Kuchipudi dancer Shallu Jindal tells Divya Kaushik that she will soon come up with an academy for performing arts in the city and might plan a classical dance festival to provide a platform to the youth
More than the theme it is the craft of storytelling and dance form that takes the center stage in her performances. And Shallu Jindal will once again focus on techniques of Kuchipudi during her performance tomorrow at Ambedkar Auditorium.
She will be opening Jathis Music and Dance festival with her Kuchipudi performance. “Since it is an inaugural piece I will be performing on three Mahaganpati, invoking for lord Ganesha’s blessings for the festival. Thereafter I will move to do tillana in the form of mand. I will be concluding the half an hour performance with tarangam. It narrates tales from lord Krishna’s childhood and is done with the dancer standing on the edges of a brass plate. It actually denotes that the dancer has lost contact from the material world is uniting with the Supreme power. It is an essential element of Kuchipudi dance and is specific to it only,” explained the danseuse, a disciple of Padma Bhushan Raja-Radha and Kaushalya Reddy. Jindal recently had a solo performance in Delhi where she performed Kuchipudi on a bhajan sung by Meera Bai as well as on sufi and Hindustani music. Jindal says being a solo performer she has not blended dance forms and the only fusion she does is Kuchipudi performed on bhajans and sufi songs. “I believe that the sanctity of the classical dance form should be maintained so I have always retained the traditional aspect of the dance form. I do not tamper with the mudras and the style. But I have changed the music, I have performed on bhajans by Mira Bai, sufi numbers by Abida Parveen and English poems by APJ Abdul Kalam. I believe that when the audience can understand the language of music on which the dancer is performing, it is easier for them to connect with the performance. Also, it helps educate the audience in a better way. So to reach out to the youth and masses I changed the language of music to something that is more easily understandable by them. It has worked wonders. Now Kuchipudi and Odissi dance forms are not just popular in South India, but I find the audience growing in North India as well. More youngsters are interested in learning the dance form. I recently performed for a charity show in September and most of the audience were young students and on many of my shows they come up to me with certain questions and they tell me how much they loved the dance form,” shared Jindal, who has been working to spread awareness on Kuchipudi among the youth.
She is planning to open a Kala Kendra in Odisha soon and an academy for performing arts in Delhi. “May be by the end of next year I will come up with something for Delhi. In the meantime the Kala Kendra in Odisha will open. It is built on a huge space and will have an auditorium to stage regular classical performances. Traditional gurukul style will be followed,” she said and added that she has often wondered why there is not any dance show on television dedicated to classical dance. “We have many talented youngsters in the country who want to learn and grow in the field of classical dances. I feel they should be given the platforms through such dance shows,” she added.
The danseuse says that so far she hasn’t collaborated with any other dancer with other dance forms, but is open to an idea. One dance form, she would really want to collaborate with is Flamenco.
“I love Flamenco and it has some really nice hand movements. I visited a small village in Spain a few years ago and met these families of Flamenco dancers, where the dance is followed like a family tradition. I just loved how religiously the families follow the tradition of dance. Given a chance, I would really like to collaborate with any of those Flamenco dancers,” she added. The danseuse concluded, “I may also come up with a Kuchipudi festival soon.”