You feel you are fat? Has someone commented on your appearance or made fun of a scar on you? Then, you can surely can draw inspirations from dancer, researcher and educator Shabari Rao. Her latest choreography called Body Mine, was presented at Shoonya last week. The artiste talks about how one can embrace his/her imperfections and yet dance. “The kind of dance I do, focusses on the body. How the body understands dance and learns to move. Body Mine is more like digging into the treasures of one’s own body. How do I embrace my body?,” starts Shabari.
Body Mine, she adds, is a 40-minute solo with music by Rajesh Meher (husband and ex-member of TAAQ). The dance is also a collaboration between Shabari, Lata Mani (philosopher) and Bindu Malini (Hindustani vocalist). “They have contributed to the piece immensely”.
She explains that the dance was aimed at taking the audience on a journey, “to allow them to access my ideas and struggles. I start the piece by describing my broad feet, the imperfections in my body -- my short hair, the c-section scar and so on and so forth. It also talks about how people comment on our bodies. Such things are common in most women.”
Shabari, who is today comfortable with contemporary dance, started off by learning classical dance. “Contemporary dance is the best form for body. It offers a vast campus and many things are permissible in this form,” says Shabari, who began her professional journey in 1999 under the late Guru Maya Rao with a BA in Kathak and Choreography at NIKC (Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography). “NIKC and STEM gave me the foundation as I could do classical and contemporary. I believe my dance took a shape here.”
Soon she took off to London to get a professional diploma in Dance Studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance (UK). She also holds an MA in Dance and Education from the Royal Academy of Dance (UK) and has taught and performed extensively. Shabari has also participated in several artist residencies including the International Summer Program at the Watermill Center (New York).
But being a dancer in London was no cake walk. “In London, I felt, everyone was better than me. That made me think about what is dance really? Is it about how high you lift your legs or doing five chakkars in 10 seconds? I was disillusioned with dance suddenly. It was hard to be a dancer in the UK. I would find the best dancers working in a coffee shop and were also engaged with dance companies on a contract basis for barely a few months. But luckily, I got a job at a dance company as an education outreach person. I got involved in education and started working on how dance helps children learn and is taught in many schools in London,” recalls the dancer.
In 2008, she decided to come back to India as “I felt there was not much growth potential there. Here I have grown as an artiste. I feel my ideas have developed a lot and the opportunities I get here are unique. We have a great support system which aids our growth as artistes.”