December 4th 2007, Museum Theatre, Chennai
Preethi Atreya's modern dance "Porcelain" was an engaging experience in as much as it offered various visual delights - the backdrops by way of photographs of the German porcelain sculptor's work, the clever use of light which reflected Preethi's silhouette on the backdrops as she moved in the foreground. The movements themselves were different from the ones we are used to from dancers of India and therefore
provided a variety. However, there are certain questions which come up in my mind as I look back and reflect on the dance.
1. What was Preethi trying to tell the audience through the dance?
Were her self, thoughts and ideas reflected in any way in her performance? In other words, was there anything more to the performance than the visual delight provided by the photographs of porcelain, accompanied by the unusual musical sounds made on porcelain?
2. If there was no communication beyond the obvious visual and audio, I would like to compare it to a session in modelling where the models move along with some music and against some backdrops.
3. We object to objectification of the female form in the classical dances. But, here too, wasn't the dancer seducing the audience through her nubile figure, designer costume, and sinuous movements? True, it was another kind of objectification, more a la western mode. But, still it was objectification of a kind. Supposing Preethi was not an attractive, slim young woman dancing, would the audience have found the dance so visually appealing?
4. What was the contribution of the dance to the entire production except playing second fiddle to the visuals and the music? Wouldn't the visuals along with the music provided the visual delight that I talked of? So, what exactly did the dance contribute to the whole production?
5. The entire exercise did not touch me emotionally. For me any artistic creation has to be emotionally moving. It cannot just be an assemblage of visuals, music and some movements. There has to be a central emotion or a emotionally moving factor to any production.
These are random observations. I hope they provide scope for future dialogue or discussion.
By VASANTHI SANKARANARAYANAN
vasanthi40@gmail.com
The writer is a film historian, art critic, translator AND Nirmala Seshadri’s creative collaborator.
