Classically yours: Foreigners excel in Indian dances

NEW DELHI: In countries as far flung as Germany, South Africa, Malaysia and Russia, Indian classical dances - Kuchipudi, Bharatnatyam and Mohiniattam - are not only making an impression but also getting a new, bold twist, thanks to foreigners passionate about these dances.
It is not just professional dancers doing the mudras. Kathak dancer Zhang Jinghui from Beijing has a day job as an accountant.Indonesian Aila El-Edross, a student of the great Birju Maharaj, is a freelance journalist back home. Both are in the capital to perform in the ongoing International Dance Festival hosted by the International Council for Cultural Relations.
So is Russia's Irina Strakhovenko. Coming from the land of Anna Pavlova, she was keen on ballet as a child but wasn't allowed to learn the art. However, ballet's loss was Kuchipudi's gain. Irina speaks about her childhood when she got hooked to the dance form after watching the Sudha Chandran-starrer, Naache Mayuri. "I was fascinated and would try to imitate steps from the movie. I didn't even know what it was. Then one day Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi came to attend a cultural programme where I was performing. She told me what I was doing was Kuchipudi and that I should take it up seriously,'' says Irina, the first Kuchipudi dancer from Russia, who also enjoyed watching Mithun Chakraborty's Disco Dancer.
Nhlanhla Vincent Zwane from South Africa blends Bharatnatyam with Zulu dance he has been learning since age 9. The gender imbalance among classical dancers seems to be the same in South Africa as in India. "There are not many male classical dancers in South Africa. You only see them if there is some Bollywood performance,'' says the 33-year-old.
While Bharatnatyam is one of the more popular Indian dance forms abroad, Mohiniattam too is fast gaining ground. German contemporary dancer Anne Dietrich took to Mohiniattam in 2005 and trained at the Kerala Kalamandalam. "Contemporary ballet has a lot of straight lines. What drew me to Mohiniattam was the softness of its form,'' says Dietrich who is doing a PhD on teaching methodology of contemporary and classical dance in Leipzig.
Dietrich, who also dances hip-hop and jazz, has taken Mohiniattam to Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and even performed in a church, depicting a chapter of Krishna's life. "It's difficult to find an audience for Mohiniattam in Germany, there isn't enough awareness about Indian classical dance. But wherever I have performed, the audience has responded well,'' she says.
The situation is quite different in countries such as Malaysia. Ramli Ibrahim, a 58-year-old Odissi dancer, started training students as early as the 1980s. "Most traditional art forms are on decline in other countries. Even in Malaysia, traditional forms like Mak Yong and Main Petri are on decline despite support from the federal government. But Indian dance forms are thriving all over the world,'' says Ibrahim who also trained in Bharatnatyam from Chennai's famed Kalakshetra and in ballet from the Sydney Dance Company. Today he trains students at his dance company, Sutra, in Kuala Lumpur.
Eminent Bharatnatyam dancer Sonal Mansingh says there has been a lot of lateral growth for Indian classical dance abroad. "But we also need vertical growth. There needs to be a depth in understanding of the abhinaya and the bhava,'' she says.
kim.arora@timesgroup.com
Box: Shall We Dance
* Isa Jacobi is the only German Kathakali dancer.
* Irina Strakhovenko is Russia's first Kuchipudi dancer.
* Dayashree Pentiah Appadoo is the first Mauritian to study Kuchipudi dance academically.
* German Anne Dietrich also dances the hip-hop and jazz besides Mohiniattam.
* Ramli Ibrahim teaches Bharatnatyam and Odissi in Malaysia, and is one of his country's biggest names in Indian classical dance.
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