Introduction: -
Vilasini Natyam is the ancient dance form of the temple dancers of Andhra Pradesh which was practiced for several centuries in different parts of Southern and South–East India. These dancers occupied a high position in society as they were well versed in ancient religious texts, classical literature and mythology. They also were exceedingly talented musicians and dancers. Till late 19th century they received patronage from the temple, court and the intelligentia of society. And they also occupied a high stature in the eyes of the general pubic because of their calibre. The Devadasi system slowly degenerated due to several sociological reasons. The colonial rule added to this process and final blow came in the form of the Devadasi Abolition Act passed in 1950s which pushed these talented artistes into penury as they were thrown out of their profession overnight. Many devadasis went into oblivion and their art was shunned from the society for several decades till dance scholars and practitioners researched and brought their art back to the modern day proscenium.
Dancer-scholar Swapnasundari under the guidance of art historian Dr. Arudra went into researching and recasting the art of the Andhra Devadasis. After years of interacting with and learning from these erstwhile temple dancers she collated and re-formulated the discipline of the dance which was re-christened as Vilasini Natyam. It is presented in the modern times with utmost authenticity keeping in mind the present sensibilities of the modern audience. Originally this dance was performed in three contexts - in the temple as a ritual, in court and private chambers as an intellectually and aesthetically stimulating art and for the general public in dance –drama format wherein the sole purpose was ‘infotainment’. But in contemporary society the effort is to only present the art of Devadasis without reinstating the sociological practise of Devadasi system.
The essay tries to capture a glimpse in the wide array of the repertoire of Vilasini Natyam by looking at the process of how a text is communicated through body movements and facial expressions. The example taken here is that of a Padam - a love lyric. It is set to a tune and a simple rhythm. The tune is appropriately chosen keeping in mind the lyrics and the predominant mood of the song. Most of these lyrics were written hundreds of years back but they are still able to relate to a contemporary audience because human emotions are still the same. The imagery of the poetry might be ancient but the way it is brought out in the dance cuts across spatial-temporal barriers between the art and the present society. The process of interpretation of the lyric is briefly explained here by using the theories of De Vito Joseph and Saussure.
Following are some of the universals in the process of communication which De Vito Joseph has mentioned. Attempt here to explain the rendition of a Padam by placing it within these universals.
Context :- Since the society has undergone phenomenal changes it is inappropriate to re-instate the Devadasi system but their art is performed for its aesthetic quality in different dance festivals or concerts. The Padam is presented as a part of an evening performance in front of invited audience. Most of these love lyrics are written in Telugu because that was the language which was predominantly used by the Andhra Devadasis. While originally the devadasi did not explain the song and straight away went into its performance today’s dancer explains the meaning of the lyrics in English or any language which is understood by the audience even if some of them know Telugu. It is also important to state here that Telugu itself has undergone several changes over the years hence the language which is spoken now is not the same language which was practiced several decades or centuries back. Hence it becomes necessary for the dancer to explain the meaning of the words and place it within a well structured context.
Setting of the performance :-It is characteristic of Vilasini Natyam tradition that the Padam is performed sitting on the ground or on a platform. This is done in order to place maximum stress on the facial expressions which become the main ‘channel of communication’. The dancer does use her hand gestures and upper torso according to the meaning of the word but the main focus of the manner of performance is to explore the possibilities and techniques of facial expressions. Traditionally the expertise of the Devadasi was tested in this kind of a setting wherein she enthralled the audience for hours. Although the duration of the present day rendition is not that long but traditional setting is kept alive even today.
The dancer is flanked by musicians on either side. This is very critical for the performer because the number of times she repeats a word or a phrase or a line is not fixed. It entirely depends on her how she wishes to communicate the meaning of the words. And this is not pre-planned. Hence the eye contact between the dancer and especially the vocalist is very important. The number of repetitions is primarily guided by the scope of the lyrics but it also depends on the pace, the length and the tune of the song.
