Sending vibrations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVmEHVF9lXg

Indian classical dancer Shantala Shivalingappe regaled us with a stunning program at The Joyce Theater. The last work Bhairava jolts you immediately with the fierceness of her scolding fingers twitching faster than a teleypist, held high by the back-lit dancer. For 600 years, Kuchipudi dancers have admonished the heavens in this manner to destroy fear by shocking them with an ascendant lightning rod. This dance makes you feel like a child being intimidated by your mother to Never again do whatever heinous thing you did. Could the inventors of this art have laid the groundwork for radio waves, sending vibrations upward to the “influencers” of the day?

The Canadian dance filmmaker Marlene Miller made a startling 13' film with Shivalingappe with Philip Szporer (Mouvement Perpétuel, Montréal), in Anegundi and Hampi, India, with cinematography by Kes Tagney. The dancer framed by ancient rocks far from urban squalor is unforgettable. Not just a pretty face framed by the natural sculpture, Shivalingappe directs her energy, in distinct vibrations, to the heavens.

As the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu text written in Sanskrit in the fifth century (or earlier) says,

‘One who can thoroughly understand the four stages of vibration can utilize this science to become free from the bondage of matter.’

This gives the study of Indian dance a surprising twist — an intro to Physics.

For the Joyce performance October 9, 2019, musicians J. Ramesh (vocalist), K.S. Jayaram (flutist), B.P. Haribabu (percussionist — nattuvangam and pakhwaj), and N. Ramakrishnan (percussionist — mridangam) join the tiny dancer Shivalingappa in every moment and lift us into Akasha which in Sanskrit means Sky or Space. This dancer drops and rebounds in turned out positions, executes the footwork and gestures (mudras) with consistent calm and precision. She is so accomplished that the viewer has to muse what this dance form might have looked like in its first 100 years. How long did it take to gell this art, to decide the timing and exact placement of each mudra?

The pieces in the program, Om Namo Ji Adya, Krishnam Kalaya, Jaya Jaya Durge, and Kirtanam, were danced with lyrics dating from the 13th to 16th centuries. The lyric in the first solo with Lyrics by Dhyaneshwar,

“I prostrate myself before him (the Supreme Being). In the form of Ganesh, the elephant-headed God, you are the light that enlightens our intellect. The sound ‘A ‘ comes from your lotus-life-feet, ‘U’ emanates from your belly, ‘M’ comes from your crown….”

A percussion duet with a speed and complexity to match today’s tap wizards. Perhaps the tap dancer Savion Glover was a South Indian in another life?

Shivalingappa changed her silk costume only once, from orange and gold which is topped by a headdress that resembles the decoration on the 7 lamps, the central one in the triangle being the furthest and highest upstage to a black, green, gold one. Obedient to tradition, yet free to choreograph within those bounds, Shivalingappa offers a profound, thought provoking experience.