>>PREVIEW
GAYATRI & MOODS OF THE RHYTHMS
Janak Khendry Dance Company
Presented by Raga Mala Music Society
Friday, November 18
University Theatre (U of C)
When he is not rehearsing, he is composing. When he is not touring, he is researching. Janak Khendry, artistic director of Toronto’s Janak Khendry Indian dance company, wishes a day had 48 hours so he could perform, choreograph, travel and teach without constantly racing against time.
The veteran dancer, whose career spans more than five decades, will be touching down briefly in Calgary with his troupe to perform two of his works. Khendry typically delves into difficult, esoteric subjects – some historical, others deeply spiritual – and for this performance he’ll be bringing Gayatri, his dance based on the sacred Gayatri mantra (a Vedic prayer to sharpen the intellect).
Khendry says he has dreamed of dancing to Gayatri ever since he was a teenager living in Amritsar, India. At five, he learned the mantra from his mother, reciting it diligently without quite understanding its power or significance. Years passed, and Khendry finished his graduate studies in sculpture and art history at Ohio State University, but the idea of presenting Gayatri through dance still nudged him occasionally.
However, giving creative shape to a 24-syllable mantra with no storyline was a bold, challenging venture – something no one had attempted before. It wasn’t until one day in New York, where he was working on The Life of Mahavir, a work about the founder of Jainism, that inspiration struck like a bolt of lightning.
"I might sound old-fashioned," he says. "There is always a right time for things to happen.
"When you’re dealing with works like the Gayatri, you have a serious responsibility to keep the sanctity," he adds, on the phone from his home in Toronto. To ensure factual accuracy, he hired a scholar who helped with the research.
In the planning stages, Khendry debated whether the piece would be performed solo or as a group. His dilemma ended soon after when he came across a passage on Gayatri’s chaturang, or its four limbs, and realized the work should be choreographed for four dancers.
Once the research was complete and music recorded, Khendry listened to the score over and over again until it seeped into his psyche. Standing in his studio, he imagined he was in a temple. He extended his auspicious right arm to begin the ritual of paying obeisance to the Supreme. From there a stream of movements flowed in synchronization and the 73-minute piece was entirely built on right-hand choreography.
In his choreography, Khendry dips into Bharatnatyam, Kathak and Manipuri, blending the South and North Indian styles to create a fusion unparalleled by others. But some of his pieces also have traces of modern dance, reflecting his studies in Columbus, Ohio, where he learned the Graham, Limone and Cunningham modern-dance techniques.
Every year, he choreographs two or three new works and revives old ones. While themes and music remain the same, dance routines change. Moods of the Rhythms, the other piece to be performed in Calgary, debuted about 10 years ago. After about 20 performances, it was shelved to make room for new productions until Music Alley in Toronto recently invited the company to revive it. Khendry re-choreographed and presented the new version this past fall.
Moods grew out of a simple question Khendry put to a friend: "Indian ragas (music themes or melodies) have moods and emotions, what about Indian talas (rhythms)?" Khendry picked basic rhythms of Bharatnatyam to depict a whole gamut of emotions – the three-rhythm tishna for pathos, four-rhythm chatushra for fear, five-rhythm khandam for anger, seven-rhythm mishra for love and nine-rhythm sankirnam for laughter.
Khendry says he’s always experimenting outside his comfort zone. Perhaps it’s the secret of his staying power.
"I believe there are two ways an artist can progress," he says. "One is the horizontal way – you do what you do best and you keep doing it. There is nothing wrong there. As a creative artist, where do you take your art? You keep climbing. You slip, you fall. You keep climbing till you reach the top. That’s the vertical way and that’s the way I work." |
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