The dancer and the audience: - a dance performance is an act of communication which acquires different dimensions because a message is conveyed not only through words but also through melody, rhythm, gestures, expressions and silence. This communication takes place between the dancer, musicians and the audience. Interpreting a text into dance involves coming together of many sensibilities. The dancer is dressed in a neutral costume and make -up throughout the presentation but her enactment of different characters, landscapes, time zones is convincing and communicative only when she interprets the text properly and not just perform it as an action song.
What makes such kind of a performance a multi-layered cognitive process is that all the participants in the act are not on the same level of comprehension. The dancer and the musicians are somewhat at the same artistic plane but each member in the audience relates to the dance according to his /her level of involvement with the dance which is guided by one’s socio-cultural background. Some only enjoy the music, others are enamoured by the get-up of the dancer, for some the lyrics are very engaging but there are few in the audience who actually travel along with the dancer while exploring the text and the sub-text. It is this possibility of syncretic engagement which makes dance forms like Vilasini Natyam timeless.
Feedback and Self-feedback:- The ‘feedback’ process is very intriguing in such performances. The text gradually gets a new lease of life through a collective intellectual and aesthetic engagement of the dancer and the onlooker. The meeting point of the word, the music, the rhythm, the interpretation of the dancer and the involvement of the audience creates a heightened aesthetic experience called the sadharanikaran – the universalisation of the particular. The audience give her their feedback after the performance but during the performance there are different emotional reactions which people encounter within themselves. For example if the dancer is performing the role of a devotee addressing the Lord there are people in the audience who cry in reverence. The devotion in dancer evokes such powerful responses in the audience that they actually ‘see’ their God in the eyes of the dancer. The ‘feedback’ happens very powerfully when the audience feel choked with veneration.
The ‘self feedback’ of the dancer reaches artistic heights when the camaraderie between her and the musicians is excellent. It also gets affected by the audiences’ response which she feels intuitively.
The feedback process is also guided by the nature of the society. Art cannot survive in isolation and no matter how aesthetic it is in its content art is influenced by the cultural factors which also effect the social environment. Hence the dancer and the audience who are also a part of bigger socio-cultural set-up have to constantly mediate between their connections with the art and their interaction with other forms of communication which are omnipresent.
II
Saussure’s principles of communication are used to understand how the text is ‘deconstructed’ by the dancer in order to re-construct different meanings. Before actually going into the actual text it is necessary here to mention his ideas about language and society and how a language evolves with time. Saussure says
No matter what period we choose or how far back we go, language always appears as a heritage of the preceding period. A particular language is always the product of historical forces and these forces explain why the sign is unchangeable i.e. why it resists any arbitrary substitution.
This aspect is crucial to understand not only the language used in dance performance but also dance as a language of classical society now being used in modern times. Many debates have happened between dancers about the relevance of a classical dance form in modern era as dance cannot exist in isolation and there is a dialectical relationship between the art, artiste and the society. But after lot of discussion it has been accepted that the aesthetic quality of such art forms make them timeless and also boundary-less. There are umpteen examples of how an Indian dance form is accepted with lot enthusiasm on a foreign land not just for its exotic presentation format but also the content. As mentioned earlier the dance rendition of a lyric is coming together of word, sound, gesture, meaning and rhythm. It is not a linear ‘labelling exercise’ which is what makes classical dance different from an action song. In Saussure’s words,
Some people regard language when reduced to its elements as a naming process only – a list of words, each corresponding to the thing that it names. .. It assumes that ready-made ideas exist before the words.
There are no ready made ideas in a classical dance performance of padam. There is a structure within which the dancer contextualises her character, the setting, and the time period but when she engages with the lyrics it is completely impromptu.
