Fusion of dance
K.K. GOPALAKRISHNAN
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Priya Shrikumar is redefining classical dance forms of India to reach out to people from other countries.
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'Dance Ihayami' works towards a fusion of Indian classical dance forms.
REACHING OUT: Priya Shrikumar.
If you talk about Indian dance in Scotland, invariably you are directed to Priya Shrikumar, a Malayali dancer who is an exponent of Bharatanatyam and Kerala Natanam.
It was a chain of events, all unplanned, that made Priya a dancer. "More than dance practice, my parents' idea was to find a safe place for me after school and thus, fortunately, I became a student of the legendary late Guru Gopinath. However, I never enjoyed dance when I was a child," admits Priya.
She continued her dance lessons, mainly to satisfy her parents. Priya specialised in Bharatanatyam and Kerala Natanam, the art form developed by her guru with aesthetic adaptations from Kathakali and Mohiniyattam. After her marriage, she moved to Edinburgh for higher studies in landscape architecture.
After a break, financial constraints motivated Priya to go back to dance. "It was difficult but with the support of my husband, Krishna Shrikumar, and children, I gave a few performances that led to a lot of youngsters becoming my students," Priya recalls.
In 1995, this resulted in the formation of Dance India, Scotland, primarily a teaching centre, and she went on to do a lot of programmes, both as a soloist and along with her disciples. Her friend Morag Deyes, artistic director of Dance Base, national centre for dance in Scotland, encouraged and supported Priya to establish herself and to bring a few masters from India for intensive short-term residencies.
Dance school
In August 2003, she formed the professional dance performing company, `Dance Ihayami' (Dance, I am here), a centre for South Indian dance in Scotland, which now gets an annual grant from the Scotland Arts Council.
Dance Ihayami works towards a fusion of Indian classical dance techniques, drawn mainly from Bharathanatyam and Mohiniyattam. Among its current working partners are Dance Base, Edinburgh, Edinburgh Telford College and Paragon Ensemble, Glasgow.
"We aim at linking classical Indian dance forms to and with other dance traditions through an innovative approach that recognises the inter-connections of modern society and to stretch the boundaries of Indian classical dance through imaginative exploration of forms and techniques, including new media to complement and expand live performance," explains Priya.
Blending traditions
Priya is now on a project to present Bharatanatyam with the Maori tradition of New Zealand, and is all set for an extensive tour of New Zealand with her disciples. Her previous work that blended Scottish music with Bharatanatyam had earned rave reviews.
Simultaneously, she is making efforts to revive the purity of Kerala Natanam, in the way it was visualised and conceived by her mentor Guru Gopinath, and to popularise it in Scotland. "Kerala Natanam is becoming the cynosure of both students and media here," adds a beaming Priya. Students from Scotland, England, various other European countries, Israel, Japan and New Zealand are undergoing training. And, amid this cultural transformation, has she forgotten landscape and architecture?
"After all dance is movement of (physical) bodies in space in symmetry and proportion," smiles Priya Shrikumar.
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