Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy (JNMDA)
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Traditional Manipuri dances, revival
The Times of India, Apr 10 2016
Malini Nair
A dance academy in Imphal is reviving traditional art forms by giving them a contemporary twist
Old-timers say there was a time when if you stood in the heart of Imphal, you could hear the sounds of ritual music, drums and dance floating in from all around the city . Decades of strife have dimmed these sounds, but there are still islands of culture that come alive every evening.
One of these is the pretty campus of the Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy (JNMDA) which has been buzzing of late with a new spin on the nata sankirtana, an elegant, understated ritual art that grew from the arrival of Vaishnavism in Manipur in the 16thcentury as well the ancient nature worshipping cults of the land.
Because of their very languid pace and seemingly repetitive movements, Manipuri dance forms don't quite have the fan following of say Odissi, Kathak or Bharatanatyam.Some of its known classical and folk forms that are more visible are pung cholom (known for the distinct dramatic drumming, dance and music), the very lyrical ras leela and the festive lai haraoba.
Given these challenges, JNMDA, which is run by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, has been trying to make the form more accessible locally and outside through dance dramas. Every month now, a new classical dance drama comes up on the academy stage. The shows, fully ticketed, play to full houses. The very first was Kabui Kei-Oiba based on a Manipuri folk tale on the tussle between evil and good.
Since then, these ballets have moved from “gods to men“, as critic and scholar Sunil Kothari says, bringing in more contemporary themes like environment and conservation and going beyond the Radha-Krishna love lore.The younger gurus are pushing the boundaries of dance, even borrowing ideas and elements from Manipur's martial arts.
“We have some really rich classical arts that but if we can use these as the foundation to create dance dramas around modern themes then they become even more accessible to common people,“ says academy director Upendro Sharma who has been taking JNMDA productions to under-developed interiors -regions like Moreh that borders with Myanmar, Kakching and Moirang.
A month ago, the academy staged Loktak Ishei, a choreography based on the famous freshwater lake and its wetlands in Moirang.Next is a dance drama Phoomidigi Tengthakhol on the floating grass islands in the lake.“It is about the co-existence of the living and the non-living elements,“ says acclaimed dancer and choreographer Lokendrajit Singh.
Singh is one among the newer gurus to have experimented with forms outside the sankirtana tradition, giving his choreography a very sophisticated stamp. He has trained under the late kathak pioneer Maya Rao, incorporating her movement theory into his works. He has also fused Manipuri pung (percussion) with African drumming. Singh's best known work so far is the beautifully mounted Moirang Sha, the story of a legendary elephant done in by a rival herd. Here he merges the slow gait of the elephant with the elegant cholom (step) of classical Manipuri dance.
Another guru, Amanusa Devi choreographed Tagore's work Bidai Abhisap in the Manipuri style, further giving a secular twist to the tradition. Chaotombi Singh has worked on a ballet on the freedom struggle (Ningtam Lalhou) and Gandhi (Shraddhanjali). His works too have used elements from Mayurbanj chhau and martial art thang ta.
There is a unique aspect to Manipuri culture -traditionally, the arts have always been a part of people's lives, not skills to be staged as pure performances. Among the dominant Meitei community of Manipur, from birth to marriage and death, every single significant stage of life has to be marked by a performance of sankirtana. But as everywhere, people are moving from their moorings and the arts need extra support and patronage.
