– Padmabhushan Shri V.P Dhananjayan
A very simple explanation, “Dance” a common word for all kinds of movement in rhythm is not a true translation of our performing arts. My genuine contention is that when we have specific names for each form of performing arts why not we use that instead of a common word which does not specify any form. If one says “Please come for my dance”, naturally one may ask “Which dance or What dance?” If one specifies the style of your performing art, it simplifies the matter.
Secondly, “naatya” is a comprehensive word or name for Bhaarateeya theatrical art forms (Bhaarata naatya). This name has been in vogue from time immemorial or from vedic period. Bhaarata is the name of our country which has profound meaning.
The invaders of our country conveniently changed the name of the nation as “India” (which has no meaning) Along with that the invaders inducted a common term for all our performing arts and we blindly followed them forgetting the original names of our art forms. My humble request to all the practitioners of these performing art forms is, specify one style of dancing, whether it is Bharatanaatyam, Kuchipudi Naatyam, Kathak Nritya, Utkal Naatya or Odisha Nritya or such kinds.
According to Saastra, Naatya includes, Nritta (pure dance), Nritya (communicative body language) , Naataka (drama-stories). Thus Naatya can be the right word we should use and make foreigners familiar with this word, just like we call their classical dance tradition as ‘Ballet’. Westerners generally do not refer ‘Ballet’ as mere ‘dance’, they emphasize the term for their classical dance as ‘ballet’ only. So why should we compromise to demean our classical tradition to mere ‘dance’? As we are familiar with the term ‘ballet’ let those foreigners also get familiar with our indigenous names, be it Samskritam or other regional languages.
