By Rupashree Nanda - IBN Live - IndiaSunday, August 12, 2007
New Delhi: When this Kathak dancer danced to sufi music, she broke tradition and raised a storm, but thirteen-years on her mystic dance has a growing audience and many imitators.
Any definition would be dangerous for an art form so young.
Kathak performed to Sufi music symbolizes love and longing for the almighty, a complete surrender and loss of the self. The yearning for the beyond, unpredictability and formlessness in the performance lies at the heart of Sufi kathak.
"I went to Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and discovered the form,” says Manjari.
Today, sufi Kathak has many disciples who are drawn equally to the courageous artist and her nascent art. “I really admire her performance, would like do it myself,” says dancer Meenal Mehrotra.
It has also touched a chord among artists of the older generation. "It is a divine dance,” says musician Fahimuddin Dagar. Clearly the artist who started out as a rebel has sown the seeds of a new tradition.
The whirls, reminiscent of whirling dervishes in Rumi’s poems are one defining gesture.
New Delhi: When this Kathak dancer danced to sufi music, she broke tradition and raised a storm, but thirteen-years on her mystic dance has a growing audience and many imitators.
Any definition would be dangerous for an art form so young.
Kathak performed to Sufi music symbolizes love and longing for the almighty, a complete surrender and loss of the self. The yearning for the beyond, unpredictability and formlessness in the performance lies at the heart of Sufi kathak.
"I went to Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and discovered the form,” says Manjari.
Today, sufi Kathak has many disciples who are drawn equally to the courageous artist and her nascent art. “I really admire her performance, would like do it myself,” says dancer Meenal Mehrotra.
It has also touched a chord among artists of the older generation. "It is a divine dance,” says musician Fahimuddin Dagar. Clearly the artist who started out as a rebel has sown the seeds of a new tradition.
The whirls, reminiscent of whirling dervishes in Rumi’s poems are one defining gesture.
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