Snippets of Information
Dance - Gaudiya Nritya
* 21 Nov 2022
Prof. Dr. Mahua Mukherjee, M.Sc., Ph.D. has done her Botany
specialisation in Cytogenetics from Calcutta University. She is the
Professor at the Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata and was the
Dean of the same institute from 2013 - 2016. With over 40 years of
research work she has revived and reestablished Gaudiya Nritya, a
classical Dance form of Bengal, which is more than 2000 years old along
with her husband Amitabh Mukherjee. She has also taught Gaudiya Nritya as a Fulbright Visiting Professor in Oklahoma Norman University, USA.
She has authored around 19 books on Dance and contributed
towards making of documentary films - Dance of God ( 1997), Trance In
Motion (2012), Ressurrection ( 2014, Parliament TV Channel), Gaudiya
Nritya - Golden Glory A Classical Dance of Bengal, ( 2017, Sangeet Natak
Akademi).
Source: nsnewswire.com
"Gaudiya means old Bengal and the Gaudiya Nritya which has
its origin in the Natyashastra, vanished from the scene because of lack
of patronage and political disturbances. This", says Mahua Mukherjee,
"can be attributed to the western influences on Bengal. While dance
forms like kathak and bharatanatyam flourished, gaudiya nritya just
disappeared." Mukherjee explains, "Gaudiya Nritya comprises chau which
is a heroic dance, nachni which is shringaar form, kushan which deals
with Luv Kush and has its roots in the Ramayan and the Kirtan, the
devotional aspect. Her gurus have been Padmashri Gambhur Singh Mudha for
Purulia Chau and Shashi Mahato for Nachni and Kirtannritya from
Narattam Sanyal.
She has learnt in the guru-shishya parampara style and tried to imbibe
the nuances of the dance form from them. Her performance was based on
the drama form, which was a narrative of stories from the mythologies
beautifully set to music and aesthetically breathtaking. "Gaudiya Nritya
reflects Bengal's physical structure too. The Sunderbans, the paddy
fields and the rivers flowing through it and the north, which is rigid
because of the Himalaya, characterized old Bengal. Gaudiya Nritya is
similar, it's both rigid and flexible". As Mahua Mukherjee remarks,
"Everything in Bengal is rounded. Even the pronunciation of words is
rounded. Similarly, even our dance form is very circular, with plenty of
Chakkars."
Source: artindia.net
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