Delineating the Nayikas

How does one convert 300 pages of a book into a dance production? One will need to ask danseuse Anupama Kylash because she is doing just that through her upcoming dance production — Jeeva Nayika.

For Anupama, who has been dancing since a few decades the idea to write a book, The Nayikas of Annamacharya, on the Nayikas from Annama-charya’s songs came only after she did her thesis in 2000.“I had done my PhD on Annamacharya’s songs and then over the years, I kept doing a lot of research on the songs, but the idea to write a book happened about a year ago,” she says. Anupama’s book and the dance production describe in great detail the various female leads in Annamacharya’s songs.

“The women have always been projected as strong characters in these songs and when I was studying them I realised that the characters had a lot to them, their moods etc. The dance production is a glimpse of what the book has to offer,” she adds. For the dance production, the challenges were plenty. “I had to translate the songs into the dance and I also had to decide the mood and the psychology of the women. That was quite challenging,” explains Anupama, who adds that the entire dance production took her close to a year to create.