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“Dance is like breathing
to me”
Saswati
Sen has long been recognised as the prima donna of Kathak
in the country, performing for almost four decades now. The
Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, an honour long overdue, has finally
been bestowed on her. Sen in conversation with TWF correspondent
Shoma A. Chatterji.
How do you define the term dance’?
Dance, for me, is an _expression of joy through stylised,
disciplined movements. Basically, it is a happiness that lies
within our hearts and our minds that finds _expression through
physical and facial movements. When I perform on stage, I
feel I have been elevated to the highest plane of happiness
in the world. This feeling has evolved over the years. Till
15 years back, dance to me conveyed joy through the very experience
of learning dance. Today, sharing what I have learnt with
my disciples, communicating what I have created with my audience,
and carrying the effect of this communication with me is the
greatest thrill.
You belong to a family of doctors. So
academics must have been important?
Yes, it was very important. I was conditioned into thinking
that I would become a doctor when I grew up. Everyone from
my father’s side, girl or boy, has been into medicine.
My father’s elder brother Dr. Santosh Sen was the President’s
personal physician. His wife Dr. Sita Sen was a noted gynaecologist.
My father was a doctor. My upbringing within an ambience of
pure academics made me take up medicine. I was a good student.
I did one year of pre-medical studies and one year of medicine
and then gave up. I could never have been a good doctor because
I am terrified of blood. Then I went ahead and did my M.Sc.
in Anthropology.
How did dance happen to you then?
It stemmed from my mother’s desire that I should not
waste time doing nothing. Our house in Delhi was close to
a class where Kathak was being taught. I joined the class
and somehow began liking the lessons. My teacher before I
arrived at Pandit-ji’s (Birju Maharaj) door in 1967 was
Reba Vidyarthi. Rebaji was the disciple of Guruji’s father
Achchan Maharaj. But I had never considered taking up dance
as a vocation because it just did not occur to me.
When and how did the turning point come?
After my graduation, we went on a tour to the US in 1975 and
that was the turning point of my life. We were only the three
of us: Kumudini Lakhia-ji, Guruji and myself. We toured right
across the US and did 33 performances over two months. We
performed small solos and I felt proud of myself being in
such august company. I did a duet with Maharajji with shivers
running down my spine. I was so nervous! But I was thrilled
by the sheer joy of performance. The Asiatic Society in the
US sponsored the tour. However, I began harging for my performances
almost 15 years after this. My father was strict about never
accepting money for a dance performance. This is rooted in
the rigid mindset of the Bengali intellectual who links dance
to kotha performances, especially in relation to Kathak. He
came to terms with this later on.
Leaving alone the fame and the awards,
how has dance influenced you as a human being?
Of course, it has, in so many positive ways. I had never dreamt
that dance would one day turn into my passion in life. Today,
it’s like breathing to me. Dance has given me a much
better understanding of life. My interpersonal relationships
have become more lucid
than they were before. I think dance has made it possible
for me to communicate to my audience about a better understanding
of life and of how it should be lived. I am not trying to
be patronising when I say this. I am only saying that I could
attempt to do the
impossible only through dance.
Tell us something about your most challenging
creation till date. The adaptation of Romeo and Juliet through
the medium of Kathak?
I first saw a live ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet
at the Carnegie Institute in the US in 1975. The impact was
so moving that I actually wept like a child. Over the years,
I forgot all about it. Then, when I began to visit the London
branch of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for my regular Kathak
workshops, I had the opportunity to interact with
tap dancers and flamenco dancers. At workshops at Vancouver
University, I saw movements that were similar to Kathak. I
had heard of King Lear and The Tempest having been done through
Kathakali. Then later, I saw Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden
when my students there gifted me with a 35 pounds ticket to
watch the play. I began to question myself, why not do this
in Kathak? And so, Romeo and Juliet was born in Kathak ballet
for the first time in the world.
What was the response like?
Maharaj-ji was not very responsive to the idea to begin with.
I tried to convince him by saying, if we can study Shakespeare
in Indian universities, why can’t we express his works
through Indian classical dance? Shakespeare is universal and
so is love, and so
are romantic tragedies in drama, literature and poetry. I
have created a lavish ambience in setting, lighting and music,
to suit the period backdrop of the original work. The audience
response has been amazing. We have already done 20 shows.
There are around 70-80 dancers on stage. Sitara Devi refused
to come to one of the eight shows in Mumbai because she does
not care for such innovations in Kathak. But when I persuaded
her to come, she came backstage after the performance and
gave me a warm hug. I am working out the logistics of taking
the ballet beyond Indian shores, especially in the land of
Shakespeare around 2006-2007 with the Indian Council of Cultural
Research.
You are into writing too, we hear?
Yes. I have been commissioned to write three books. One is
called The Master through My Eyes on Maharaj-ji. The second
is a ready reckoner on Kathak for the lay person called Kathak
for You and Me commissioned by Popular Prakashan of Mumbai
and the third one I have just begun is on the works of Maharaj-ji
which will come out in Hindi though I am writing it in English.
Time is at a premium but I owe it to my art, to Maharaj-ji
and to myself to finish these works.
Of the many personas you have created
for yourself within dance- performing, teaching and choreographing-
which one do you like the most?
Teaching gives me the greatest pleasure. Ten years from now,
I see myself teaching much more than performing and choreographing.
Teaching helps me to introspect, retrospect and also gives
me the scope to look back at myself again and again.
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