Indian classical dancers are upset about new guidelines that the Ministry of Culture has issued requiring them to be graded by government-funded institutions before they can be selected to perform in Festivals of India events abroad.
Many dancers who perform Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi and other styles of dance have sent the ministry protest letters. More are in the process of doing so.
The notice, issued last month, says that only dance productions from four government-aided institutions – the Kalakshetra Foundation in Chennai, the Kathak Kendra in New Delhi, the Sattariya Kendra in Guwahati and the Jawaharlal Nehru Dance Academy in Imphal – will be eligible to take part in these Festivals, which the government organises to showcase Indian culture overseas.
Moreover, responsibility for grading and selecting dance groups and specific productions for the festivals has been given to the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the national-level government academy for performing arts in New Delhi, and the Kalakshetra Foundation, the leading school of Bharatanatyam in Chennai
“It puts a lot of individual artists at a disadvantage," said Vikram Iyengar, a Kolkata-based Kathak dancer and student of Padma Shri award winner Rani Karnaa. "It’s like the UN security council. We find that there are a few members who are always there and there are only few seats left for everybody else.”
Apprehensive about the grading process, dancers from various classical traditions said that Kalakshetra, a school that follows a particular idea of Bharatanatyam, may not be able to do justice to the selection process.
Many styles
The ministry has given Kalakshetra the responsibility of grading artists from 11 states: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal.
Chitra Visweswaran, president of the Chennai-based Association of Bharatanatyam Artistes of India, said that these 11 states had at least seven distinct dance styles and several schools and traditions within each.
She points out that the Sangeet Natak Akademi, which will take on the process in the remaining states, already has experts with backgrounds in several styles. But the Kalakshetra is a teaching institution whose expertise is restricted to Bharatanatyam.
Besides, established dancers will find it embarrassing to audition in front of performers who are much less experienced than they are, Bharatanatyam teacher VP Dhananjayan said in an email to Scroll.in.
Jayaprabha Menon, founder of the International Academy of Mohiniattam in New Delhi, said that with only two institutions involved in selections, there should be a watchdog panel above them. "The ministry should clearly state that the selection should be balanced, represent all dance forms and there should be no repetitions, with the same performers going to all festivals," she said.
Flawed system
Members of the Association of Bharatanatyam Artistes of India that Vishwesaran heads have written to the minister of culture, Shripad Yesso Naik, asking him to set up a selection panel of eminent artists. Heads and members of government-funded institutes can be on the panel but must not form the whole squad, they say.
Even as they express their dissent, the dancers are at pains to clarify that they have nothing against Kalakshetra, its management or its work. Iyengar said they only worry about an understandable limitations of the school's members.
"I am not worried that there will be more of Bharatanatyam and less of other things," said Iyengar. "I am concerned that the Kathak, Manipuri, Odissi or whatever else is presented will not be as rigorously selected as Bharatanatyam will be."
The Ministry of Culture said the new grading process was for dance dramas and not individual performances. "Kalakshetra Foundation represents one of India's foremost dance schools, which has achieved immense success in Festivals of India abroad," said V Srinivas, joint secretary in the ministry, "It has the institutional capacity and requisite knowledge to formulate a graded resource list."
Dancers are not convinced that the country needs a new process of selecting artists, even though they agree that the current one, which involves the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, the Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Ministry of Culture, is opaque.
They feel that most of those chosen are from government-aided schools of dance. There is a need to cast the net much wider, they say.
But the new process does not solve the problem, it merely adds one more layer to the selection process without expanding the list of potential candidates. Most artists are already recognised and graded in different ways, so why add another evaluation process, they ask.
"Most artists have recognition in terms of Sangeet Natak Akademi awards, Padma Awards, state awards, Indian Council of Cultural Relations recognition and Doordarshan grades," Visweswaran said. "If you already have that in place, then what more do you want?"
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Many dancers who perform Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi and other styles of dance have sent the ministry protest letters. More are in the process of doing so.
The notice, issued last month, says that only dance productions from four government-aided institutions – the Kalakshetra Foundation in Chennai, the Kathak Kendra in New Delhi, the Sattariya Kendra in Guwahati and the Jawaharlal Nehru Dance Academy in Imphal – will be eligible to take part in these Festivals, which the government organises to showcase Indian culture overseas.
Moreover, responsibility for grading and selecting dance groups and specific productions for the festivals has been given to the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the national-level government academy for performing arts in New Delhi, and the Kalakshetra Foundation, the leading school of Bharatanatyam in Chennai
“It puts a lot of individual artists at a disadvantage," said Vikram Iyengar, a Kolkata-based Kathak dancer and student of Padma Shri award winner Rani Karnaa. "It’s like the UN security council. We find that there are a few members who are always there and there are only few seats left for everybody else.”
Apprehensive about the grading process, dancers from various classical traditions said that Kalakshetra, a school that follows a particular idea of Bharatanatyam, may not be able to do justice to the selection process.
Many styles
The ministry has given Kalakshetra the responsibility of grading artists from 11 states: Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal.
Chitra Visweswaran, president of the Chennai-based Association of Bharatanatyam Artistes of India, said that these 11 states had at least seven distinct dance styles and several schools and traditions within each.
She points out that the Sangeet Natak Akademi, which will take on the process in the remaining states, already has experts with backgrounds in several styles. But the Kalakshetra is a teaching institution whose expertise is restricted to Bharatanatyam.
Besides, established dancers will find it embarrassing to audition in front of performers who are much less experienced than they are, Bharatanatyam teacher VP Dhananjayan said in an email to Scroll.in.
Jayaprabha Menon, founder of the International Academy of Mohiniattam in New Delhi, said that with only two institutions involved in selections, there should be a watchdog panel above them. "The ministry should clearly state that the selection should be balanced, represent all dance forms and there should be no repetitions, with the same performers going to all festivals," she said.
Flawed system
Members of the Association of Bharatanatyam Artistes of India that Vishwesaran heads have written to the minister of culture, Shripad Yesso Naik, asking him to set up a selection panel of eminent artists. Heads and members of government-funded institutes can be on the panel but must not form the whole squad, they say.
Even as they express their dissent, the dancers are at pains to clarify that they have nothing against Kalakshetra, its management or its work. Iyengar said they only worry about an understandable limitations of the school's members.
"I am not worried that there will be more of Bharatanatyam and less of other things," said Iyengar. "I am concerned that the Kathak, Manipuri, Odissi or whatever else is presented will not be as rigorously selected as Bharatanatyam will be."
The Ministry of Culture said the new grading process was for dance dramas and not individual performances. "Kalakshetra Foundation represents one of India's foremost dance schools, which has achieved immense success in Festivals of India abroad," said V Srinivas, joint secretary in the ministry, "It has the institutional capacity and requisite knowledge to formulate a graded resource list."
Dancers are not convinced that the country needs a new process of selecting artists, even though they agree that the current one, which involves the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, the Sangeet Natak Akademi and the Ministry of Culture, is opaque.
They feel that most of those chosen are from government-aided schools of dance. There is a need to cast the net much wider, they say.
But the new process does not solve the problem, it merely adds one more layer to the selection process without expanding the list of potential candidates. Most artists are already recognised and graded in different ways, so why add another evaluation process, they ask.
"Most artists have recognition in terms of Sangeet Natak Akademi awards, Padma Awards, state awards, Indian Council of Cultural Relations recognition and Doordarshan grades," Visweswaran said. "If you already have that in place, then what more do you want?"