Master dancer and educator Chitresh Das makes every gesture—every arch of the eyebrow, every flick of the finger—vibrate with meaning, with an innate creativity and utter commitment based on centuries of intertwining cultural threads. Though so well versed in the classical Indian dance form of kathak that its complex disciplines have become second nature, Das has forged a new, uncompromising path of collaboration and cultural translation, working with flamenco dancers, tap whiz kids, and contemporary performance expectations to continue kathak’s lively evolution.
American audiences will get an opportunity to dive into this Indian classical dance form this spring, as Das and his dance company tour several U.S. cities, giving performances and workshops in March, April, and May 2013, and Upaj: Improvise,a new full-length documentary film premiers, chronicling his collaboration with young American tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith (who also performs live in the dynamic India Jazz Suites).
Recognized in India and in the U.S.—Das has been honored as a National Heritage Fellow by the NEA, among many other accolades—Das was born at the right moment to achieve what seems a near-impossible balance of forces. Son of artist and dancer parents, he witnessed both the triumphant, chaotic rise of modern India, while encountering intriguing traces of older forms, which influenced his own take on kathak’s expressive, rhythmically complex dance and storytelling.
Trained by his guru Pandit Ram Narayan Mishra from boyhood, Das absorbed the great wealth of kathak, its mathematically precise and demanding rhythms, its elegant gestures and vigorous footwork, its elevated and often hair-raising beauty, and its physical and intellectual challenges. More than mere movement, a traditional, often three-hour-long kathak performance encompasses everything from storytelling (the form’s name stems from the noun katha, “story”) and poetic recitation, to whipping through dozens of dazzling pirouettes in a row and improvising intricate rhythmic variations. “The present form of kathak is less than a century old, but the roots definitely go back thousands of years,” Das explains. “There are four elements in kathak: tayari or preparation, which is also speed and power; laykari, to play with tempos; khubsurti or beauty; and nazakat, the essence of beauty. So you have the pure dance, speed and power and pirouettes. Then you have the storytelling part, which always fascinated the American audience.”
Das’s approach to storytelling is indeed riveting: He can transform fluidly from a bold warrior on a horse to a modest maiden gathering flowers. To capture such a range of gestures, postures, and facial expressions, Das draws on simple observation: “Over the years, you watch babies and old people and everyone in between, and learn from life,” reflects Das. “That is why Indian classical dancers only improve with age.”
Das and his students dedicate this approach to telling stories from sources like the Sanskrit epic and long-loved fount of stories, the Ramayana, from whence Das took the material for his unique vision of Sita Haran(The Abduction of Sita), a piece performed by an all-female corps of dancers. Das and the dancers move the tale beyond beautiful ancient story—into a deeper, universally applicable place, examining through the actions of the characters, with their foibles, obsessions, and distractions, the seeds of conflict and war.
Finding a fresh, yet very profound insight on age-old techniques and tales comes naturally to Das, whose upbringing gave him full access to both classical Indian and global cosmopolitan culture. Das grew up watching his father’s revolutionary dance dramas about India’s birth and meeting traditional court entertainers and the greatest gurus, all while attending Catholic school, going to Westerns at the local movie theater, and checking out the many famous jazz orchestras that toured India and performed in his parents’ backyard studio.
From this remarkable mix of influences, Das seamlessly crafted his own understanding for how to perform and imagine a strict classical form in a new era. “Classically trained artists at that time were unable or unwilling to make their work accessible,” remarks Celine Schein, executive director of the Chitresh Das Dance Company. “One extreme was to fall into gimmicks or abandon tradition all together, and the other was to stick hardline to tradition. Chitresh says you have to evolve, without losing your integrity. He really searched, delved into his tradition to uncover elements that were both moving and otherworldly, yet could cross cultures easily. He found a way to connect with people.”
Das’s search took him in an unusual direction: to the U.S., at the height of the flower-power 60s. “I faced a lot of frustration as a male dancer in India. 1968 brought turmoil around the world, and everyone everywhere was rebelling. My guru sisters would get opportunities to perform, and I wouldn’t. Society was still extremely male dominated, and they only wanted to see women dancing. And I was fascinated by contemporary dancers, and by jazz.”
So Das took a teaching position at the University of Maryland, and later at the Ali Akbar College of Music in the Bay Area, eventually establishing his own Chhandam School of Kathak. Though many new American audiences, enthralled by Indian arts or open thanks to the era’s prevailing counterculture, would sit politely through the traditional hours-long solo performance kathak involves, Das felt something didn’t click.
“I had to make the dance fit into the American society and expression. It was not easy at all, and at first I didn’t like it, to be honest,” recalls Das. “But we tailored it, trimmed it. We started trying to understand how to present kathak and make it engaging, without discarding the tradition. We have a model and structure.”
It took decades, spurred by major performances for events like the L.A. Olympics, when Das managed to condense three intense hours of dance and storytelling into a harrowing twelve-minute slot. Das’s approach also proved fruitful in India, where he tours and teaches extensively now, as broader audiences—he recently wowed several thousand students in Assam’s biggest city, Gawhati—discover an art form once solely reserved for the well-educated elite.
Part of this approach involves finding meaningful dialogues with other dancers from other traditions that share similar rhythmic or dramatic features with kathak. A long-time fan of flamenco after watching a dancer in the film Around the World in 80 Days as a teen, Das teamed up with Antonio Hildago and created a piece that has toured internationally. After tap dancer Smith saw Das dance at a festival they were both appearing in, the young man asked amazed how Das made all that sound without shoes. The two hit it off, and began to work together to create India Jazz Suites. They took the piece around India, a journey and interaction shown in Upaj: Improvise, which shows how their intercultural, inter-generational personal and creative relationship changes and shifts, both in performance and off-stage. The film also illuminates highly difficult episodes in Das’s own life—the tragic loss of his guru, for example—and the joys and trials of traveling as a classical artist in modern India.
Combining different traditions is a delicate matter, as the film quietly reveals. In working with collaborators, Das says, “I spend a lot of time with them and I don’t tell them what to do. They do whatever they want to do and I’ll do it with them. We have a structure, but they don’t change for me and I don’t change for them.”
Because of Das’s unique artistic sensibility, long experience, and ongoing curiosity, finding common creative ground with other dancers or diverse audiences feels easy for the veteran dancer. “I don’t see any challenge, in bringing kathak to people,” comments Das. “People open up. They read between the lines and begin to see. You entertain the world while retaining the tradition.”
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