As mentioned earlier the attempt here is to understand how a Padam is interpreted. It initially begins with the Raga (musical scale in which the lyric is tuned) played on the flute or the violin during which the dancer slowly enters and takes her position on the stage. She begins with singing the opening line in order to set the pace of the song. This is very crucial as the tempo is decided according to the meaning and tune of the lyrics so that the dancer gets enough scope to expand her ideas. But once the tempo is set in the beginning it does not change during the performance.
To illustrate how a dancer communicates the meaning let me use an example. The opening lines of this Telugu Padam are
‘ Aadadani janmamettina phalamemi, Athivaro Vyarthamamma ’
‘ What is the use of being born as a woman O Lady it is an utter waste’
The song is tuned in Sahana Raga which is generally rendered with lot of pathos and is set to 7 beats which gives the song a lilting cadence. This is done with the purpose of bringing out the protagonist’s pain. The following lines of the song tell us that she is married to a person who is very rich and has a lot of property. He bestows her with lot of jewellery and clothing but she asks her friends ‘what is the use of all this if he does not pay any attention to me and spend few moments of togetherness.’ The opening two lines which are called Pallavi set the mood of the song. Following two lines are Anupallavi
‘Meddalu Middelu mendu galiginanemi, Eedaina Vibhunito Kudi Undaka Pote’
‘What is the use of having palatial houses with rooftops, if my man is not with me’
Anupallavi states the ‘crux’ of the situation. And rest of the stanzas called the ‘Charanams’ elaborate the problem stated in Pallavi and Anupallavi wherein each time the dancer finishes the Charanam she comes back to the Pallavi like a refrain.
The progression of performance :- The dancer enacts the opening line only with her eyes and facial expressions. Then she uses minimal hand gestures to again give the literal meaning known in theory of Abhinaya (expressional art) as ‘Padartha’ [ pada+artha which means meaning of the word]. Even then it is not a uni-dimensional exercise as the language does not hang in some vacuum. Moreover what give this kind of a rendition, an added dimension are the gestures and expressions. Relating this to what Saussure said,
‘linguistic sign unites not a thing and a name but a concept and sound image the latter is not a material sound, a purely physical thing but the psychological imprint of the sound the impression that it makes on our senses’
In this example when the dancer says what is the use of being born as a woman? It is not literally the word ‘woman’ which is meant here but the attributes of being left alone, being treated as a piece of furniture in the house which actually point to her predicament of being born as a woman. Hence the link between the signifier ‘aadadaani’ and signified ‘lonely woman’ is not arbitrary. There is a bond between the two which is established through facial expressions and body movements in order to bring out the character’s anguish. There is also the link between the hand gesture and the word it signifies. This bond is between the ‘visual signifier’ and ‘auditory signifier’. Saussure explains this beautifully,
The linguistic entity exists only through the associating of the signifier and the signified. Whenever only one element is retained, the entity vanishes; instead of a concrete object we are faced with a mere abstraction.
Although dance is an abstract art but it moves between abstraction and the obvious.
After dancing the entire line, the dancer picks a word and elaborates on it. And every time the word is said not only as a stand alone word repeated again and again, but also when Pallavi is repeated the dancer depicts a different meaning for it. For example the rendition of ‘aadadani’, meaning woman, is done in two ways. One method is when the singer continuously sings the word ‘aadadani’ during which the dancer goes into detailed description of the character’s beauty. In the dance parlance it is called ‘nakha shikha varnana’ which means toe to head description. The dancer uses different metaphors to illustrate the beauty. For example she says
‘my face is like moon, my hair is as black as the sky, my eye brows are of the shape of a bow, my cheeks are like mirror. The shape of my chin is like the crescent moon, my lips are like petals of the lotus, my forehead is like half moon, my neck is in the shape of a conch’
This phenomenon is explained very succinctly by Saussure.
