Dance Trance By Sandip Soparrkar

Indian classical dance was known for solo performers then came the trend of group choreographies. It is a world ruled mostly by female dancers, there are very few male dancers and even lesser solo male artists. Santanu Chakraborty is a Delhi based Bharatanatyam Dancer and a Natyacharya, who is known for his solo dance choreographies. He has enthralled the audience with his dynamic performance at most of the major Indian Dance Festivals organised by ICCR, SNA, SKP, Ministry of Cultures shows, Natyanjali Festivals and many well know Sabhas organised by the government and religious organisations, like Ramakrishna Mission, Chinmaya Mission, Bharat Sevashram, ISKCON, etc.

Apart from that through ICCR, Santanu was sent as a Bharatnatyam professor to teach dance at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh, Cambodia and in Kala-Bharati, Montreal, Canada. His talented dancer has also choreographed many Hindi Bhajans and songs like ‘Sajni Sajni’, ‘Shape of You’ for Indian-Raga, many Bengali Modern Songs in Bharatanatyam. He has proudly taught dance to almost all races, from Russians to Americans, Europeans to Africans and Asians, all have learnt dance from him. 

He recently mesmerised the audience with his solo dance showcase at the very prestigious Swami Vivekananda Music and Dance Festival. I spoke with the very excited Santanu about his dance journey and issues a male dancer faces in the world filled with women, excerpts from the interview;

Tell us about your dance training and background?

I have trained in Bharatanatyam under the expert guidance of Padma Vibhushan Dr. Sonal Mansingh, also taken training from Padmashree Geeta Chandran, at present for last many years taking advance training from Guru V.Krishnamoorthi, to work more on male oriented themes and on male gods like lord Shiva, Vishnu, Krishna and on contemporary themes connected to mythology.

What did you perform at the recently held Swami Vivekananda Music and Dance Festival?

I performed on the theme of Hari-Hara (Vishnu-Shiva) as Vivekananda called them the incarnation the Shiva and He himself was a very good Musician, he played Pakhawaj and Sitar and also loved dance, as Ramkrishna name symbolizes Lord Hari(Vishnu) so I performed a Ravidass Bhajan "Kamala Lochana, Kati Pitambara" dedicated to Lord Krishna and three incarnation of Vishnu with a beautiful Story of Gaja Moksham as it is believed lord Vishnu came down on earth to save the Elephant from the Demon Crocodile. Two other incarnations show "Bali Chalo Hari Vamana '' as to how Vishnu came as Vamana and pushed Bali Raj to Patal lok, because of his Ego as the King. Then "Lanka Chedo Ravanam '' where Ravana and his ego is killed by Lord Rama.

On Shiva, I performed the most beautiful Shiva Panchakshara Stotra, ‘Om Na Ma Shi Va Ya’, in this stotra each paragraph start with each Akshara (Alphabet) and ends with the same Akshara; for eg ‘Na’ starts with Nagendra Haraya ends Nakaraya Namo Namaha, ‘Ma’ as Mandakini Salila, ends with Makaraya Namo Namaha. Like that it continues with the different stories of Lord Shiva. It is brilliantly written by Adi Shankaracharya and was choreographed by my Guru V.Krisnamoorthi.

Tell us more about the performance?

Bho-Shambho the incredible Akshaya Linga Story, where Lord Shiva-Vishnu-Brahma were shown in this story. Lord Brahma gets a curse from Lord Shiva that he will never be worshiped anywhere in the world as he lied to Lord Shiva, whereas lord Vishnu will be worshiped everywhere as the Protector of the world. Finally performed on Maa Bhabatarini Kali with the song "Sadananda Moyi Kali Mahakaler Mon Mohini". It means Maa is always happy dancing, singing, giving rhythm or Tala everywhere, as Poet Kamala Kanta describes in this song on Maa Kali.

For all this I want to thank Sonal Mansingh ji because of this particular style of storytelling and explaining I have learnt from her, today I saw all her shows to learn the way storytelling and dance is weaved together as I believed she is the master of Indian Classical dance forms.

How difficult is it to be a male dancer in a female dominated industry?

Oh my god! It is extremely challenging to survive as male dancer in the industry of female domination. Festivals do not entertain solo male dancers; they always want a female partner along. Even the Ministry of Culture rarely entertains solo male performers unless he has a female dancer with him. When it comes to Bharatnatyam, a male dancer is considered a minority, endangered species and a total rarity in some geographical places. For unspecified reasons, there seems to exist the proverbial ‘glass ceiling’ that they face. However, outside the performing circle, the male dancers do get knotted eyebrows-look as to why they dance. Still I believe there is dedicated following for male dancers, regardless of the style they follow, also among the male dancers there seems to exist a mutual respect.

You will not believe once an organizer from Uttar Pradesh told me, ‘Please do not bring small girls or school girls to dance with you, bring grownup Girls or ladies with you to dance in group choreographies.’ I was absolutely stunned to hear that, that means they are not interested in dance but in something else to see, I am still struggling with that criteria at this age.

Many believe if men dance Indian classical dance they start to develop feminine gestures, what do you say about it?

Yes, I have seen many male dancers behave feminine, they wear lots of make-up, jewelleries, and colourful costumes on and off stage too. But that has got nothing to do with dance, it is their personal choice and at the same time we must remember that we come from the tradition of Ardhnarishwar, where we believe every man has a woman in him and every woman has a man in her too. It is a natural phenomenon and dance has nothing to do with it. Dance is supposedly genderless and so ideally the gender of the artist should not matter, after all dance is bigger than the dancer.