Caribbean Beat — November/December 2021 (#167)

Students of Rajah’s Adavallan
Art Academy
[similar to a lute], flute, violin, nattuvangam [cymbals], and the
vocalist. We do have drums, but those artistes improvise freely,
they aren’t trained in the music. We do not have veenas or veena
artists. We have the violin, we have the flute, but the entire genre
is different. They aren’t at all trained in Carnatic music. I’ve now
had to explore working with the tabla, because that is what is
available here. And sitar, as well as not having a natuvanar or
vocalist. Even if I have a vocalist, the music can’t be set to a particular
rhythmic cycle, as we would in Carnatic music, because
that concept isn’t practiced by them. And if I’m dancing, I’m not
Bharatanatyam is linguistically and
musically different to most other
Indian classical forms in Trinidad.
The musical heritage of Indians in
Trinidad is mostly rooted in northern
Indian folk music and dance
musical heritage of Indians in Trinidad is mostly rooted in
northern Indian folk music and dance. Those who have studied
classical Indian music are primarily educated in north Indian
traditions. Bharatanatyam dance introduces a south Indian
aesthetic, language, and rhythm.
In a traditional Bharatanatyam recital, the dance is performed
through facial expressions and hand gestures. Through these,
the rasas are communicated. In the Indian classical tradition,
the concept of rasa — roughly translated as essence or flavour —
is critical to performance. The expression of the navrasas, or the
nine emotions, is the responsibility of musicians and dancers alike.
Communicating these effectively to audiences is one of the main
goals of performance. As such, in the Indian classical tradition,
music is defined as a trilogy: dance, instrumental music, and song.
As Rajah explains, “When you learn any of the eight forms
of Indian classical dance, there are many things that you have
to learn simultaneously with it. Indian classical music, it’s like a
sub-main to your dance. You have to learn percussion, which is
the inherent rhythm of the universe. It’s that structure, the time
cycle of how you would set your music to dance, so you have to
be very knowledgeable about that.”
In Trinidad, the challenge was adaptation of this knowledge.
“In the Carnatic musicians’ setup, the instruments used for
Bharatnatyam are the mridangam [a two-headed drum], veena
able to do the nattuvangam, which is like the most important
part of the orchestra for Bharatnatyam. So I’ve had to try to find
ways to work around it.”
Na veena na ragam, na mridangam na talam — “Neither veena
nor ragas, neither mridangam nor rhythm” — the phrase could
very well be the beginning of another text, not the Natyashastra,
the ancient Indian treatise on dance and performance, but a
Caribbean one.
Rajah sees this as lending to creativity and presentation. “It
just takes a bit more out of both sides, the musicians and the
dancers.” In addition, she’s started pre-recording a spoken introduction
for the performance — “for the audience to understand
what will be unfolding, what they are supposed to feel, what they
will be seeing on the stage.”
This feels like another coming of age story in the history
of Bharatanatyam. It continues the narrative of resilience and
imagination — of those who dared to cross boundaries, and of
women, most importantly, who challenged the order of things.
Transplanted in Trinidad, it is yet another transformation of the
form, despite Rajah’s attempts to retain the purity of form.
Improvisation, after all, is a feature of Bharatanatyam’s
history, and Alana Rajah, with her relentless drive to perfect
her art and establish her own version of Kalaskshetra in the
Caribbean, is in fact a pioneering spirit, charting a course for a
future generation. n
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