Arangham - Active Repertoire - 7 GRACES... the many hues of Goddess Tara

Responses to Dance and Discussion on the Divine Feminine titled HER and BLISS…in chapters, by Anita Ratnam for Jnanapravaha, Mumbai on October 29 & 30, 2010

- Dr. Rashmi Poddar (art historian and cultural curator), Oct 2010
- Kaiwan Mehta (Architect, and Researcher in the field of Visual Culture), Oct 2010

SEVEN GRACES is a major break-through work. Unlike others that attempt to update bharata natyam for contemporary times or to blend bharata natyam with western Modern dance, this work calls upon both traditions but is recognizable as neither. Rather, it invents a new vocabulary, one demanded by its message. Ms Ratnam, with her director, Hari Krishnan, dug for the true grit and came up with gold. It is a shockingly raw yet compassionate and generous offering of personal, social and aesthetic revelation. The only work I can compare it to is Kazuo Ohno's; Seven Graces is a bharata natyam version of that butoh master's refined gestural opus in the service of psychological revelation. Ms. Ratnam's gloriously articulate gestures - fingers, eyebrows, toes - call forth in us little gasps of recognition and association. Appropriate for bharata natyam, unlike butoh, the work is deeply and gratifyingly womanly; while we may not be able to identify the autobiographical details, we cannot mistake that they are a woman's. I feel privileged to have been able to witness this work and want to see it again, and again.

- Dr. Deidre Sklar, Dance Scholar, University of California, December 2007

In the 7 Graces not only does Anita Ratnam astound with the variety of her movement and performance vocabulary, but also convincingly locates all human experience –even the banal –within a spiritual context.

- Veenapani Chawla, ADISAKTHI Theatre, Pondicherry, June 17, 2006

I wanted to let you know how much I loved your and Hari's work: Seven Graces at the Rubin Museum. It is a very challenging piece of thought and movement and your thorough involovement with it came through beautifully. I also admire and appreciate the extent of Tara you have managed to personalize : it made for more of a vulnerable human experience. Thank you.
Congratuatations once again!
I shall look foward to seeing more of your wonderful work in future

- Sudarshan Belsare, USA

Your minimalist movements were pregnant with shamanic power, and you embodied priestess, goddess, and mother in turn, sometimes in the blink of an eye. I gave up any attempt to follow the dance on an intellectual level, simply revelling in the uniqueness and rarity of those blessed and transcendental moments.
Details

Antares (Poet, Musician, Filmmaker, Maverick), Malaysia