Danced Poems of Double Authorship

In her own words, Dr. Sethi says –Ever since March 2020, when we became conscious of the pandemic and the crises it was creating, along with many others, I too realised that only community efforts, would save us. If each member in the community would be there for the other, we would get through this dark time. Among the many communities I belong to, are performance and artistic communities. Mostly we assume artistic communities to be built around a family, stylistic and Guru lineages. Could there be a community that was linked to an intangible geography of a festival and its short-lived stage? To see if it was at all possible, I reached out to SNA’s Bismillah Khan Yuva Puruskar awardee, Dr. Anwesa Mahanta, herself a Sattriya dancer and Festival Director of the northeast based Pragjyoti International Dance Festival. I felt I could ask her to be part of this experiment since Kri Foundation has been a long-time associate and partner of PIDF. I owe a deep debt to Anwesa Mahanta for her willingness and enthusiasm, and coordinating with the featured dancers from India and abroad, who danced to my poem “Which Fork we Take”. It is interesting that even if they had not performed together, they were willing to come together to create a community, strengthen their bonds and jointly make a compelling argument of being kind and altruistic? I am touched that one of the international Indian dancers, Enakshi Sinha, wrote asking permission to use this poem, written in English, in her regular repertoire.

In her own words, Dr. Sethi says –“This poem has a different and rather interesting story. By now these experimental videos to my poetry written in the times of Corona, had begun to be noticed. Bhubhaneshwar based dancer Ileana Citaristi, recipient of the Padmashri called me one day and asked me to write for her. I told her I would share my next Corona poem with her. But she had a caveat- “No Covid poem. I am fed up with this Corona crying. I want you to write something about Jagannath.” I reminded her that I did not write poetry on order and write only about what touched me. She drew my attention to an unusual practice in the annual calendar of worship of Lord Jagannath. It is when just before the Rath Yatra, he falls sick and goes into quarantine. I found this interesting, but the writer’s block remained. Meanwhile we all followed the sad saga of the pregnant Kerala elephant that died standing in water, in so much pain because of its shattered jaw caused by the explosives packed in the pineapple it ate. Suddenly one morning Ileana called to remind me, somewhat angrily, that it was ‘shanan purnima’ and I had still not written anything, and that we will not be able to offer this work on the occasion of Rath yatra. As she ranted, I googled “Shanan Purnima’ the very first image I saw stunned me. It was the lord’s picture as he emerged from the shanan- in ‘gajavesham’. I felt that Jagannath himself stood with and for the elephant. In the next two hours I wrote the poem "Jagannath Speaks to Me", and we were able to offer it on the occasion of Rath Yatra. I owe Dr. Ileana Citaristi a deep gratitude not just for dancing to this poem, but for drawing my attention to aspects of The Lord's quarantine”.

In her own words, Dr. Sethi says –“By the time when Lockdown 3 ended, we had already been restricted to our home for 50 days. Many people cursed the enforced restrictions and the boredom, but I thought they were days of great introspection. I wrote a poem, “Voh Pacchass Din” when 50 days were over. Normally I write in English. This time as I picked up the pen, it started writing in Hindi. Selecting Kavita Dwibedi to do this piece was based on our close friendship and her keenness to dance one of my Corona poems. She chose this poem as it described the darkness around us and the light within, a fact that determined her treatment of it. It is a message that speaks to all of humanity. Kavita treated this poem very dramatically by having the light restricted to her face and said it all by the powers of ‘Mukhabhinaya’.”

In her own words, Dr. Sethi says -“We realised how important this message contained in ‘A Tribute to COVID Frontline Workers’, of recognising and saluting the selfless work of doctors and all frontline workers was, and so started getting it translated into different languages, seeking to bring this out in other dance forms and genres, to spread the message further, deeper and more extensively. Doctor friends were very touched with this initiative and helped us in some translations. But it was the Assamese translation by dancer Sharodi Saikia, that is important and needs to be specifically referred to. A senior Sattriya dancer Sharodi Saikia, recipient of the SNA award, has used her immense knowledge of Assam's performance art forms to be inspired by a host of them. Sharodi as wife and mother of doctors, was in my opinion a very good choice for this poem. She personally translated the poem and built a rich multi-layered artistic edifice on it. She has embellished it to evoke rasa in you, even if you did not comprehend the language. She was supported in this effort by a local foundation, the North East Foundation. It was subsequently even telecast on Prag TV, a well reputed television channel of the region as a public interest message. This delighted us because using the arts for social development issues has been one of Kri Foundation’s mandates”.

