Kanak Rele
| Picture Credit score: Particular Association
Kanak Rele’s passing marks the top of an epoch within the historical past of Mohiniyattam, the lyrical dance type of Kerala. For greater than half a century, she strode like a colossus over the nation’s terpsichorean arenas, resuscitating and enriching the dance. On this pursuit, she succeeded in putting Mohiniyattam on a pedestal with a powerful basis of shastras, together with Natya Shastra, Balaramabharatham and Hastalakshanadeepika.
Kanak Rele helped give you a logical pedagogy and launched it in her establishment, Nalanda Nritya Kala Mahavidyalaya, which was established in 1972 to popularise her type.
Because of Kanak Rele’s efforts, the establishment was affiliated to the College of Bombay, turning into the primary within the nation to award the levels of BFA, MFA and later Ph.D in Mohiniyattam — one thing no establishment in Mohiniyattam’s land of origin Kerala might boast of.
Although Kanak Rele was chosen for a medical course, she selected to review regulation and graduated from Manchester College, U.Okay., with specialisation in aviation regulation and was supplied a profitable job in Air India. Then why did she select dance?
She had defined as soon as, “Within the lengthy lifetime of mine there’s one phrase that comes by means of as a thread that binds all different strands, and that’s dance”.
It was throughout Kanak Rele’s days as a toddler in Santiniketan, Kolkata, that she had her first tryst with Kathakali. She had her initiation below Raghavan Nair. As soon as, dancer Uday Shankar, who was visiting Shantiniketan, blessed her and inspired her to pursue coaching. This continued at house in Mumbai below Panchali Karunakara Panikkar for a few years, although she needed to face stiff resistance from family members who described Kathakali as ‘rakshasi dance’. Earlier than lengthy, she became a consummate performer.
Kanak Rele was deeply in love with the artwork types of Kerala since. When she was chosen for the primary Guru Gopinath Nationwide Puraskaram, instituted by the Authorities of Kerala in 2019, she stated, “All these years, I had recognized myself with the folks of Kerala, and now your authorities too has endorsed it”.
She was initiated into Mohiniyattam by Kalamandalam P.N. Rajalakshmi, a Kathakali performer, who was in Mumbai. The beautiful attraction of lasya attracted her and he or she was decided to delve into the roots of the dance type that had its first revival in the course of the interval of Swati Tirunal (nineteenth century), and vanished from the arc lights, due to the degeneration it underwent later, owing to quite a lot of causes. The dance type needed to wait till 1932 to be revived by poet Vallathol Narayana Menon. Even after three a long time, it was but to regain a stable type.
A research grant from Sangeet Natak Akademi at this juncture was a blessing because it enabled Kanak Rele to satisfy the surviving performers and students who might enlighten her concerning the evolutionary phases of Mohiniyattam. Her pursuit acquired additional impetus, due to a grant from the Ford Basis. She met surviving exponents equivalent to Kalpurathe Kunjukutty Amma, Thottassery Chinnammu Amma and Kalamandalam Kalyanikutty Amma and filmed them. By the way, the recordings are a prized possession within the archives of her establishment in Mumbai. A radical evaluation of those dancers’ performances helped her formulate a fundamental construction.
As a part of this course of, Kanak Rele met thespian Kavalam Narayana Panicker, an acclaimed authority of the esoteric cultural ethos of Kerala. The oft-repeated criticism that Mohiniyattam appeared ‘a poor cousin of Bharatanatyam’, might be eradicated as she launched Sopana Sangeetham and its talas with the assistance of Narayana Panicker. To her shock, she realised that the essential oscillating actions that Mohiniyattam embraced have been superbly aided by the gamakas of Sopana Sangeetham and talas thereby giving the dance type the indigenous flavour of Kerala.
This led to the beginning of the much-lauded ‘Kanak Rele type’ of Mohiniyattam. Myriad priceless productions choreographed with the assistance of Narayana Panicker are preserved within the archives of her establishment, Nalanda, and taught there too.
Kanak Rele’s bewitching type fetched her innumerable accolades. She was the primary Mohiniyattam dancer to be awarded by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the primary to be honoured by the Authorities of India with a Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, and the Kalidas Samman. Books authored by her, together with Bhava Niroopana and Mohiniyattam – The Lyrical Dance are a part of the curriculum at establishments, even in Kerala, that educate Mohiniyattam on the college degree.