Contemporary twist to eternal journey

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Buddha, the embodiment of peace and love, is revered and worshipped by millions of people across the world. His way of life and search for the eternal truth that gave rise of Buddhism, is now being immortalised in a dance ballet The Enlightened One — Gautama Buddha, by well known Mohiniattam and Bharatnatyam danseuse Dr Kanak Rele along with Dr Birgitte Bauer Nielsen from Norway. Rele, who was inspired by Buddha and his life, wanted to present and recreate it on stage.
“I felt moved by Buddha’s teachings and was motivated to read further and understand what he wanted to convey,” says Rele.
Understanding the works of Buddha was no easy task. It meant going through a lot of scriptures, grasping the essence of Buddhism and understanding what was the truth that he was in search of. “The scriptures were vast and comprehensive. I spent seven years reading and understanding the essence of Buddhism and it has been a challenging production,” says Rele, who considers this to be one her of most elaborate productions.
For someone like Rele, who is considered to follow tradition quite closely, this is quite a different approach. However, Rele doesn’t feel so and says that she simply followed what her heart said. “And that was to present the era in its most authentic form. There is a completely different feel and approach to this dance,” says Rele.
The show premiered in February this year and will be staged at the University of Mumbai next week. Those who saw it for the first time couldn’t stop raving about the show in terms of presentation and choreography. “I don’t think it can be called contemporary in any sense. We have used certain elements from different forms of performing art and presented them the way they are,” explains Rele. The ballet has traditional ballet sequences, forms of folk from Manipur, Kalaripayattu, the martial art form from Kerala and much more. “A lot of movements and steps from these forms are used in contemporary dance forms these days. To explain certain features about Buddha’s life, this was necessary and I don’t think in any way it can be categorised as a contemporary ballet,” says Rele.
The music of the ballet is an interesting combination of Indian and Scandinavian music. “It’s an interesting combination of many ragas where some of the alaaps have a beautiful extensions with the traditional Scandinavian music. Apart from that there are a lot of variations with the ghatam and Tibetan gongs which beautifully blended into one another,” says Rele. The ballet sequences by students from the Stavanger University in Norway gave that mesmerising touch to the production. “The ballet sequences looked extremely beautiful in the traditional form and were incorporated very well,” says Rele.
She says that with time her outlook towards dance has changed and is evolving. “Thinking and re-thinking about dance keeps happening all the time. What I thought 20 years ago is not the case now. And in the last seven years, I wasn’t feeling too creatively satisfied. There were times when I needed to challenge myself and this was the production that challenged me in many ways,” says Rele.
Right from lights to costumes and choreography was perfectly looked into by Rele and her students. “There was a sense of belonging in this production and excitement that had students play an active part in everything. My students would sit hours together ensuring not a thing was out of place, be it costumes or lights. And I am fortunate to have such a co-operative team who gave more than their 100 per cent,” says Rele.