Myriad shades of Mallika Sarabhai

The name Mallika Sarabhai conjures up a myriad of images. To most, she is a dancer and choreographer. To others she is also a theatre personality, actor, publisher, writer and activist all rolled into one beautiful persona that radiates vitality and strength. She is not sure which role is dearest to her or how they evolved.

She simply states, “Each facet would have evolved out of necessity. It really is all about trying to get my thoughts and ideas across. If I find that for a particular idea I need a new language then I go learn it. I started writing my own scripts in 1990 because I could find no one to write Shakti: The Power of Women, my first one-woman show.”

Whatever facet Mallika chooses to project, one can be assured that she has been a catalyst for change. Mallika likes to call herself a communicator who uses the tools at her disposal — her pen and her art — to address the issues she holds dear to her heart, primary among them being women empowerment and the preservation of arts and crafts. Mallika will be participating in a talk show along with Rekha Menon at the JT Pac, Kochi, on Sunday. She shares some of her thoughts on dance and life even as she is getting ready to fly to Delhi for the talk show scheduled there.

“The organisers want me to share my dance journey on the talk show. So besides talking, I will show videos of the very diverse range of our dance and dance theatre work,” says Mallika, who has been the co-director of Darpana Academy oContinued from page 19

Mallika has performed in Kerala before and is happy with the audience response here. The half-Malayali says, “I usually get an interested audience here. And now that this is home to the Biennale and the local response to that is so amazing, I hope for even better audiences.” Mallika has used dance as a tool for social change. She corrects, “All the arts, not only dance!”. And, she continues “Traditionally all the arts were used for informal education including sculpture, paintings, folk music,etc. Art as entertainment is a Western idea that we have adopted. If I want to communicate a difficult topic that you may not want to talk about but if I talk to you obliquely through a form that has made you drop your guard, I am more likely to succeed in getting through. The arts are a persuasive and effective language.”  

Daughter of the legendary dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai, it was her mother who imbibed in her a love for the arts and taught her to blur the boundaries between classical and contemporary dance forms. The pride is evident as she states, “My mother was the first Indian dancer to use the classical vocabulary to communicate her contemporary concerns. As early as the 1960’s, she used Bharatanatyam — a dance of Sringara — to speak of dowry violence. I grew up amid this and just assumed that one could use it to transmit one’s thoughts. I don’t consider myself a contemporary dancer or choreographer, just a contemporary woman with contemporary concerns who uses dance, theatre and music to voice concerns.”

Her mother’s demise would have left a void but Mallika says her mother is there in every thought of hers. “I don’t miss her; her presence is so strong — both in me and around me in Darpana and our home, that she is always there!” she says. The young generation has been weaned on a diet of cinematic and other western dances. Does she feel classical dance forms are in danger of going redundant? She sees no such cause for concern and says, “We just need to find ways of reaching them on their turf.”

Before winding up, Mallika speaks about her future endeavors, “With my colleague Yadavan Chandran, Darpana’s artistic director, I am planning a feature film, inspired by a hugely successful show we created on the 605-year history of Ahmedabad city. It is very exciting and we hope to go on the floor later this year.” Mallika’s talk will commence at 7 p.m. on Sunday.f Performing Arts for over 40years.