As a dancer and also someone who had started out an academic
career originally in Psychology as the primary discipline, I am perpetually
interested in the "moods" and psychological states affected by
performance. The raaga system within classical Indian music has a number of ways of
classifying music, and one of these is by the psychological state evoked by
each Raaga. In addition, the rasa
theory from the Natyashastra treatise,
which also links the performance to the evocation of a specific mood within the
spectator, also holds a significant centrality for the classical Indian
performing arts.
In the context of classical Odissi dance, we dancers work
with highly structured repertoire pieces, which are composed by our gurus, and
senior gurus of our lineage traditions (gharanas). For me, in the context of Odissi dance, the
moods/ragas theory has been an entry point into conceptualizing an overall mise-en-scene for a piece or production.
In 2013, when I performed my feature-length solo show "Corpus Matris"
at the Toronto International Fringe Festival, I performed the repertoire
choreographed by Guru Durgacharan Ranbir.
I wanted a dynamic relationship between the dance and the lighting
design, and this was where the ragas and relationship to mood came in. My show began with "Vajrakanti
Pallavi", one of Guruji's beautiful and distinctive compositions (pallavi is an abstract dance within the
Odissi repertoire). One of my former mentors, Sushree Mishra Kar, from Calgary,
who is both a classical Odissi dancer and Odissi singer, sent me more information
on the Raag Vajrakanti's classification on the mood theory, and that it considered to be a "melancholy"
raaga, associated with late night/early morning times. This information I
provided to my lighting designer, Parker Nowlan, to help structure an overall mood for this
section of the performance.
Photo above: from "Corpus Matris" (2013), Theatre Passe-Muraille Mainspace, Toronto.
Lighting Design: Parker Nowlan
In 2016, when I visited Turkey under a grant from the Canada
Council for the Arts, in order to study several different dance forms of
Turkey, I had the privilege of undertaking a lesson in Turkish Makam Theory
under Okan Ҫakmak
of Istanbul. To me, it felt like the
learning of dance tradition would remain incomplete without knowledge of the
music, and its philosophical and aesthetic bases. Ҫakmak had been Mike's clarinet
instructor for Turkish style clarinet, and with this being the common ground,
Mike and I took this lesson together. It was fascinating to learn about the
music theories of Al Farabi and Ibn Sina, and also that most of these makams were associated with zodiacs as
well as psychological and physical states.
Another choreographic study I did earlier in the year was "A
Study in Dastgah Shur", based upon the Persian modal system of music (dastgahs). I presented sections of the
piece in April 2016. Once again I found myself intrigued by the theory of
specific moods being evoked by the different dastgahs.
Mike and I currently involved in a number of music-dance projects
and collaborations. Among these was "An Encounter in Hicaz," which we
presented a few times in Toronto. We also continue to collaborate on a longterm
project, titled "Vignettes of Sringaar", in which I aim to bring in
some of my study of rasas and moods.
Our most active project is Ensemble Topaz, a music-dance ensemble
featuring a trio of dancers, and several musicians. Among my favourite
performances this year with the Ensemble has been the CNE International Stage
in August. Tomorrow (September 29,
2016), we have our presentation for Culture Days at the Annette Street library,
from 1:00-2:00 pm, featuring some of our musicians, and a few of our dancers,
playing select pieces of our repertoire. We have been told that there will be
school classes visiting our presentation and we greatly look forward to sharing
our work with the next generation! For more information on Ensemble Topaz at Culture Days:
