{"id":1613,"date":"2020-08-12T18:33:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T18:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kathak.org\/?p=1613"},"modified":"2021-07-03T00:29:45","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T00:29:45","slug":"blog-julia-maxwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leela.dance\/devsite2\/blog-julia-maxwell\/","title":{"rendered":"The Making of the California Gharana: Julia Maxwell"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Making Of the California Gharana<\/h2>\n

Julia Maxwell<\/h4>\n

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\"\"You are unique from everyone else being interviewed for this series in that you began studying under our Guruji\u2019s father, Nritya Acharya Prohlad Das, in India. Can you tell us a little about why you decided to study classical Indian dance and the atmosphere of Nritya Bharati?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Firstly, I should mention that my various name references for Pandit Chitresh Das, Nritya Acharya Prohlad Das, and Srimati Nilima Das reflect the time and circumstances of our relationships. Please know that I have loved and regarded all with deep respect.<\/span><\/p>\n

I met Chitresh, your Guru, in 1967. At that time, I was studying Bharatanatyam with his father, Nritya Acharya Prohlad Das. In addition to his work as the Director for the Nritya Bharati Institute, Sri Prohlad Das taught at the Birla Academy and lectured at Rabindra Bharati (Tagore University). He had developed a system of dance notation and was widely acknowledged for having contributed to the national standardization of dance education. Sri Prohlad Das also served regularly as a visiting lecturer and examiner in schools across northern India. What I found most interesting, however, was how Sri Prohlad Das had participated in the revolution against the British Raj. He had choreographed and staged <\/span>Abhyudaya<\/span><\/i>, translated as \u201cAwakening.\u201d It was a dance drama with a bold, anti-colonialist statement. Members of Congress and several leaders from the \u201cFree India\u201d movement had seen it. Later they encouraged Sri Prohlad Das to establish the Nritya Bharati Institute, which was eventually given formal recognition and financial support from the West Bengal government.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>I had been urged to meet Sri Prohlad Das by the renowned dancer, Indrani Rahman. The Institute was located at #81 Karaya Road. There I entered through a large green gate to a lovely courtyard in bloom with bougainvillea. Sounds of music, footslaps, and bells filled the air. The school\u2019s caretaker directed me to one of the studios located in the back of the Institute\u2019s main building where a class was in progress. There, Sri Prohlad Das greeted me with a brilliant smile and an invitation to sit next to him on a rug, from where he instructed his prize Bharatanatyam student. As you are likely aware, this dance style, developed in the South, emphasizes above all qualities, \u201cbalance.\u201d Point to counter-point, curving lines move gradually from a tilt of the head,downwards, through the torso, hips, and limbs. Sri Prohlad Das explained how it was all about the flow of <\/span>prana<\/span><\/i> (life force). I related this to the East Asian concept of <\/span>chi<\/span><\/i> and told him how I had studied kung fu with Bruce Lee in the musty basement of an old Seattle Chinatown restaurant. Nodding kindly, Sri Prohlad Das remarked that my experience back then would have prepared me for my study now. I felt inspired, and immediately made arrangements to begin my dance tutelage with him which also include dance theory, history, and philosophy.<\/span><\/p>\n

I learned four dances that developed progressively. First came <\/span>Alarippu<\/span><\/i>, a pure-dance or technical piece. <\/span>Jatisvaram<\/span><\/i> followed, with more complex technique and rhythmic compositions. <\/span>Tillana<\/span><\/i> came next and combined rhythmic phrases with sensuous stances. The final piece I was learning was a series of vignettes about Lord Shiva called <\/span>Nava Rasa<\/span><\/i>. It depicts nine basic sentiments, or emotional states\u2014love, humor, pathos, heroism, anger, fear, disgust, wonder, and peace. It was during this time that Mr. Das introduced me to the ancient aesthetic theory of <\/span>rasa<\/span><\/i>, expounded by the sage Bharata Muni in the <\/span>Natya Shastra<\/span><\/i> around the first century CE. <\/span>Rasa<\/span><\/i> refers to the dominant emotional theme of a work of art that carries the potential to elicit a shift in the viewer\u2019s awareness, causing a sense of wholeness or unified consciousness. For this reason, <\/span>rasa<\/span><\/i> is referred to as the \u201cjuice of a performance.\u201d It\u2019s an influence that can last long after the performance has ended, sometimes mirrored in emotional shifts that occur in one\u2019s daily experience. For this reason, <\/span>rasa<\/span><\/i> is also referred to as \u201cthe essence of life.\u201d<\/span>
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\"\"What elements of kathak came easily to you? And what was more challenging?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

