Had it not been for ballerina Anna Pavlova’s perceptive appreciation of India’s dance heritage, the two all-time greats of Indian performing arts, Uday Shankar and Rukmini Devi Arundale might have deserted Indian dancing for its Western equivalent
Who would have thought that a total stranger to India could have endowed this country with two of its most precious possessions in the dance arenaIJ Who, indeed, could have even imagined that an alien soul — although very kind — would steer back to Indian shores her two most phenomenally gifted individuals who were all but lost to this land in the prime of their lifeIJ Yet this had happened. These iconic Indian figures were Uday Shankar and Rukmini Devi Arundale. And the rank outsider to India was Russia’s sensational ballerina Anna Pavlova, who had broken all norms in Western ballet in the meanwhile.
let us see how it all happened in the turbulent years of the 20th century cusped by the two devastating World Wars. Here was Anna Pavlovna Matveyevna Pavlova: Born to unwed parents, whose passion for the art of ballet was ignited when her mother took her to a performance of Marius Petipa’s original production of The Sleeping Beauty. During her final year at the Imperial Ballet School, she performed many roles and graduated in 1899 at age 18, chosen to enter the Imperial Ballet in a rank ahead of corps de ballet. Her words to fellow-dancers were: “Do leave acrobatics to others. You must realise that your daintiness and fragility are your greatest assets. You should always do the kind of dancing which brings out your own rare qualities instead of trying to win praise by mere acrobatic tricks...”
Pavlova was named première danseuse in 1905 and prima ballerina in 1906 after a resounding performance in Giselle. Petipa revised many grand pas for her as well as many supplemental variations, and the audience became enchanted with Pavlova and her frail, ethereal look, which fitted the role perfectly, particularly in the ballet, The Kingdom of the Shades. Pavlova was perhaps most renowned for creating the role of The Dying Swan, a solo choreographed for her by Michel Fokine. Pavlova also choreographed several solos herself, one of which was The Dragonfly, a short ballet set to music by Fritz Kreisler. While performing the role, Pavlova wore an ethereal gossamer gown with large dragonfly wings fixed to the back.
Meanwhile, Uday Shankar had left India for london in 1920 to study painting under Sir William Rothenstein. With a statuesque body, he dabbled in Indian dancing in london and in 1923, Pavlova saw an Indian dance performance choreographed by him. She had been thinking of adding an Indian mythological repertory to her ballet and decided to enlist Uday Shankar’s help. The latter was, at that point of time, an aspiring and highly talented student of painting, perhaps a rather spoilt young man of an affluent father. Pavlova asked him not only to choreograph two dance compositions — Krishna and Radha and Hindu wedding — for her programme of oriental dances, but also requested him to partner her in the performances at the Covent Garden. Because of this event, Uday Shankar overnight became a figure to reckon with in the world of dance.
Anna Pavlova was the talk of the town whenever she performed and after a few months, Uday Shankar wanted to join her ballet troupe. Gently, but firmly, Pavlova told him that he must try to make his future in the great tradition of India and not follow her in Western dancing. It was Pavlova’s persuasion that eventually led Uday Shankar to organise a troupe of Indian dancers (funded by the Elmhirst family) and organise 29 shows in the USA, which evoked a great positive response in the western world. It was his success in the USA that gave courage to Uday Shankar to return to India in the 1930s and re-establish the concept of modern Indian dancing.
Near about the same time in the middle 1920s, the 21-year-old Rukmini Devi Arundale had a chance to see in london one of the ballets of Anna Pavlova. Daughter of the famous Sanskrit scholar Nilakanta Shastri and a protegee of the famous Dr Annie Besant, Rukmini Devi had shocked the orthodox south Indian society by marrying in 1920 the eminent British theosophist scholar Dr G. S. Arundale (who later succeeded Dr Besant as the president of the Theosophical Society). Travelling to Europe frequently, Rukmini Devi attended a performance of The Dying Swan and confided in her friends that she should become a career-dancer like Pavlova.
In 1928, Pavlova came to India and gave a few performances in Bombay. After Dr Arundale and Rukmini Devi watched her last day’s performance, they were to leave Bombay for Australia for the Theosophical Society’s work. To her great delight, Rukmini Devi found that Pavlova was also travelling by the same ship and both art-enthusiasts spent hours, discussing dancing. Their friendship continued even after they reached Sydney in Australia. Pavlova told Rukmini Devi that she should take the first steps to learn dancing and asked one of her leading solo dancers, Cleo Nordi, to teach Rukmini Devi the first lessons in ballet. As such, the inaugural dance steps Rukmini Devi took were in Western ballet dancing. But after some days, Pavlova with her great intuitive vision, told Rukmini Devi, that she should take up Indian dancing, instead of the Western equivalent. After returning to India, Rukmini Devi attended, in 1933, the annual conference of the Madras Music Academy and the performance of sadir, a south Indian dance form, then almost extinct, due to its association with Devadasis. Fascinated, Rukmini Devi decided to rescue this art form from its negative aspects and thus was born a new life for Bharatanatyam, the most popular Indian classical dance. The rest is history.
To sum up, when the renaissance in Indian dancing began in the 1930s, it was led by Uday Shankar (1900-77) in north India and by Rukmini Devi (1904-1986) in the south. But for the dynamic lead given by these two famous artistes, contemporary and classical dances in India would not have reached the present pinnacle. It is salutary to note that but for the perceptive appreciation of India’s dance heritage by the distant star, the immortal Anna Pavlova (1882-1931), the two all-time greats of Indian performing arts might have deserted Indian dancing for its Western equivalent, namely, the ballet.
The author is a renowned dance scholar, critic and a Padmashri recipient. He has also written 33 books, including Hindu Joy of life