Indian Contemporary Dance: From the floor to air with dexterity

If you think dance was all about body movements, eye movements, mudras and accompanying song and music, you may be out of sync with the contemporary! If you have learnt Kerala’s unique martial art Kalaripayettu, you can use it not only for self defence or for attack. If you have a passion for dance, this martial art would be just right to blend into contemporary style.

If the name Daksha Sheth crops up in any discussion of contemporary there is nothing to be surprised. Daksha, an exponent of Kathak  (having trained under the legendary Birju Maharaj) and Mayurbhanj Chhau combined Kalaripayettu, aerial and rope techniques to take the dance to new heights. Her equally illustrious daughter Isha Shervani performed in Subash Ghai’s Kisna (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZogcmNls0FY, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVynNDtvR9Q) and several other films. She mesmerized the world with her horror acts, Argentine Tango, Aerial Lyra acts and several others in the immensely popular reality show Jhalak Dhikla Ja aired in Colors Channel.





Isha Shervani from the production Shiva Shakti (Pic Courtesy: Ishashervani.com)
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Kochiites are now fortunate to have Pratheep Kumar, a versatile contemporary dancer trained under Daksha Sheth and was associated with it for over 10 years and held performances in USA and UK. He dropped out of college while in Trivandrum to pursue his passion-dance.

Kalaripayettu training under his uncle helped him become swift in his body movements and flexibility.  The beauty of contemporary dance is in not giving undue weight or strain on any part of the body especially the knees, Pratheep says. The weight is balanced on the toes and the tip of the leg. His performance in May 2015 at the Kerala History Museum titled Dance Affair organized by TheFloor was indeed a delight to watch. The Floor has been in the forefront bringing contemporary dancers for workshops in recent times.

Daksha’s new language and idiom in Indian contemporary dance is now being taken up by an enthusiastic team of trainers like Pratheep and Santosh (both at Mamangam), trained in Kalaripayettu, Bharatanatyam, and Ballet. Pratheep who has been trained in Indian Contemporary is eager to learn western contemporary that incorporates elements of Ballet and gymnastics. Renowned actress Rima Kallingal, founder of Mamangam is herself a contemporary dancer, which many people may not know.

India’s film industry – Bollywood only briefly experimented with contemporary dance thanks to Isha but for the most gave us a choreographed Bollywood dance that had a mix of classical, semi-classical and western themes.

Western contemporary has a long tradition set by such stalwarts of the 1800’s as Isadora Duncan, Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn. Indian contemporary is still evolving and should catch on with the younger generation. It takes real courage to experiment and bring new ideas into existing art forms. That makes Daksha unique while most dancers are mere followers of a particular tradition.

When I recently met the legendary Resul Pookutty after a gap of two decades, he asked me what icontemporary dance is all about. I told about my daughter initiation in both Kalari and Contemporary. I didn’t have a clear answer to his question then. But it has stirred a curiosity to know more. With each experimentation, the skillful dancers are stretching its possibilities a bit more.

References:Western Contemporary: http://www.worlddanceheritage.org/jazz-contemporary-difference/
Indian Contemporary: www.ishashervani.com & www.dakshasheth.com

(To learn more about Contemporary Dance classes, call Prasanth@ Beats ‘n’ Steps- 9895611537)

The delight of White Wash, theCoir Brush and Tom Sawyers wit!

I remember my childhood days in Trivandrum living in a tiled house with small rooms, wooden cross railings that were painted in blue and walls that were white washed. Painting was not a costly affair in those days but it required some expertise to prepare the white wash- prepared from quicklime. I remember smoke coming out when water is poured over it.

Once they made the mixture, they cleaned the walls spraying water and scrubb it clean with coir pith not the stones or sand paper used now.

There were no brushes with fancy wooden handles and bristles but only brushes made with coir that were used to paint the fences.  It was a delight to see the painters do their job, to reach the top of the building or the room, they used small and big ladders made of bamboo.  It seemed so easy when they deftly moved their coir brushes along the walls. This process was done only once in two or three years and it was nice to see our house after this and it was favored because of its antibacterial properties.


In tiled houses, both interiors and exteriors were white washed, the contrast was given to the building by tiles, doors and windows that used to be painted either blue or with wooden varnish.

I was fond of painting thinking it was an easy job any way! But the problem was I was not good in the strokes so brush marks would be visible on the walls. But with some practice I could do it without anyone else seeing it, except my brother and a few neighbourhood friends.  I was afraid my father wouldn’t like my study time to be occupied with whitewash!

At school, it was fun to learn the English text which had the story of Tom Sawyer who cleverly white washed the walls while he munched the apples and flew the kites his friends gave in return for allowing them  to do the whitewashing.

It required the literary genius of Mark Twain to pen those lines-Tom Sawyer surveyed the fence, 30 yards nine feet high to be white washed. On a cheerful Saturday morning when locusts were in full bloom, there was happiness all round, Tom felt his life was hollow and existence a burden!

But he did it reluctantly and by the time his dreaded friend Ben arrived he was busy moving the brush with gentle strokes. He surveyed the last touch with the eye of an artist.

In my childhood days, enamel paints weren’t that popular – the only colors we could get was black, white and blue. Sometimes, when the painter failed to turn up as promised, my mother would ask me to try my hand at painting the metal gate with two colors black and white. Again preparing the surface was the most difficult thing to do. There should not be any rust or unevenness which had to be smoothened with sand paper. Turpentine or sometimes kerosene was used as a thinner to make it easier to paint.

When our old house was extended and renovated, the paint market had more offerings by way of cement paint (the famous brand was Snowcem) which used to be sold in sacks with choice of colors. It was also better at warding off fungus growth, algae growth in exterior walls and gave a modern look. Enamel paint with different color choices began to be used in wooden doors and windows too.

Distemper and emulsion paint came much later and initially only the rich could afford to distemper their walls. The advantage was that stains or dirt could be wiped away and keeping the surface looking new for a longer time.

Three years ago when we build our home Mercury in Palarivattom in Kochi – the paint industry had seen through many technological changes-  now we have textured walls, exterior paints that can withstand algae and fungus and thousands of shades to choose from the color palette.

As I observed recently in my friend Beena Katticaran’s paint shop -when there is the color drum to mix, any shade is created within a matter of minutes. The paint majors Dulux and Asian Paints are providing complete painting solutions from choosing colors, providing services of specialists painters and textured walls. Now kids rooms have all the cartoon characters, living rooms can have Arabian desert or nature themes to choose from. Tools have also changed, the brush is no longer the symbol but the paint rollers which give a uniform finish to the surface.

Paints have protected our houses and given a character to it whether it was the whitewashed walls of Tom Sawyer era or the emulsified exteriors of today!