Dancing magic with the five elements

India Today

02-05-2025

What happens when stars of the dance world meet and create magic? The world dances. As it happened this week at India Habitat Centre (IHC), Delhi. It was the only mega dance event on the actual date declared as the International Day for Dance by the United Nations—the others were all before or after, not on April 29.Any excuse is good to dance and Delhi, being the capital city, had five events going around the occasion: Utsav Cultural Society was first from April 20, then Kiran Nadar Museum's Aditi Mangaldas show on the 24th, followed by Natyavriksha on 26th and 27th, and then Vaishali Kala Kendra's celebration of her guru Durgacharan Ranbir getting the Padmashri award this year, and finally India Habitat Centre's over-full and flowing World Dance Day, where the best of the culturatti couldn't get in if they were not early enough to catch a seat. Extra screens had to be put up in the basement halls when Stein, whose balcony rarely gets filled, was full within minutes of the gates opening.advertisementThe Bangalore International Centre (BIC) in Bengaluru had Mrinal Prabhu presenting her flock and Gururaj dancing his Kuchipudi. Baroda, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Chandigarh, too, mounted their own events, as did the Chennai sabhas and Kerala mandapams.What makes a show draw thousands of people when classical dance shows generally struggle to get even a hundred or two into a hall? Content. Concept. Context. Research, recognition and reputation. The IHC consulted yours truly once again for content, as it has often done in the past. This is how Panchatatva was born.
The five elements—air, water, earth, fire and ether—were represented collectively and also individually. For instance, air was embodied by an upcoming star of Kuchipudi, Washim Raja, whose Gajendra Moksha was most evocative and touching. He floats like air and flies! Shobana, the superstar of South, and recently Padma Bhushan-ed, represented Bharatanatyam and her Shankarabharam varnam was so finely etched that it took the viewer almost inside a South Indian temple complex. No starry tempers or demands, she came like anyone else, availed common facilities and even joined the group impromptu in the end doing Vande Mataram, as an ode to the civilians killed in Pahalgam.advertisement
Not just these two forms but all five—including Kathak by Anuj Neha Mishra of Lucknow who represented fire with their red costumes bringing Shiva and Shakti live, modern dance by Vishwakiran Nambi, who representing ether doing Yella Oottu on food, and earthen Odissi by Rahul Varshney showing Ashtashambhu—added to the occasion, with yours truly giving apt historical perspective laced with humour, culminating in an impromptu 'lungi dance' , when all the panchtatvas came together in Vande Mataram. The audience, too, joined in, such was the pull and energy of the magical evening, energised by the best Indian dance has to offer.Among the audience were many gurus, stars, students and others from all age groups. There was also the entitled Delhi lot that could not get in the hall—coming fashionably late didn't help this once! Sandip Mullick's lights were superb. IHC engaged the best and pulled out all stops to help the grand event become grander. Those who missed it can catch the magic and relive it on IHC's dedicated social outreach channels, including on YouTube.advertisementComperes Rahul Sharma and Sonali Sharma conducted the proceedings with aplomb, which had the Unesco head for South Asia based in Delhi, Tim Curtis, release the mock cover of the silver jubilee edition of AttenDance on Indian dance in France guest. Edited by Sonya Wynne Singh based in Montpellier, France, the edition will be launched in Paris later by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), Unesco and possibly the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) with the Indian embassy. The World Dance Day, after all, is in honour of the French ballet master Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810).Aman Nath of the Neemrana group provided gravitas and class, while Delhi's much-loved guru Vanashree Rao lit the lamp with other panchbhutams. This was also the first event at IHC attended by its new director K.G. Suresh, who had just taken charge. It was providential because he is also the great grandson of veteran Kathakali guru vidwan Shankaran Namboodripad, who taught the dance form at the Uday Shankar Almora Studio in the 1940s. Vidyun Singh, the creative head of IHC and her A team comprising Shadaab, Naresh, Wasif and Sushma managed all the logistics days ahead and after. The World Dance Day was celebrated as a grand event by one institution in India, in a befitting manner that had a huge ripple effect with dancers from all over India already asking what's the chance they can dance next year.advertisementSubscribe to India Today MagazineMust Watch