On International Dance Day today, an experimental performance transforms Anne Frank and her famous diary into a classical Bharatanatyam production
Representation Pic/istock
It is not often that Anne Frank is held up as an example of the nayika in a classical Indian text. “But she has all those qualities. She is precocious, intelligent, brave and outspoken and also quite often infatuated,” shares Aarthy Natrajan. Today, the Kalakshetra Foundation-alumni will present her interpretation of The Diary of Anne Frank at a venue in Mahalaxmi.
Anne Frank. Pic Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons
The story is one that Natrajan has often read and travelled with. “To me, the core of the story is that of a young teenage girl. She grew up and lived in a tumultuous time, but her view of the world is the same as that of a teenager today,” the dancer shares. The gamut of emotions expressed through the incidents in her diary can be expressed through the classical bhavas — techniques expressing emotions.
Aarthy Natrajan as Anne Frank. Pics Courtesy/Aarthy Natrajan
“You read through the book and feel so connected to her; from complaints about her mother, or the curiosity about people, or her little crushes,” Natrajan observes. This is where the comparison with a nayika in the Indian classical text comes through. The Nayika or the heroine is often central to every Indian epic. “They are classified into the ashtanayikas, according to their archetypes. But in terms of age, they are divided into Mugdha, Madhya and Pragalbha — a teenager, young adult and a mature woman,” Natrajan explains. By this definition, Anne Frank certainly fits the bill.
It would be difficult for a dance performance to do complete justice to the book. This required some research. Natrajan spent close to two years reading up, and collecting archival photographs and documents, some of which will be part of a visual slideshow during her performance. The 40-year-old Natrajan adopted four key parts from the book — Frank’s friendships, her parents’ call-up, the intense Holocaust, and her optimism to finish with. “I did not want to use lyrical songs to take away from the narrative of the story. So, we used a bit of the text from the diaries set to instrumental music,” she elaborates.
To shape its music, she reached out to Navin Kumar aka Flute Navin in Chennai. “I knew the approach needed for certain portions. For instance, a malahari raga for the patra pravesham [introduction], and for the holocaust, I wanted some elements of a jathi. I left the definition of the structure and compositions up to him,” she reveals.
A moment from the performance
The Mumbai performance today is a return home for Natrajan, who grew up in the outskirts of the city in the suburb of Kalyan. “Interpreting a modern text might seem idiosyncratic, but it is not new. If you look at it [Bharatanatyam] as a language of expression, you can use it to express anything,” she concludes.
ON Today; 7 pm
AT G5A Warehouse, Laxmi Mills Estate, Shakti Mills Lane, Mahalaxmi West.
LOG ON TO district.in
Entry Rs 499
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