Guru Pratibha Jena performing at Triveni Kala Sangam, 2014
Text:
Anisha Shekhar Mukherji
Photographs:
Snehanshu Mukherjee and Anisha Shekhar Mukherji
It is thanks to Joseph Allen Stein that I came to Guru Pratibha Jena Singh. I however doubt if they ever met or even knew of each other.
Strange as that sounds, there is a fairly straightforward explanation for this.
Mr Stein is the architect who designed Triveni Kala Sangam, one of the most elegant buildings in New Delhi. We came to know of Triveni in our first year of architecture college, owing to a conversation with a senior in the college canteen, part of the SPA culture of informal animated discussions which formed as much part of our architectural education as our formal classes. He told us about the open-air theatre at Triveni, detailed with an edge of carefully cast concrete outlining its grassed terraces. Entranced by his description, we trooped off to see Triveni for ourselves. And came back again and again to sit on the terrace and watch the whirling Manipur dancers who always seemed to be practising on the stage; to eat ‘tasty toast’ and shami kababs at its open-air cafe under the vines climbing the pergola; to watch the changing patterns of sun and shade cast by the jalis; to stare at the art on display in its galleries, and wonder at the different sorts of spaces and textures that unfolded in the relatively tiny building site. All this was made easier since SPA was almost at ambling distance from Triveni, and my home was literally a stone’s throw away. But, even when we moved further away, I continued to come back to Triveni every now and then.
The Terraced Seating in front of the Open Air Theatre, Triveni
The First floor Terrace
The Open Air Theatre, Triveni
So, when we failed to find an Odissi teacher for our daughter in our immediate neighbourhood, rather than look anywhere else I checked to see if it was being taught at Triveni. And found Pratibha Jena’s name and phone number.
Extraordinarily down-to-earth, Pratibha Jena has none of the airs associated with many experienced artists – either in her conversation, or in her exacting and yet, engaging manner of teaching. The distinctive, evolved and alternative style of Odissi, the oldest surviving classical dance form of India, that she practices and teaches, was put together by her father, Guru Surendranath Jena – an accomplished exponent of Odissi.
It was a revelation to discover how, within the constraints of the urban and institutionalized environment of Delhi, Guru Pratibha Jena still manages to transmit the spirit of the guru-shishya tradition that is part of the Indian tradition. Her students are really like a family. In fact, the very first time I phoned her to ask if I could get my seven year old daughter to learn from her, she told me that I might instead think of going to some of her former students who were teaching Odissi closer to my part of town.
However, thanks to the Metro, Triveni is relatively easy to get to, so we opted to have Treya learn from her rather than anywhere else. Since I knew very little about Guru Pratibha Jena at that time, the attraction for me was a reason to come to Triveni every week.
In the initial year, there was little opportunity to ‘hang-around’ at Triveni. We were asked to sit in class and note down the ‘bols’ and the ‘mudras’ which the children were being made to practice.
And I observed that unlike the segregation that accompanies conventional ways of teaching, in Pratibha Jena’s classes, students of different ages often practice together. This gives them both physical and mental ease and grace, in movements as much as in communication. They practice in the classroom with its wooden floors and in the wide verandahs outside the classroom, a space shaded and cooled with high jali walls thoughtfully designed to let in the breeze while screening the dance practice from the activities of the people in the galleries and cafteria below.
Practising in front of the wonderful Screen bordering the First-Floor Corridors
In her method of training, she is not the only one who teaches. All her students are asked to demonstrate or teach mudras or steps that they have learnt, to newer pupils. This gives them a greater sense of responsibility, and makes them more attentive. Something one can learn from and use – if not as an alternative, then at least as a supplement – in mainstream education too. And with all this, she retains a great sense of humility and humour.
Among many other things I have learnt through observing and interacting with her, is how seamlessly dance is an alternative way of transmitting history.
Through song, that always accompanies it.
Through the evocation of different animals that inhabit our landscape; through the portrayal of the incarnations of Vishnu, the dashavatars; through the hand movements, the mudras, which can signify a multitude of actions and attitudes.
Through the descriptions and depictions of the temples where the dance movements are graven in stone. The temples with their sculptures and their contexts, literally come alive in the dance – no longer merely repositories of skilled craft or architectural principles, but home to stories, emotions, people, gods.
It is perhaps because Odissi is so permeated with the presence of the Lord. Jagannatha is always there – with his large eyes and in his stance of ‘chouk’, one of the main postures in the dance. Guru Pratibha extends the feeling of sadhana, discipline with worship, to all aspects of her dance. She combines great skill with complete engagement, transforming herself into the characters she portrays so that whether a connoisseur or a novice, you are riveted by her performance. And in her attention to detail of costume, stage-movements, and music, she displays the same elegant sensibility that distinguishes the architectural attributes of the place she teaches from.
So, now I come to Triveni as much to experience Odissi through her classes – albeit as an onlooker – as to refresh my acquaintance with the building that first brought me here.
Guru Pratibha Jena teaches Odissi at Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi, and through NrityaShilp, Guru Surendranath Jena Odissi Dance Foundation: www.SurendranathJenaOdissi.com
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