The ‘thirties’ they say is a ballpark age when committed artistes, reach a consistency and maturity in their career. It has been 38 years of the Natya Kala conference under the auspices of the Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai. It may well be said that after a wonderful childhood, exploratory teenage, adventurous twenties, the conference has hit a consistency in its thirties, finding continued relevance in the wide terrain of Indian classical dance, among its several other achievements.

The 38th Natya Kala conference titled ‘Aneka’, a kaleidoscope of Indian dance in all its infinite hues and diversity, was convened by Dr. Srinidhi Chidambaram, with Aalaap as creative collaborators. The conference’s convener, who is assigned for two-years, is typically a reputed dancer, so it is expected that she/he will have the access and present a good array of sessions, artistes and ideas. What brought Srinidhi as the convener for a third consecutive year, after only Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam, the first ever convener of the conference, was the unanimous opinion on how inclusive the content and how well-programmed every aspect of the previous two conferences were.

The three distinct verticals, ‘Timeless’, ‘Transformative’ and ‘#Trending’, that categorised the content each day, created a continuum that reached out to a wide range of audiences. Going by the oft-repeated Tamil proverb that translates to ‘a single grain tells how well a pot of rice is cooked’, this piece on a one-day account of the conference (Day 2), is intended to give a slice of the five-day event.

In the ‘Timeless’ vertical on the second day of the conference, dance historian, scholar and critic, Sunil Kothari presented excerpts from the film, ‘Mrinalini Sarabhai – The Artist and her Art’. The film, by Yadhavan Chandran and Mallika Sarabhai, talks about Mrinalini Sarabhai’s contemporary thinking within the vocabulary of the dance forms she was trained in. She was a pioneer in many ways, making her style of Bharatanatyam expansive and vigorous, through movement on stage and bringing in aspects of Thandava along with Lasya for male and female dancers alike. The content of her choreographic productions varied from ‘Dalit sentiments’ to ‘Decimals and fractions’. Ironically, the artiste presented in the Timeless vertical could well be trending with significance today as well.

The ‘Transformative’ vertical of Aneka on the second day of the conference presented two sessions viz. ‘The Modern Dance Ensemble’ and ‘Millennial Adavus.’ The first session was by Aravinth Kumarasamy, Artistic Director of Apsaras Arts, on the opportunities and challenges in ensemble productions in classical Indian dance. The different roles in the development of a production viz. artistic direction, music direction, set and costume designing, and their importance were discussed, based on his experience of taking productions to a global platform. He emphasised on the importance of a dramaturge in any significant sized production. After discussing the challenges and roles, he spoke about collaboration as one of the most exciting opportunities in ensemble production. Aspects of collaboration in the areas of music, costume and stage design, from life-sized pillars to 3D projections in five sleeping bags, were underpinned by appropriate excerpts from his various productions. Aravinth finished his session with Singaporean time-consciousness, with room for questions.

‘Millenial Adavus,’ the second session in the ‘Transformative’ segment by dancers Apoorva Jayaraman and Shweta Prachande, discussed and demonstrated Adavus for a new generation, triggered by intent, innovation and inspiration, from learnings from their Guru Priyadarsini Govind. Stating early enough in the session, that the purpose of such Adavus is defeated when the intent is to flaunt prowess, the duo discussed a variety of logic-driven approaches and examples to innovate within Nritta. Novel ideas of using Adavus, to create a certain texture in a Jathi, to emphasise on the lilt of a ‘chollu’ (syllable), or to portray a concept such as ‘ebb and flow’ in Nritta, were executed with clarity and conviction.

The ‘Trending’ segment of the day held a panel discussion on ‘Caste, Gender, Privilege and their roles in the Bharatanatyam landscape’, moderated by V. Sriram with panelists Akhila Krishnamurthy, S. Janaki, Nrithya Pillai, Tulsi Badrinath and Srinidhi Chidambaram. The discussion in an all-female panel started inadvertently with issues faced by male dancers in a world with phases of female domination. While the entire panel discussion could be an essay by itself, it covered a handful of influences and consequences such as patriarchy, hidden signs of caste, class and cultural hierarchy, economics of a dance career, ill-propotionate supply and demand. The role of the moderator was played well by judiciously passing the opportunity to speak to the panelists, with specific leads and keeping the liveliness intact by throwing in a tongue-in-cheek comment every now and then. The discussion ended with questions and thoughts from the wonderful audience, one of which in fact clearly stated a course of action in terms of attitude that might discourage biases.

A workshop by dancer Geeta Chandran titled ‘Elaboration and Abstraction in Bharatanatyam’, in collaboration with ABHAI, was hosted on day two, as part of the special events each day after the conference. The workshop received a good response from students and established dancers alike. While new ideas and perspectives have found space in the conference over the years, relatively new and well-deserving participants finally found space on stage. Of the many commendable sessions across the five days, the session on ‘Manodharma’, which invited young skilled dancers to choreograph and present spontaneously on a given topic, stood out. Extensive documentation and social media representation are welcome developments, enabling access to full videos of all sessions on the social media handles of the event. The convener for conference 2019, Rama Vaidyanathan, was announced amidst much excitement and enthusiasm from the fraternity.