Bharatanatyam is an Indian style of dance theatre. It has traversed time and location and dancers of diverse backgrounds today practice Bharatanatyam globally. Various perspectives on its historical development & embedding in traditions have been discussed throughout the 20th century and continue to be the focus of discourses today. Its practise in Europe however reveals that a corporeality in emotional expression and precise spatial relationships is what touches audiences and draws practitioners beyond a specific cultural belonging. Its vocabulary is being incorporated into both the traditional and the contemporary. Yet Bharatanatyam practitioners in Germany, like dancers of other non-European dance forms, experience a Eurocentric attitude that marginalises them as „culturally specific“, „ethnic“ „exotic“ or places their art in the past as an „ancient relict“. These categorisations do not do justice to Bharatanatyam’s uniqueness of embodying both change and continuity. Its form and structure, but also content, seem to continue to be of relevance for practitioners of diverse origins. But they are nonetheless being used to write a new chapter in its history on the global stage. We therefore think there is need for a new discourse, which incorporates a dialogue between practitioners, scholars and audience. The Berlin Margam followed by two symposiums on ‚Art and Embodiment – looking beyond exoticism’ and ‚Indian Dance in a Global Age’ is the outcome of this.
Rajyashree Ramesh, Eva Isolde Balzer
The margam is a classical repertoire of dance pieces that forms a basic choreographic structure in Bharatanatyam. The Berlin Margam denotes a performance presented by Eva Isolde Balzer to mark the completion of her training under Rajyashree Ramesh in Berlin. The uniqueness of this margam performance reflects the changes made to suit the European framework in which it is embedded. Eva’s learning process focussed on the exploration of form and cognitive-emotional processes through an experimental movement analytic approach. The white German student Eva learnt to perform items with traditional content based on this initial embodied experience of aesthetics. Thus the training reflects a process of translation and transformation, highlighting the trans-cultural potential of dance.
In addition to the traditional choreographies and as part of the changes made by Rajyashree Ramesh in the structure of a debut margam, Eva had to present her own work, conceived and choreographed in such a way that it reflects her personal signature of using the form and structure of Bharatanatyam. Eva presented Novalis Maria, composed by German composer Schubert. The second own creation she presented at the beginning of the panel discussion was her conceptualisation of what she calls Historicity from her production Hybrid Identities.
The performance also had a special focus on historicity: under the dramaturgy of the Indian Dance Historian Dr. Avanthi Meduri, historical elements that are not being practiced in present day Bharatanatyam were incorporated. Dance was thereby presented as a historical continuum that is in a constant process of change - a historicity of which the modernity began in India in the 19th century.
Eva‘s performance was further conceived to illuminate the artistic perspective of dance as a stage art, thus transforming some of the typically socio-cultural elements that got incorporated into a debut performance in the 20th C. The speeches for instance were replaced by a symposium-discussion. Based on the performance the symposium discussed the changing historicity of dance in approach and understanding with invited international dance practitioners and scholars from diverse backgrounds. Taking into account its relevance and practice today in the European context, the margam was discussed as a path of transformation and translation, where however the structure and form follow some universal principles.
We are extremely grateful to Werkstatt der Kulturen for generously providing us with their premises, the excellent technical support and their wonderful staff.
ARTISTS:
guru: Rajyashree Ramesh
dancer: Eva Isolde Balzer
dramaturgy: Prof.Dr. Avanthi Meduri
vocal: Manickam Yogeswaran
nattuvangam: Rajyashree Ramesh
mrdangam: R.N. Pratap
violin: Senthil Paramalingam
morsing, ghatam: A.Srinivasan
SPECIAL GUESTS ON PANEL:
Dr. Ashish Mohan Khokar
Prof. Martin Puttke
Prof. Phillip B. Zarrilli
SYMPOSIUM CHAIRED BY:
Prof. Dr. Avanthi Meduri
CONCEPT/ORGANISATION:
Rajyashree Ramesh;
Assistance: Eva Isolde Balzer
Eva Isolde Balzer is a professional contemporary European performer with a focus on intimate and inter-disciplinary performances and a special interest in decolonialization. She has been learning since 2006 in the Academy of Rajyashree Ramesh. She understands her training under Rajyashree as a learning process in an epistemic tradition that offers an alternative to Eurocentric dominant practices. Her critical perspective on the reception of Bharatanatyam in Europe is nurtured by her studies of cultural anthropology (FU/Berlin). www.eva-isolde-balzer.com
Rajyashree Ramesh is a critically acclaimed dancer, choreographer, Master teacher and Certified Laban Movement Analyst, trained in the classical Indian dance forms of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi since early childhood. Based in Berlin for the last 35 years, she has travelled extensively, transmiting and translating Indian dance vocabulary through solo performances, lectures, multi-national stage productions, workshops, lecture-performances, articles in German and English and outreach programmes. The European dancers she has trained at her Performing Arts Academy with branches in Berlin, Vilnius and Bangalore are known for grace and precision, carving a niche for themselves in the dance world or incorporating Indian dance vocabulary into their professions. In the last years she has been channelling her professional experience into academics. After obtaining a Masters in Sociocultural Studies from the Europa University Viadrina, Germany, she is currently completing her doctoral thesis under internationally renowned Gesture Researcher Prof. Dr. Cornelia Müller. Her choreographic signature, style of performing and imparting traditional intensive dance technique training looks into the inherent embodied knowledge in Indian dance. www.rr-dance.net
Manickam Yogeswaran is an expert in Carnatic music. He also collaborates with contemporary and classical European music in various stage and movie setups. www.singeryoga.com
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