India needs to explore a profession in dance: Geeta Chandran

Popular Bharatnatyam dancer Geeta Chandran has said that despite a growing number of classical dance professionals in India, the country is yet to explore a profession in the art form.
Speaking to PTI on the eve of World Dance Day celebrated annually on April 29, Chandran said there was a latent job market for dance which needed to be explored and exploited.
"While we have increasing numbers of dance professionals, we do not have a profession in dance. There is no structure for progress or assessment. Dance in India operates in the feudal way based on who you know and how much you can spend. This is a terrible situation.

"A few years ago, NCERT was involved in creating a new syllabus for classical dance, but we ran into troubled waters as finding teachers on that mega scale was impossible.
"We have to begin by providing trainers and there is a potential for classical pursuers to find jobs - a huge latent job market exists. That needs to be explored and exploited," the Padma Shri awardee siad.
On the occasion of World Dance Day, Chandran, who runs a dance school Natya Vriksha, is also organising a two-day 'Young Dancers Festival' here.

Being a dance teacher for 25 years now, Chandran said students needed to learn a classical tradition while keeping in mind its connection with other disciplines which, according to her, was largely missing from most schools in the country.

"At Natya Vriksha I attempt to make students comprehend the complex inter-linkages between the classical dance tradition and its strict grammar with other disciplines.
"In smaller towns young dancers learn theory of dance and write some exam or the other and consider themselves dancers! And then they come and ask what they should do next. They have not absorbed the ethos of the dance, nor its grammar," Chandran said.
At a time when there are several dance reality shows on television, Chandran noted that the country also needed a public service broadcaster dedicated to Indian arts.
"There is a difference between the classical and the popular. TV is built for the here and now; the latest song; the fad, the funk and the garish! The classical is opposed to all of this. It works at the eternal, the constant and the aesthetic. So no one should be surprised if pure classical dance is absent on commercial television.

"My lament is that we have not developed an alternative vibrant public service broadcaster who can package Indian arts with panache. But there is a huge opportunity there that must be explored and made commercially viable," Chandran said.