An experiment in transcending boundaries

By JOANNE CHIEW

CROSSROADS is a reinterpretation and reworking of the traditional Bharatanatyam dance form, moving through the themes of love, separation, yearning, meetings and partings as an eternal journey.
First performed in 2003, it was conceived and choreographed by Nirmala Seshadri and Neewin Hershall.
Speaking from Chennai, India before its staging in Singapore on April 19, Nirmala explains that it began in 2003 as a celebration of their bond at the point when Neewin was leaving Chennai.
“Slowly we found we were exploring not only the meeting of two artists, but also the meeting of genders – the differences and yet the over-riding similarities.”
Winner of the Singapore National Arts Council’s “Young Artist Award”, Nirmala studied Bharatanatyam from young and constantly pushes the boundaries of traditional dance with her experimentation.
Her earlier work Outcaste Eternal was made with a multi-ethnic cast in Singapore. Her dance to the poem The Celestial Web by Tan Swie Hian incorporated yoga.
She explains that Crossroads is about “a crossroads of practice and performance and of Bharatanatyam with other art forms – music, poetry, film and visual art.”
Revealing that the musical film Chicago inspired the unpredictability in Crossroads, Nirmala says, “I knew I had to bring the unpredictability into the traditional repertoire by not taking any part of the form for granted.”
The coming rendition of Crossroads will differ from the original in many ways – for example, more abstraction and usage of the physicality of the entire body for emotional expression.
“There is more courage, conviction and confidence in terms of the path that I am treading and this percolates into each work,” Nirmala says.
She explains that for her, dance is a means of self-exploration and communication that transcends boundaries.
It has helped her address many issues that she could not openly discuss – relationship issues, marriage, gender inequality, caste and patriarchy.
It is a way of personal expression for her, too. “The pluralistic identity is what I find my dance form allows me to explore – be it my identity as an Indian, Indian-Singaporean, woman, mother, feminist, etc etc etc.”
A recurring theme for her is the patriarchal nature of Bharatanatyam. Starting out as a temple dance, it existed predominantly for men.
“The male gaze has always existed to objectify the woman,” she says. “And now that I approach the form as a modern woman with a modern mind I feel it is my responsibility to protest and to be an agent of change.”
Speaking about her move to Chennai nine years ago, she explains that she wanted to surround herself with people who know the form well enough to really understand what she aims to achieve by deviating from it.
“I feel it will take some time before my work will be really received here,” she says, while acknowledging Singapore’s eclectic arts community. So, does she plan to return in the future?
“Strangely enough I’ve never felt that I’ve left Singapore,” she says, although she is open to new places.


The Business Times, Singapore
Friday, April 18, 2008