For a venue that has dance attached to its name, the intimate proscenium of the Godrej Dance Theatre has been a witness to, and shaped by, many currents in the world of movement. As a platform for the complete spectrum of work in dance undertaken by the NCPA, it would not be wrong to say that the theatre has had a role to play in furthering the art form itself.

All through September, the GDT will be the venue for recitals spanning Kathak, Odissi, Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam, among other classical dances. This series of performances is a homage to a theatre that is recognised as a space for the imaginative and inventive in classical art.

More than a stage 

In the late 1980s, soon after the GDT opened with a performance by noted Bharatanatyam artiste Chitra Visweswaran, it became a forum for exponents to transfer their knowledge to budding performers. Drawing upon her guru’s legacy, Dr. Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, Head of Dance at the NCPA, narrates how the Odissi maestro Kelucharan Mohapatra’s dance lessons on the Godrej stage were a gateway to larger conversations. “Even the discussion of setting up his own institution Srjan in Bhubaneswar started on the stage of Godrej Dance Theatre,” she says. For Dasgupta, this space then transcends its physical reality to become a potent setting for structuring new happenings in dance. 

One of them, she elaborates, is the NCPA’s outreach programme Vistaar whose beginnings can be traced back to the GDT. Dasgupta recalls that over a decade ago, she paired up with Mumbai based Kathak danseuse Pallavi Raisurana and began conducting lecture-demonstrations at schools across the city to initiate students into the realm of Indian classical dance. Dedicating her time pro bono to the initiative, Raisurana along with Dasgupta effectively sowed the seeds of “audience development and education” in dance at the NCPA that have now matured into sophisticated programmes like Vistaar and Nrityaparichay.

All the while, the nature of activities at the GDT have been undergoing transformation, so that it has now transitioned from a learning centre to a place that supports presentations and performances whereas the dance training it birthed has grown exponentially to reach hundreds of students across the schools of Mumbai whereas masterclasses and residencies are hosted at several venues at the NCPA.

Full circle 

Against this backdrop, Raisurana will be taking the GDT stage this September for a Kathak recital that explores saint-poet Kabir’s verses. This would be Raisurana’s debut performance at the GDT, even though this very stage was the place where she presented her first outreach programme nearly a decade ago. 

Along with Raisurana, another artiste making a reappearance on the GDT stage is the Kuchipudi danseuse T. Reddi Laxmi. In 2014, she made her NCPA debut at Umang, a festival that promotes promising artistes. A decade later, she returns as a professional artiste for a showcase that represents the dramatic element integral to the Kuchipudi form.

Laxmi, who trained under the exponent Jayarama Rao, will present the Prahalad Natakam to tell the story of Narasimha, one of the Dashavatars (the ten avatars of Vishnu) from Indian mythology. The focus of her performance will be the intensely emotive vachik abhinaya or dialogue inherent to the dance form while her attempt at innovation will be reflected in her crisp solo recital as opposed to longer group presentations that are characteristic of Kuchipudi’s Yakshagana tradition.

This is in line with the NCPA’s insistence on reimagining movement beyond predefined choreographies such that, Dasgupta notes, the stage is a place for artistes to introduce novelty in their works.

Reimagining dance

When the audience witnesses the debut of Madhusmita Mohanty and Shashwati Garai Ghosh at the GDT, it will also be a first for the artistes, practising two distinct strands within Odissi, to share the stage as a duo in Mumbai. 

Where Garai Ghosh trained under Sharmila Biswas, Mohanty is a disciple of Aruna Mohanty. Earlier this year, Dasgupta witnessed their synergy as a dance duo at the Sangeet Natak Akademi in Odisha and felt that they must be introduced to Mumbai’s audiences. Through their performance, they bring to the stage brilliant synchronisation of varying ideas and movements elevated by their strong aesthetic sense. For them, blending their styles for the recital at the GDT is an opportunity to go beyond preset boundaries to present a new work and connect with an audience that is open to unconventional experiences.

With this line-up of performances, the theatre once again stands out as a stage that encourages scope for reinvention within traditional forms even as artistes retain the vocabulary that is the cornerstone of each classical dance. Dasgupta describes this as a transfer of language from a guru to the disciple where tradition is only the vocabulary, and the poetry is for the artiste to create to ensure the survival of the form.

And each exponent carries these traditions forward in her own way. For Raisurana, the emphasis is more on harnessing age-old practices of abhinaya and storytelling to suit a changing context. This approach finds its way to her lecture-demonstrations too, filled with jugalbandis, interactive performances and training tailored to children’s sensibilities. According to her, the contemporary practice of a classical style is more about a contextual state of mind—her performance is an exploration of how Kabir’s poetry resonates with her present inner self.

For her part, Laxmi’s insistence is on forging a connection with audiences by readjusting her style of executing traditional Yakshagana without deviating from the songs, lyrics, tala and raga that make up the recital. In a dynamic take on what is otherwise a group performance, Laxmi will portray all the characters of the dance drama herself to keep the audience hooked to Kuchipudi’s expressionism. 

Through it all, the Godrej Dance Theatre will serve as the medium for the new in dance, maintaining its spot as a proscenium built for this enduring flux within traditional practice.