Chakra (Collaboration)
Chakra, on the philosophy of life staged in NY was a mammoth production with 1000 school children of various nationalities participating in it. A production of the National Dance Institute, New York, it was directed by famous choreographer Jacques D’Amboise and performed at the Radio City Music Hall on May 20, 1991.On retiring, ballet choreographer Jacques D’Amboise, embarked on social work to bring world cultures together and educate the under privileged children about the outside world by giving lec/dems and training them in dance. Every year, he chose one nation and brought that culture to mainstream NY audiences. He visited the country of his choice, selected some children and brought them to NY to mingle with the local underprivileged children. In 1990, he chose India. After visiting various schools including Kalakshetra, he came to Bharata Kalanjali. At that time, Dhananjayan did not know anything about D’Amboise, except that he was a choreographer.
On the first day, he observed the classes. The next day, he expressed his wish to work with the children and taught them some ballet movements much to their delight. On the 3rd day, he wanted to work with 5 girls he had chosen from different classes in the age group of 10 – 12. In a national interview shot by Anita Ratnam in the US, he said that he had chosen these students because of their adaptability and receptivity. A couple of months later, the invitation letter came from the National Dance Institute that these 5 girls were chosen to participate in the project Chakra. Senior disciple Anita Murthy was the local instructor in Bharatanaatyam. D’Amboise’s assistant came from the US to teach the children what was to be done there in the group choreography apart from their Bharatanaatyam items.
As the name suggests, Chakra symbolized the wheel of time, the philosophy of life - an egg breaks, a male and female emerge, how they separate and then unite, the hurdles they overcome in the form of deserts and oceans symbolizing difficulties in life and how they finally go to heaven.
The 5 little girls who represented India were Deepa Narayanan, Monika Choudhury, Divya Ramachandran, Suchitra Rajan and Divya Devaguptapu.
"We were given a 10-minute slot to do a piece in Bharatanaatyam without lyrics about a child who comes into this world, how he overcomes his problems before entering the spiritual world. They provided the musicians, so we had to choose a score easy for them to play. We took a portion of the lilting Kedaragowla thillana and wove a story around it.
We went to US and were put up in a posh hotel in NY. We found to our amazement that 5 students were chosen from each school and trained by his assistants and finally nearly 1000 children came together to perform Chakra. We had 2 weeks of intense rehearsals. He was a hard taskmaster, used to yell sometimes, but my students are used to my yelling, so...!! Immediately the rehearsals were over, he would return to his normal, sweet nature. He was about 70 then. What a possessed, dedicated artist."
"The NY Times gave a beautiful review about how Indian dance was so narrative compared to other dances and almost a para was about the Indian group, stating that the whole Chakra show was carried on the shoulders of the 5 Indian girls."
