Kathak........

  Lucknow, India
Tuesday, December 4, 2007

A few weeks ago I began taking Kathak lessons. Kathak is a form of Indian classical dance, and it just so happens that the Lucknow style of Kathak is world famous, so Lucknow has at least one claim to fame.

I'm taking class with 2 other American girls and a British girl who are part of a group of 8 or 9 Americans and Brits studying Urdu at an Urdu language institute here in Lucknow. Class meets three times a week, which is a bit intense, but I'm enjoying it. The only downside is that our teacher, who usually teaches children, has a very tiny room in which to teach us. Because of the space constraints, the four of us often feel like we can't extend our arms all the way or do the movements full out or else we may very well slap each other. We've somewhat solved the problem by taking turns practicing the larger, faster moves like spins, but it's still a bit tight.

Kathak is, in many ways, the antithesis of many other types of dance. Let me clarify: Most forms of dance that I've taken part in encourage dancers to be "soft and light footed," and to try to not make any sounds as they move across the floor. However, the core facet of Kathak is the stomping patterns that the dancers make with their feet, and the harder they stomp, the better. Also, while in most forms of dance, especially modern and ballet, dancers are expected to have a deep foot arch, Kathak dancers are better off the flatter their feet are, since it's easier to make the requisite slapping sound while stomping if you have flat feet. I definitely need to work on making my feet flat! In addition, unlike other forms of dance where your body is supposed to be loose, in Kathak your body must be very stiff, with movement coming only from your feet, arms and eyebrows, though I haven't quite understood how to do the eyebrow part yet.

Our teacher is great, and an amazing dancer! She doesn't speak much English, and I don't speak much Hindi, so I don't completely understand everything she says in class. But luckily, my Urdu-speaking friends can clarify for me if I look realy lost (FYI - Urdu and Hindi are almost the same language, except that they use different alphabets for reading/writing). I'm glad I can provide some comic relief for my teacher, though, since she gets a good laugh out of my attempts at pronouncing the Hindi words in the chants and songs we're learning.

On Sunday, Oct. 28th, our teacher and her Kathak troupe had a show at the state theater in Lucknow, called Rabindralya, and the three of us decided to go to see what "real" Kathak dance looks like. When we arrived at the theater, we were escorted in and told to sit close to the front in seats that looked as if they had been reserved for special guests. We didn't complain though, since we had a great view from where we were seated. The theater was huge and old, although oddly, the ceiling looked like something out of a modern art museum from the 1970s or 1980s.

Before the show began, a couple famous Lucknowites (I still have no idea who they were) came up to the stage to light to ceremonial oil lamp. After they took their "seats of honor" in the front row, a woman wearing a beautiful sari came up on stage and gave a long introduction to the performance, all in Hindi of course. By the time the show started, we had been in the theater for about a half hour. But it was worth the wait, because the show itself was amazing!! The dancing seemed to be a combination of modern dance and traditional Kathak, not at all what I had expected. And the costuming and lighting effects were also quite spectacular, with lots of beautiful colors, shadow effects, etc.

The first "act" featured a dance by my teacher's troupe which told a story about the relationship between a woman and a man who fall in love and get married, but then something happens (I couldn't understand quite what) and they are pulled apart. Because the story was narrated in Hindi, I couldn't pick up much about the storyline and decided to just focus on the dancing. My teacher was the "lead dancer" in this piece, playing the part of the main woman in the story. She was fantastic, and though I know that few months of lessons won't teach me how to dance nearly as well as her, it made me feel good to know that I'm learning from such a talented dancer!

During the second act, a different dance troupe composed of 5 women performed a more traditional Kathak piece, though once again I couldn't really understand the story being narrated. Unlike my teacher's piece, this piece was accompanied by live musicians who sat on the side of the stage, including the requisite tabla player. The live music definitely added to the performance.

Rabindralya Kathak Show

The next week, I found pictures of my teacher and the performance in the local newspaper. "My teacher's famous," I told my coworkers as I showed the pictures to everyone at my office. I'm definitely excited to be learning from such a "Kathak master."

On Sunday, Nov. 4th, my teacher and her dance troupe had another performance. This one was at a big Mela (festival) about an hour outside of Lucknow, near an area called Barabanki. My friends from class wanted to go, so with help from their Urdu school, they arranged for a car and driver to take us out to the show. A few other people made the trip out with us, and so there were 6 of us "foreigners" all together.
I don't know quite what I was expecting, but I was a bit surprised when, at around 7:30pm, we pulled off the road and into a dirt parking lot. Apparently cars weren't allowed to drive all the way up to the Mela area, so we had to leave the car and driver here and walk with the crowds to the festival grounds. We walked down the dirt road in pitch blackness, only finding our way by keeping our focus on the lights of the festival up ahead. When we arrived at the festival entrance, one of my Urdu-speaking friends asked someone where the dance performance was taking place, and after asking two or three more people along the way, we were able to locate the stage.

The stage was set at the front of a big, bright tent with two separate seating areas. The farther back seating area consisted of plastic chairs placed on each side of a narrow aisle leading towards the stage. About halfway up the aisle towards the stage there was a chain-link fence, and in front of the gate were plush, cushioned sofas and armchairs, a far cry from the plastic chairs located behind the gate.

Assuming that the "posh" area in front of the gate was closed off and reserved for special guests, we headed towards an open section of plastic chairs. Just then, a uniformed guard approached us and exchanged some words in Hindi/Urdu with one of my friends. Apparently, he told her that we should go sit in the front "VIP" section, and he pointed us towards a separate, side entrance that led into the front seating area with the couches and armchairs. We made our way over to the VIP section, which was almost completely empty, and chose a row of couches to sit on. While it was nice to get the good view from the VIP seats, I couldn't help but be aware of the irony of the situation. While the VIP seating area remained almost completely empty throughout the performance, the area with the plastic chairs behind the gate continued to get more and more packed with people until many were forced to stand. However, no one would even have considered allowing some of the non-VIP people to sit in the empty chairs of the VIP section.

During the show, several men came over and took pictures of our group, claiming that they were from a local newspaper. I've gotten somewhat used to people doing this by now, though I'm still tempted to say "Rs 500 for my photo."

The show began with a music performance by a group of five musicians and singers. Then the musicians relocated to the side of the stage and the dance performance began. The performance was very different from the last one we saw, for it was much more of a traditional kathak dance piece. While this performance was also fun to watch, it was not nearly as fabulous or elaborate as the one I'd seen last weekend, due, in part, to the different setting, size of the stage, etc.

My teacher @ Deva Sharif Kathak Show

At the end of the performance, we looked around for someplace to eat that looked relatively clean, but couldn't find anything other than stands selling huge puffed breads which looked delicious. However, the groups of flies milling around the breads made us wary. So, we decided to forgo eating at the Mela and headed back home.