My study with Sri Prohlad Das greatly influenced my training with Chitresh when we settled in California and he began his teaching of kathak dance at the Ali Akbar College of Music. My strengths were favored in technique (the child in me loved to turn) and in <\/span>bhava<\/span><\/i>. This was also nurtured during my brief study with Chitresh\u2019s guru, Pandit Ram Narayan Misra in his teaching of <\/span>ghunghat<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>Ghunghat<\/span><\/i> is a series of vignettes that depict a woman opening her veil, often revealing her innermost feelings as she searches for her lover. Lifting the veil also signifies the lifting of a perceived barrier between mind and body, echoing kathak\u2019s ancient yogic roots.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I felt challenged by was in the recitation of <\/span>bols<\/span><\/i>. I felt awkwardly shy. My early background was in Modern dance in which there was no verbal expression and it is also not favored in Bharatanatyam. Much later, I realized that it was the sudden shift in the dancer-audience relationship that caused a problem for me. It broke aesthetic distance, the altered state of reality that\u2019s created through performance. Later, while considering this more deeply, I realized that this was a great strength in kathak. When the dancer is reciting, he or she is engaging the audience directly. On a musical cue, the dancer\u2019s body becomes a conduit for an explosion of energy\u2014a blur of color and form with footwork punctuating the composition. That energy is imparted to the audience when the <\/span>bol<\/span><\/i> ends in a crescendo with a <\/span>tihai<\/span><\/i>. Once again aesthetic distance is broken. The energy of appreciation from the audience is absorbed by the dancer and fed into the next <\/span>bol<\/span><\/i>.<\/span>
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\"\"Guruji always spoke about being tremendously influenced by his mother, Srimati Nilima Das. What was she like? And what were her unique contributions to the arts community they developed at Nritya Bharati?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Srimati Nilima Das was an extraordinary artist, designing sets, costumes, and special works of batik that decorated the Das\u2019s home. Srimati Nilima loved her son unconditionally, but she also knew how to employ tough love when it was needed. She held great respect for Chitresh\u2019s guru and made sure that he understood the depth of responsibility to his guru and kathak. Srimati Nilima saw to it that Chitresh had an excellent education culminating with his studies at Rabindra Bharati University. Through her charitable work, she ensured that Chitresh came in contact with great philosophers, poets, and people of all walks of life whom she felt would enrich and broaden his understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n

During my first stay in India, when I was studying with Sri Prohlad Das, Nilima and I became close friends. I was a young woman, halfway around the planet from my mother, and Nilima provided the comfort that only an older woman could. It was a time of great challenge for me. My American husband had fallen in love with an Indian co-worker, and I was falling in love with Nilima\u2019s son. It was an unexpected challenge for her too, but she found the courage to guide me through it all\u2014firstly as a woman rejected and later as her daughter-in-law.<\/span>
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\"\"Your role was central to so many of the foundational aspects of the history of our lineage. What were those earliest days like in Marin?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Chitresh and I were married in Seattle, Washington, where my daughter, Jennifer (six years old at the time) and I lived in Madrona, a beautiful neighborhood with spectacular views of Lake Washington and the Cascade mountains. Jennifer already knew and liked Chitresh very much and he was brilliantly playful with her.<\/span><\/p>\n

