Contemporary audiences lack knowledge of classical dances: Geeta
Acclaimed Bharatanatyam dancer Geeta Chandran, recently honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award, believes the indifferent attitude of today’s audiences towards classical dances is because they lack knowledge of these art forms.
“Contemporary audiences lack knowledge of classical dances. We have to brief them about our theme before we start our performance; we need to educate them so that [they] understand our presentation,” Chandran said.
“The nature of audiences has changed. Today, all programmes are for an hour or a little more. Audiences now don’t have time for long performances,” the Padma Shri awardee added.
Chandran noted that since audience preferences are changing, it has led to a change in the presentation of classical dances as well.
“There are fewer takers for the purest form of Bharatanatyam now. Dancers are more professional on stage. They’re coming up with different kinds of content and the choreographic device has come up in a big way,” she shared.
Many professionals are adopting innovative ways of presenting classical dances, sometimes even with Bollywood music, said Chandran, adding that they cannot, however, be considered as classical dancers. “They (the artists) could be called entertainers, not classical dancers. For me, there is no question of mixing Bharatanatyam with other music,” she said.
She expressed the belief that the age-old charm of Bharatanatyam will always remain alive. However, she also acknowledged that artists need to be given full liberty to choose the way of presenting a dance form.
Noting that change is inevitable and “shouldn’t be resisted”, she said it should be effected “without losing the ethos and philosophy” of the dance form.