Dance with the spirit of Independence

New Delhi: What better way could it be to recreate the times of our freedom struggle and the passion of our freedom fighters, than through the powerful movements of dance?Dance is one such art form which is used to express the freedom of movement of the body, of emotions and expressions. It can be used to bring any bygone era to life visually.

"Dance is the best medium to express the spirit of independence and the struggle for freedom. When I perform to the tune of Vande Mataram, I feel that I am at war myself, trying to free my motherland from the clutches of the Britishers," says Uma Dogra, a Kathak exponent based in Mumbai. Dogra`s group was recently in the city to perform at an occasion `Saare Jahan Se Achcha` to celebrate the 62nd Independence Day of India. She depicted Mahatma Gandhi`s ideals through the movements of the classical form of dance. "Its very important to convey the message of independence through our work. In these troubled times for the country, the freedom of a person is also affected. It is our duty as artists to convey the message of patriotism through our patriotism," Dogra told reporters. Through their item, Dogra and her disciples showed various incidents which formed a part of Gandhiji`s freedom struggle, like untouchability and casteism, burning of foreign goods and clothes, Salt tax imposed by the Britishers and their oppression on poor farmers. "I feel Gandhiji`s ideals are the need of the times. There is no way to solve problems other than a dialogue of peace on the lines of Gandhiji`s philosophy. He taught us how could we make ourselves independent. That is why I portrayed episodes from his period of freedom struggle in my performance," said Dogra, who has been in the world of teaching and performing Kathak for almost three decades now. The item was a modernised version of the ancient classical dance form, what with embedding the contemporary problems in it. Dogra insisted that this was only possible because Kathak was a free flowing natural dance. Through their item, Dogra and her disciples showed various incidents which formed a part of Gandhiji`s freedom struggle, like untouchability and casteism, burning of foreign goods and clothes, Salt tax imposed by the Britishers and their oppression on poor farmers. "I feel Gandhiji`s ideals are the need of the times. There is no way to solve problems other than a dialogue of peace on the lines of Gandhiji`s philosophy. He taught us how could we make ourselves independent. That is why I portrayed episodes from his period of freedom struggle in my performance," said Dogra, who has been in the world of teaching and performing Kathak for almost three decades now. The item was a modernised version of the ancient classical dance form, what with embedding the contemporary problems in it. Dogra insisted that this was only possible because Kathak was a free flowing natural dance. The piece performed by Dogra and her three disciples was an amalgamation of various patriotic songs, from the national anthem Vande Mataram to `Vaishnav jan to tene kahiye je peed paraayi jaane re`. This was a departure from the tradition of Kathak, which is performed to taal and bol in various `tukdas`. "Kathak is not as stylised as other classical dance forms such as Bharatnatyam and Odissi. Although moulding it to show contemporary problems was not easy, we could do it because the expressions and movements are quite natural. Through each `tukda` we tried to portray one message," she said. Bureau Report