Classic Indian Dance

This Sunday at Paine Hall

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

Kathak dance master Chitresh Das will give attendees at Harvard’s Paine Hall an opportunity to witness a most exotic and fascinating, elegantly crafted form of ancient North Indian living art this Sunday at 4 p.m.

Along with San Francisco's Chitresh Das Dance Company members Ramesh Misra, Swapnamoy Banerjee and Kousic Sen, respectively on the sarangi, sarod and tabla instruments, the group will manifest a magnificent conjunction of aesthetics from both the Hindu and Muslim cultures.

This appearance will be part of the week’s area lectures, demonstrations and workshops by Das, which are being sponsored by MITHAS (MIT’s Heritage of the Arts of Southasia) and Chhandika (Chhandam Institute of Kathak), Das’ local branch formed in 1992 by senior disciple Gretchen Hayden. Other local groups are sponsoring the week as well.

“The theater-art of Kathak Dance is a legacy spanning the centuries,” said Chhandika Artistic Director Gretchen Hayden, “from ancient times up to the present day. Crossing cultural boundaries, it embodies the oldest traditions and philosophies of Indian culture and philosophy, while at the same time remaining fluid and adaptable in its development.”

Kathak, the most widely performed dance in North India, derived its name from the word kathaka, or storyteller; the tradition dates from 2000 years ago to Kathakas, who were wandering bards and minstrels. Largely a solo performance art, individual interpretations can vary. Each artist, however, reaches out to the audience through recitation and descriptive commentary.

Das' received a 1970 Whitney Fellowship through the University of Maryland to teach Kathak, one of the six classical dances of India and the only one to fuse Hindu and Muslim traditions. Following this distinction, he established a Kathak dance program at the renowned Ali Akbar College of Music in California. Organizing over forty musicians and dancers, he also created three major dance dramas which were the first such ventures in Indo-American performing arts. His own school, Chhandam, was founded in San Francisco in 1980, along with his company, which now has branches in Toronto and New England as well as in Calcutta, India.

“Whether expressing the purely classical or the innovative and collaborative,” said Hayden, “his incredible artistry has made him one of today's foremost exponents of North India's classical Kathak and an influential international force on dance.”

“Das combines deeply rooted tradition,” said Anjali Nath, who will appear on the professional performing stage for the first time with fellow students Meenakshi Verma, Sharareh Bhajracharya, and Alpana Waghmare, “with innovation and choreography, to create mesmerizing performances.”

It’s a most multidynamic form of movement, one to be seen to be truly experienced. “Kathak,” said Nath, “combines intricate footwork, virtuosic technique, refined gestures, elegant stances, swift spins, and rhythmic intensity, along with both subtle and dramatic facial expression.”

Das will give free introductory classes this Saturday at 10:45 a.m. for children, and from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. for teens and adults, at the Dance Complex, 536 Mass Ave. in Central Square.

Tickets for the Paine Hall show are $20, $16 for MITHAS members and $12 for students at the Harvard Box Office, Holyoke Center Arcade, 1350 Mass. Ave. (up to day of performance). Call 617-496-2222, TTY: 495-1642. For information on Chhandam, visit www.mithas.org or chhandam@greennet.net, or call 617-258-7971.