In her own words, Dr. Sethi says -“I had been writing poetry as a hobby for many years, more as a dabbler because I always thought that prose was my forte. But the powerful changes being wrought by the prevailing circumstances, created a churning that compelled me to write, and this writing took the form of its own accord of poetry. As Kri Foundation's Founder Trustees, Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee and eminent Bharatanatyam dancer Rama Vaidyanathan and I were horrified to see what the frontline health workers in the battle against Covid 19 have had to endure. I am the daughter of a police officer and have been the wife of a doctor. I couldn’t bear this disrespect. I wrote a piece as a “Tribute to COVID frontline workers”, as a humble tribute to them, during a trying time, in which they did more than their duty despite tribulations and impediments. Rama Vaidyanathan imaginatively created this piece from within the confines of her dance studio”.

In her own words, Dr. Sethi says- “Lock down had ensured that we were restricted to our homes. Social distancing had ensured that we could not gather together as a community, or for artistic purposes. It had a shocking impact Most people couldn’t understand what was happening and then began fears of livelihoods and the anxieties that accompany the loss of a familiar way of life and the uncertainties of the future.

I first wrote some verses on the prevailing situation and the anxiety that was beginning to engulf us. Primarily people were shocked with the lockdown. It is true that never before had so many people had been constrained to their homes, with virtually no warning. But I hastened to remind them in this poem that this was a “lock down” and not a “lockup” and that a lockdown reflected responsibility while lockup, a crime.

I shared this poem with Pune based Senior Kathak Guru, Shama Bhate. She picked up the idea enthusiastically, and within a few days shared the video of ‘Shubham Bhavantu’.”

In her own words, Dr. Sethi says –“The poem ‘Umeed Udassi ka Virodhabhaasi Safar’ written in Hindi, came when we had spent many days in lockdown, stay at home quarantine and Social Distancing. The restrictions of movement in quarantine, stay at home and lockdown, and the anxieties of the invisible attack of COVID-19, had led many to introspect and realise that while no one can predict the trajectory of life, those of us who are fortunate enough to live our lives surrounded by melodies and rhythms, have a deep lesson to learn from these teachers - the lesson of integration and working together in every situation, just as 'sur' and 'taal' live, work and play in concordia. It also imposes a moral mandate on us artistes, to carry forward this message, through the arts, and help people live harmoniously and hopefully, through difficult times and uncertainties along life's journey. This is what makes the artist truly blessed. That is why I felt that this message was one that many artists could give. Therefore, this poem was also given to Odissi dancer Jyoti Srivastava who took her time, composing music with great care and sensitity before putting forth the choreography in an inside outside perspective, eloquently shot by ace camera person Innee Singh. This was another, entirely different treatment. Since the music was so magnificent, she has included it as a regular item in her repertoire and has performed it several times since.”.

In her own words, Dr. Sethi says –“The pandemic created a crisis of sustainability and livelihoods for the artistic community. I sensed a curious play of hope and despair. The Artistes were not just drawing strength from their art but also inspiring a scared, constricted and anxious humanity But I felt that they were nor realising this life asserting role that they were playing. That is when the piece titled "Umeed Udasi ka Virodhabhaasi Safar" was written and sent to artistes of different styles. In this piece, I chose Mangla Bhat for the enactment in Kathak. Mangala Bhatt is a sensitive, aesthetic, imaginative exponent and choreographer of Kathak dance, based out of Hyderabad. Mangla has been dear to me as a dancer. I felt her intrinsic elegance and gravitas would bring out the contrast well. She has captured the ‘sthayee bhava’ of the poem and given us precious glimpses of the subtlety of abhinaya just as much as she has given of the beautiful rocks of Hyderabad along with the magic of the rains there. I must mention that the video has been captured by her son, Madhav and his talent adds to the visual luminescence.”