Choreographer Needs to be Creative and Innovative in Style

Expressing emotions through dance has, arguably, existed even before humans became civilised, and perhaps even before language got people communicating. Archaeologists believe that the earliest dances were used to transmit myths and stories throughout tribes and across generations. In that, modern dance has retained its purpose and that can be seen every time you discern the tale from dancers' movements in a musical or a dance drama.

Think Kathakali, Ramlilas, and rasa lilas and you will see that India is one country where such telling of tales through dance has existed since time immemorial. The people who hold the threads of the dance production (and the tale) together are known as choreographers.

"Choreographers are like painters. They create beautiful, unexpected and aesthetic designs with dancers to express thoughts, concepts or sometimes just for entertainment," says Tanusree Shankar, head, Tanusree Shankar Dance Company. She is internationally recognised as the leading exponent of the Shankar technique of "New Dance", as formulated by the legendary Uday Shankar.

Of late, with a surge in cultural awareness and television channels, choreographers are in huge demand.

Aneesha Dalal, principal dancer and master instructor, Shiamak Davar's Institute for the Performing Arts, says, "Thankfully India has woken up to viewing Western dance a serious career option. It is no longer considered frivolous. The advent of a slew of dance-based reality shows has opened up a lot of career opportunities. There is a high demand for choreographers for reality TV, shows, events... the sky is really the limit!"

Dalal is oft seen in Shiamak Davar-choreographed Bollywood song sequences and has also appeared in a Liril advertisement, which stands testimony to another avenue where choreographers find expression.

The flip side is that thanks to so many forums to showcase one's talent, choreography has become a very competitive field and making your mark has become that much more difficult.

Shankar says, "A choreographer has to be innovative and creative. It is very easy (especially in today's time) to imitate or copy. But it is very important to be original and have a signature of your own as a choreographer."

And this is by no means easy. In a world of YouTube, steps and even sequences are easily copied.

"You have to constantly keep upgrading yourself as a dancer and teacher. Unless you have the knowledge, you cannot instruct. It is important, also, to go through choreological studies, which guide and help you to think differently," adds Shankar.

Choreology, incidentally, is a way of putting down dance notation (like musical notation) on paper. Invented by Joan and Rudolf Benesh in the late 1940s, the system uses abstract symbols based on figurative representations of the human body.

Apart from study, fitness, suppleness and flexibility are of utmost importance in this profession. One cannot ask one's dancers to do what one can't emulate to perfection oneself.

Beyond that, it is only after years of study, practise and exposure to advancements in dance all over the world that one can hope to develop a style that doesn't give itself to being copied easily.

"There are a lot of people out there who are trying to copy stuff from others. I think one should just not jump onto this bandwagon of blindly copying people but instead make your own style because that's the only way you will stand out," says Dalal.

To figure out what that style is, one must explore one's own understanding of dance.

Dalal says, "The one thing I keep in mind while choreographing is that there must be a meaning to a choreography - it must say something to its audience. I work around this theme, always."

She adds that to succeed in this as in any profession, one needs to believe in oneself all the time and one must have faith and be true to one's work.

 

Author: Pankaj Mullick (HT Horizons)

Date: 22nd October, 2010

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