I’m going to a performance tonight, and in honour of culture I’m referring you to today’s TOI interview with Pallabi Chakravorty, artistic director of the contemporary dance group Courtyard Dancers::
Q: How have you formulated your alternative history of Kathak?
I have historicised Kathak by re-articulating it as the practice of the courtesans (the tawaifs, the baijis, and the nautch). Rather than focusing on the gharana lineage, I have begun in the 19th century, with the nautch in Bengal, with its epicentre in Calcutta. This is an appropriate starting point for an analysis of modern-day Kathak. This is where the magnificent court dancers of Indian royalty were reduced to petty nautch dancers through ironic turns of historical events. of Indian royalty were reduced to petty nautch dancers through ironic turns of historical events.Also, see the below youtube video, filmed and directed by Antara Bhardwaj, on Pandit Chitresh Das’ social work in the Red Light District of Kolkata to empower sex workers’ children by teaching them Kathak dance as a way out of prostitution rather than a tool of it as it was traditionally developed.[youtube LDXLq8Ii868]
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