Thanjavur Balasaraswati (1918 – 1984) – a dancer and a musician, a legend who combined the traditions of the past with a futuristic vision… to give bharatnatyam its rightful position in the world of arts.

I have reviewed this book on video too and I’m sure you’d all want to see that before you go any further with reading this review. So, here it is:

This hard-bound book takes us deep into the history of devadasis, the evolution of bharat natyam, and the revolutionary instincts of a real artist… all written with an intimacy that makes the book MORE than a mere biography. The author, Douglas M Knight Jr, is himself an accomplished artist and is also the son-in-law of Balasaraswati.

The book is full of incidents that tell us how Bala debated and fought to ‘convert the corrupted image of traditional bharat natyam’… she ensured that this dance form adapted itself to the modern stage. The dancers thus understood bharat natyam better and were able to take it to the level for which it was intended. The author points out in the preface that ‘to visualize Balasaraswati’s significance today, we need to free ourselves of the limitations of our perspective, and see with bigger, more easily astonished eyes the world that embraced the tradition of hereditary bharata natyam.’ He writes later that being a part of the family gave him an insider’s perspective on ‘how a hereditary art form endures.’ This is one major reason why I feel this book is more than a mere biography… and because it doesn’t have the protectionist embrace of an autobiography, this book is more than that too!

We also get to understand that ‘in Balasaraswati’s style, as in the style of all hereditary dancers, the artist performs music and narrative dance extemporaneously.’ The author has taken a lot of pains to trace the history of the dance form, explained the finer nuances,  and connected all this with how this legendary figure managed to project it to the world as ‘most sublime a form of Yoga’…

The book isn’t about only the accolades and praises for Bala as even the unsavoury bits and pieces that happened in the press have been quoted. These range from personal opinions on the beauty of Bala to contorted and deliberately twisted remarks on her zeal to promote Bharata natyam as visualized by her. I quote: ‘During his distinguished career the writer K. Chandrasekharan referred time and again to Bala’s performance that July. On that first occasion, he commented, as did critics after him, that Bala was not particularly  beautiful, but that when she began to dance her eyes and pearl-white teeth dominated and transformed her face.’ What is important here is that the dancer continued unabated in her pursuit to put the dance form on the top slot globally. No wonder then that in 2000, ‘the Dance Heritage Coalition, an alliance of leading American dance performers and teachers, institutions, and dance libraries and collections, published the results of their initiative to identify “America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasures: The First 100.” The only artist they included who was neither American nor European was Balasaraswati.’

There are then little anecdotes that any other biographer could easily have missed or may not have had access to them. Like the one where Ted Shawn welcomed her by assuming the pose of Nataraja and dramatically exclaimed: ‘I am Nataraja…’ This happened at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance festival and School in the US where, on the opening night, Ted Shawn also told the assembled audience: “Tonight you are in the presence of greatness.” Talented people the world over knew what it was that she was insisting for. Let me again take a quote from the book: ‘During the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, Balasaraswati’s art was at the center of a debate over the appropriateness of the narrative dance theme of human love, Sringara, on the modern stage. Had Bala stopped performing, the corrupted image of traditional bharata natyam as vulgar might have met no resistance.’ Even her daughter, Lakshmi, has been quoted as saying: ‘She had to fight to prove how wonderful the art is. How could we forget how she was transformed while performing – and moved the audience! How dancer and audience became one!’ The book deals with such facts and abstractions… and does it in an easy and flowing style. The language is never intimidating, nor does it have obfuscating metaphors that such biographies are so full of.

The Notes towards the end of the book are extensive and appropriate. The glossary is full of dance terminology made easy… many readers can actually know little intimate details of the musical instruments associated, and even the abstract terms that can be so open to misinterpretations are explained in their correct perspective. The author has followed all the definitions that Bala followed and stuck to in her own lifetime… and this is what makes the book as much immortal as the artist herself.

We also get to see a few glossy b/w photographs of the expressive Bala, some not so known characteristics of an artist (for instance, the studio photograph where she is posing with M. S. Subbulakshmi in 1937 and both asserting ‘their independence by secretly arranging this photograph of themselves dressed in Western-style sleepwear and pretending to smoke cigarettes.’), and a lot of other pictures that help the reader see the real person come alive.

This biography isn’t just about Bala and her relation with the dance form she embraced… it is also about a clearer and closer look at less known or almost unknown facts about her family, her extended family, her friends, and the little things that happen that never get to the press. It is an intimate and cosy peep into the real and the stage Bala… the Bala that performed and the Bala that made sure that all her protégés performed well. No wonder then, that Ani, interviewed when he was seven, said, ‘Balamma was strict with students. Her hands and feet were strong and she could still dance. She never stopped dancing; her feet kept patterns in her sleep. She was the greatest dancer in the world.’

I personally found the book as engrossing as many good non-fiction titles and also just as exciting as any good fiction… the pace never crawls, the words never wither and die, the connections never block and confuse… and by the time you reach the end, the size too starts appearing endearing! You start realising then that it isn’t just a story that you are reading but another chapter from the personal diary of ‘truth’… and in the preface, the author too writes: ‘Years ago I asked Lakshmi what she thought Bala believed was the most important part of her story, if it were told. Lakshmi responded without hesitation: The Truth.’

This book is in my collection… and will be read many times, I know.

Details:

Title: Balasaraswati: her Art & Life
Author: Douglas M. Knight Jr
ISBN: 978-93-80658-81-0
Publisher: Tranquebar
Cost of the hardbound version: Rs 599/-

 

This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com.

 

Arvind Passey
22 January 2012