Classical Indian dance company collaborates with local troupes
Sometimes it takes a big stretch to bring together ideas that span continents, but sometimes an artist has to do just that.
Choreographer Chitra Krishnamurti put together her admiration for Helen Keller, the deaf and blind American author, political activist and lecturer, with dancers from her Nrityalaya classical Indian dance studio to create a multimedia performance that portrays Keller's life and travels. The result will be performed Saturday, July 17, at the Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center on Montgomery College's Rockville campus.
Relying on the universality of dance, Krishnamurti followed her dream by reading whatever she could find about Keller, who became blind and deaf after contracting what is now thought to have been meningitis or scarlet fever at 19 months old. She also watched movies and videos, all the while formulating the ideas she would transfer to the dance floor.
"It was very strange, but I thought, ‘how does it matter whether it was Western or Indian? Helen did not communicate in any language,'" Krishnamurti explains.
Krishnamurti related Keller's relationship with Anne Sullivan, her mentor and caretaker, to the Indian practice of discipleship.
"We all need a guru; we all need a mentor. In India, we have the guru-disciple tradition. I want to teach that this is universal. It is very, very precious," Krishnamurti says.
A traditional Indian dance in the classical Odissi style, which Krishnamurti teaches in her Potomac studio, opens the show. Barefoot, brightly clad dancers cover the stage, alternating enthusiastic foot stomping with graceful, delicate movements. The dance functions as an invocation to begin the performance, and the Odissi dance style does not appear again until the finale.
"Odissi is a dance style from the state of Orissa in India. It has a grace and technicality that meld together in a different way than any other dance style. It has [unique] grace and lyricism," dancer Anjana Mohanty observes.
After graduating from Radcliffe College as the first deaf-blind person to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree, Keller spent her life writing and traveling to more than three dozen countries to raise awareness of the needs of handicapped people worldwide. Although performed by Odissi students, each dance represents a culture from the continents Keller visited.
For help in creating authentic ethnic dances, Krishnamurti enlisted the help of local choreographers and dancers.
Shizumi Manale, artistic director of the Bethesda-based Shizumi Kodomo Dance Troupe, helped with a Japanese dance; Mfoniso Akpan and Jakari Sherman of Washington, D.C.'s Step Afrika!, with a South African miners dance; dancers from Silver Spring-based group The Washington Revels, with the English maypole dance; and Anna Menendez of Rockville's American Dance Institute, with the Spanish flamenco.
Negotiating so many style changes was challenging for Krishnamurti's dancers.
"They learned the dances right away, but I had to tell them to forget about how they performed," she says. "The difficulty was learning the new form of expression."
The production will be performed again in Baltimore on Sunday, twice in September at Gallaudet University and on tour in India from Dec. 28 through Jan. 27.
"What we are portraying in the dance is universal," Krishnamurti says. "We'd like people of all cultures and ethnicities to attend and help us help the blind and deaf communities."
If you go
"Helen Keller," a multimedia,
multicultural dance performance, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center, Montgomery College, 51 Mannakee St., Rockville. Ticket prices range from $10 for the hearing and visually impaired to $50. Proceeds will benefit the hearing and visually impaired through donations to the Maryland School for the Deaf and the art department at Gallaudet University. Call 301-299-3513.
Correction: The original version of this story gave the wrong date for the performance. The performance is Saturday, July 17.
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