If Kathak has evolved into a dance form that excels in aesthetic choreographic images in live movement, the credit for the innovation goes solely to Pandit Birju Maharaj, the doyen of Kathak. Shoma
A. Chatterji explores how the titan changed the dance form’s aesthetics to the next level at the prestigious Padatik.
Padatik, Kolkata (estd.1972) is among the premier institutions in the field of the performing arts, especially in Theatre and Dance. The group was founded by the late Shyamanand Jalan – one of the foremost figures in evolving Hindi theatre since the 1950s. A recipient of the Sangeet Natak Academy (SNA) Award (1972), he was also later appointed Vice Chairman of SNA (1999 –2004).
Padatik also organised the ‘International Seminar on Indian Dance Traditions and Modern Theatre’ in collaboration with International Theatre Institute (UNESCO) in 1983, and the ‘International Festival and Seminar on Theatre, Dance and Martial Arts’ in 1987. With the inspiration and active endeavours of Chetna Jalan, herself a renowned Kathak dancer, that though several dance styles are taught in this school, Kathak remains its primary focus with workshops conducted annually none other than by Pandit Birju Maharaj himself and/or his able disciple, Saswati Sen till Panditji could no longer travel for his failing health.
Every year, Padatik Dance Centre, affiliated to Kathak Kendra in Delhi organises a ‘graduation’ programme of its students through an invited public performance. This could not happen over 2019 and 2020 due to the pandemic. But this year, Kathak Utsav was organised and presented on 3 rd January 2022 at the Satyajit Ray Auditorium in Kolkata. The principal Guru, an accomplished Kathak dancer Saurav Chakraborty, trained the five disciples who performed that day.
If Kathak has evolved into a dance form that excels in aesthetic choreographic images in live movement, the credit for this innovation goes solely to Pandit Birju Maharaj, the doyen of Kathak. For the first time in the history of Kathak, Panditji shifted the focus from individual performance based on rigidly fixed items like thaat, toda, tukda etc., transforming Kathak to collective performance. Kathak danced to ghazals, bhakti geets, sufi songs, across regions, religions and languages, lending itself to permutations and combinations and raising it to higher levels of aesthetics and technique. The shift from the pure grammar of dance to an emphasis on composition, is due to Panditji and his disciples across the country.
In the early years, Pandit Vijay Shankar, a senior disciple of Birju Maharaj, was brought from New Delhi to Kolkata at the behest of Shyamanand Jalan and Chetana Jalan. Pandit Vijay Shankar gave a new dimension to Kathak. The intricate nuances of Kathak were woven like fine filigree work under him. Dancers of Kolkata were inspired with his dance sensibilities and his intricacies of improvisations in fabricating innumerable rhythm patterns.
This writer happened to witness and interview Pandit Birju Maharaj when he visited Kolkata to conduct workshops for little children and for Kathak teachers, on invitation from the Padatik Dance Centre. This was some years ago when Panditji came to Kolkata from time to time and was aiming to explore ways of systematising Kathak training as he felt there was lack of uniformity in training and in style among different schools teaching Kathak.
The ‘graduation’ performance on January 3, organically turned into a tribute to Pandit Birju Maharaj with some memorable performances by five accomplished dancers of the Centre– Sharanya Rana, Poulami Basak, Ritapratim Choudhury, Binod Kumar Das and Sayeri Ghosh.
Birju Maharaj did not limit his learning and his scholarship to dance alone though he mastered all the forms of dance from performance, through teaching, to choreography and innovative innovations. He was also a wonderful singer, a lyricist who wrote thumris and ghazals for the dance numbers and who could play all percussion instruments and reed and string instruments which made him the master. Many of his dance compositions are acknowledged the world over today. Padatik is one committed to carrying his legacy forward.
Padatik Dance Centre 
[/column][column size=”4/5″]
Shoma A. Chatterji
Shoma A. Chatterji is a freelance journalist, film scholar and author. She has authored 17 published titles and won the National Award for Best Writing on Cinema, twice. She won the UNFPA-Laadli Media Award, 2010 for ‘commitment to addressing and analysing gender issues’ among many awards.
[/column]