When Gentleman is repeated several times during a lecture the listener has the feeling that same expression is being used each time and yet the variations in utterance and intonation make for appreciable phonic differences in diverse contexts….a word can express quite different ideas without compromising its identity. … Each utterance is a new phonic act and a new psychological act. The bond between the two uses of the same word depends neither on material identity nor on sameness of meaning but on elements which must be sought after and which will point up the rue nature of linguistic units.
After giving a detailed description of physical beauty of the character she moves on to explain how intelligent she is, how cheerful she is. The purpose here is to communicate the idea that the character has so many qualities but still all of that is a waste because there is no one with whom she can share either her beauty or her intellect. Such kind of exposition is termed as gudaartha abhinaya which means hidden meaning, wherein the dancer slowly meanders between different sub-texts. As Saussure says
The characteristic role of language with respect to thought is not to create a material phonic means for expressing ideas but to serve as a link between thought and sound ,
What is unique to a dance performance of a text is the ability to project the complete opposite meaning of the text in order to bring out the meaning of the same which is called vipareerthartha abhinaya. Towards the end of this particular song the dancer who has been through all the Charanams describing the futility of being a woman caught in the web of loneliness, tells her friends ‘I will wear all the jewellery I have, I will dress up in the most expensive attire and decorate my house in the most beautiful way’ when in the background the singer is actually singing the Pallavi ‘Aadadani janmamettina phalamemi, Athivaro Vyarthamamma’ is an example of how the dancer weaves the word and the meaning in a peculiar way in order to bring out the purport of the lyrics. In this way she creates a new text through dance over a given text which is understood as meta-poetry.
What is unique about this kind of a presentation is that the dancer can move back and forth in between the text. During a charanam, which is the stanza after the Anupallavi the dancer can dance the whole charanam once and then move back and forth dancing to one word or phrase repeatedly. Saussure says that ‘Language is a system of interdependent terms in which the value of each term results solely from the simultaneous presence of the others’. This is exactly what happens in the dance performance. Even when the dancer is elaborating on one word the images she uses have co-relation to the context and the lyrics. The sole purpose is bringing as many meanings out of the text in order to interpret it in an aesthetic form. This is unique to Indian tradition which celebrated the relationship between the poetry the melody and the dance. The web of interpretations which a dancer creates is not to complicate the meaning of the text but to delve deep into it in order to engage with it in many ways. This also opens up the creative, mental and aesthetic faculties of the audience if they are receptive to the dance - which is why in Indian aesthetics a receptive member in the audience is called ‘patra’, the container. If the patra is empty one can put some content in it. Similarly if the audience is fully present with the dancer then the dancer can ‘pour’ her knowledge through her dance into the minds of the audience.
Conclusion:-
How sensitive and attentive the audience is towards a performance is deeply connected to how much it lends itself for intense involvement with the art. When Vilasini Natyam evolved the society was very relaxed. People’s attention span was more. There were no alternate methods of entertainment. And the creative and cognitive ability of the people to engage with ideas, to enjoy the intricacies of the meanings, to connect the word with the melody and then see it flower through body movements was very high. Saussure says ‘Every means of expression used in society is based, in principle, on collective behaviour’. This is also true in classical art. The metaphors used in order to give a fuller meaning of a word are connected to nature because the art grew in a society which not only worshipped, and celebrated nature but also communicated with it. But in today’s age when technology rules everybody’s lives in some form or the other and people seldom connect to nature it becomes a challenge for the dancer to bridge the gap between the art and the audience.
Vilasini Natyam and many other traditional dance forms are like languages which communicate by engaging different human faculties at different levels simultaneously. It is a highly scientific yet artistic way of understanding a text and moving beyond it in order to create one’s own interpretations of it through imagination because ‘Without language thought is a vague, unchartered nebula.’ (Saussure , 112)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. De Vito, Joseph A. 1994 Human Communication (6th edition), New York: Harper Collins Colege Publications
2. Ferdinand de Saussure 1966 Course in General Linguistics Tr. by W. Baskin . New York: McGraw Hill.
No comments:
Post a Comment