POETRY IN MOTION

Watch a poem come to life on Saturday. Padma Bhushan kathak exponent Kumudini Lakhia and her students at the Kadamb Performing Unit will set to motion the 1850s work Ni-ra-tata-dhang, composed by Maharaj Bindadin, the adiguru of kathak.

The poem, says Lakhia, translates from ‘nritya dhang’, or the style of dance — it forms the basis of kathak repertoire and dictates technique. Lakhia has taken artistic liberties with it for this production. She has pioneered the art of adapting classical compositions to group choreography.

“I don’t think Maharaj thought of it as a non-solo performance,” she says. “Now that kathak seems to have taken over the world, with classes in the remotest parts of America, choreographers even in Germany, I thought it would be nice to adapt the piece so everyone can be familiar with its rhythmic structure.”

The poem has five stanzas, and music director Padma Shri Madhup Mudgal, has composed a tarana or melody for it. As with many classical kathak compositions, the poem is about Krishna the deity, and the first stanza illustrates Krishna dancing by the Yamuna with gopis .

In the second, the gods in heaven bless Krishna’s dance. Radha is introduced in the third stanza, and the happiness of the girls in love elucidated in the fourth.

“The fifth stanza is the most interesting,” says Lakhia. “The bols elaborate on how to dance in true kathak form, how to take a chakkar, perform a tihai [the transition between rhythmic components], everything. It’s fascinating, and I want all kathak dancers to have access to it.”

Lakhia’s style of kathak is non-conformist. “Many people look at kathak like the blind men with the elephant — they see it as a rope, or a pillar, focusing on just footwork or chakkars, but I go right around the elephant and see it in all its glory.”