Performer keeps culture alive through Indian dance
4:30 PM 10/18/03
Amanda Henry Wisconsin State Journal

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For many Americans, Indian culture means the occasional curry and a passing acquaintance with Ravi Shankar. <

Kripa Baskaran would like to change that. <

Baskaran, 30, is the proprietor of the Natyarpana School of Dance. At her Madison home and Milwaukee's Hindu Temple, Baskaran teaches Bharatnatyam, one of India's half-dozen distinct classical dance forms. <

A frequent performer at schools and festivals, Baskaran hopes to reach a larger audience next weekend when she and some of her senior dancers are joined on stage by a renowned professional troupe from India. Together they will dance scenes from the "Mahabharata," an ancient epic about gods and goddesses that's complex enough to make the "Iliad" look like a greeting card. <

Classical dance in India started in the temples as a religious observance and progressed to the royal courts before becoming a popular pursuit for young men and women all over the country. Indian children begin studying dance at age 7, and spend anywhere from seven years to a lifetime honing their craft. <

"One wants to master a form," says Baskaran, who has performed professionally all over the world. "I still take lessons from visiting artists. You can never finish learning." <

In India, each region has a dominant dance style, with very different rhythms and conventions. Occasionally, a dancer will also study a second form. For the upcoming performance of the "Mahabharata," for example, Baskaran and her dancers have had a crash course in Kuchipudi, the style practiced by Pasumarthy Sarma and his visiting troupe. <

While there is an emphasis in classical Indian dance on preserving the purity of the form -no freestyle Bollywood moves allowed - there is also room for creativity, says Baskaran. <

"Dance is like a geometry," she notes. "There are some dos and don'ts that you're supposed to follow." <

Beyond that, she says, one is free to invent. Baskaran composes and choreographs both Indian dance and the occasional experiment with other forms. She is currently working on a piece with one of her students that will fuse Indian and Irish dance styles. <

Baskaran, who moved to the area with her family in 2000, has students who range from 6- and 7-year-old beginners to serious dancers in their 20s to middle-aged Americans looking for a new form of exercise. A dance therapist in her native India, Baskaran also teaches special needs children. <

"They follow this rhythm and this beat so well," she says. "They are able to relate to the music." <

As intricate as the history of Indian dance is, Saturday's performance is designed to be accessible to all. A narrator will provide an explanation (in English) of the plot of each scene. The costumes, custom-made in India, are brilliant silks with elaborate trim. The dancing itself can be divided into two distinct elements: "nritta," or pure dance, the surprisingly intense physical component; and "abhinaya," the expressive, dramatic aspects - gestures, facial expressions, etc. <

At its best, classical Indian dance is a blend of acting and athleticism, according to Baskaran. She arranged the appearance by Sarma, the visiting master, to give Madison audiences a chance to see a traditional dance ballet performed by some of India's finest. <

"I wish people had more than two eyes to witness that," says Baskaran. <