – How challenging is it for current dance vocalists to render sangatis like Swamimalai K Rajarathnam Pillai?
24:18 – Vazhuvoor Bani and its intricate sollukattus.
Dance History
26:25 – Slideshow of “Historical snippets about Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai”. Showing video from Film Division’s 1954 “Bharatanatyam” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL1hsfInhIc timestamps from 5:11 and from 6:31 onwards (Thanks to youtube user kvammayi for uploading the video!)
34:03 – Smt. Jayakamala Pandian identifies the vocalist as Radhakrishnan and Swamimalai K Rajarathnam Pillai and other members of the troupe in the video.
38:45 – Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai reciting Jathis in the Film Division’s 1954 video.
39:38 – Trivia about Jayakamala Pandian’s name and discussion about Kumari Kamala
Jayakamala Pandian recounting the experiences of organizing the event in honour of her father, Swamimalai K. Rajarathnam Pillai’s 80th birthday celebrations.
22:23 – Unique teaching method of Bharatanatyam by SKR to his students
25:30 – Vazhuvoor nritta and its uniqueness: How is grace incoporated in the style? Explaining Ramiah Pillai’s and SKR’s teaching vazhuvoor bani.
38:00 – Collaboration between Bharatanatyam artists – an established norm.
Watch out for Part II and Part III of the seventh episode with Smt. Jayakamala Pandian in the next post.
Arattarangetram 