In September of 1971, we moved to California where Chitresh would teach his first kathak classes at the\u00a0<\/span>Ali Akbar College of Music<\/span><\/a>, headed by the renowned <\/span>sarodist<\/span><\/i>, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. At that time, the AACM was housed in a former military academy, on a campus that flourished with big oak trees and lush green lawns. This was a golden age for Indian studies and Indian culture on college campuses across America. However, the intersection of East and West at the AACM was somewhat more complex. Teachers and students were engaged in a serious and lengthy endeavor that went well beyond a few units of Indian studies at a university. Early on, however, it became clear to me that the faculty and students were somewhat at odds. The AACM faculty had been stringently schooled in India\u2014to respect their teachers and elders, and to assume a secondary stance in their presence. But their American students were part of a generation that was questioning authority. Many sought an egalitarian lifestyle and classroom manner, much to the amazement, amusement, and often disdain of their teachers. Students searched for spiritual insights they were told could be found in the music. They endeavored to give the effort demanded by the discipline but often struggled against the social conformity their teachers insisted go with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is important to consider that Indian artists had struggled for over two decades following national independence to educate and generate interest in India\u2019s public about classical music. Consider also that Indian artists would have enjoyed far fewer opportunities in the West, had it not been for their counterculture students who rode the evolutionary wave of the Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The struggle to understand student-teacher relationships proved to be a very long and bumpy ride.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had observed Chitresh as both a disciple and a teacher. I saw firsthand his very difficult struggle to find a balance between the ideals he held about the guru-shishya relationship based on his own experience, and the reality of teaching in California. Chitresh\u2019s request to create his own company grew out of a desire to engage that challenge. In May of 1980, we incorporated the Chitresh Das Dance Company. Per advice from our lawyer, Glen Spain, we included Chhandam as a second name to allow for an additional function of our nonprofit international arts organization.<\/span>
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\"\"What are some of the meaningful and memorable experiences that you\u2019ve had as <\/span><\/strong>a\u00a0kathak performer?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

I believe one of my most meaningful and memorable experiences as a kathak performer came on a tour during the 1981\u201382 winter concert season in India. It was just a little more than a year following the creation of the Chitresh Das Dance Company and scarcely a decade since the loss of Chitresh\u2019s guru.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following our first performance in Calcutta, we received a review in the <\/span>Statesman<\/span><\/i> newspaper as having \u201cbrought his [Chitresh\u2019s] work on a universal plane.\u201d It continued, \u201cThe enactment of the episode from <\/span>Shakuntala<\/span><\/i>\u2014the love at first sight between Shakuntala and Dushyanta was a pas-de-deux in kathak style. Julia Das as Shakuntala excelled in the exposition of the character\u201d (December 14, 1981). Such a nice review would have you thinking that Chitresh and I would repeat our duet in our upcoming performance for the Sangeet Research Academy\u2019s distinguished audience. After having read the review, however, Chitresh made it quite clear to me that we would not present <\/span>Shakuntala<\/span><\/i> again on the tour. His explanation was that it gave me importance over his other students and that would cause resentment. The praise I received from the <\/span>Statesman<\/span><\/i> newspaper was very meaningful to me. It indicated that I was reaching across time and cultures to convey something which was valued highly. Chitresh\u2019s response to the review was both defining and memorable. It scaled my future opportunities from the possible to the probable. Simply, it broke my heart. In retrospect, one has to consider the challenge Chitresh had in teaching women of his own age, at a time when he was just beginning to establish his own presence in the kathak world.<\/span>
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\"\"You worked very hard to put kathak on the mainstream map and to build an audience base for an art form that in the 1970s and 80s was completely unknown in the United States. Can you talk about what you had to do to make that happen? For younger readers, could you describe the specific challenges of that time period?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Response to these questions needs a little background. During my first visit to India, the time when Chitresh and I were becoming close friends and lovers, I learned a good deal about the career challenges he faced.\u00a0 In the early days of his career, sponsoring organizations in Calcutta often chose to invite Birju Maharaj over Chitresh to perform for their musical conferences and there was some marketing logic behind this choice. When India had become an independent nation, there was a great need to re-establish the arts and bring them into public forums. Naturally, the new government sought the most prominent representatives available.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the Lucknow <\/span>gharana<\/span><\/i> of kathak dance, they looked to the courts of Wajid Ali Shah and to the descendants of the dance gurus who had served him. Shambu Maharaj, along with his young nephew, Birju Maharaj, was appointed to head the newly formed institute, Bharatiya Kala Kendra, in New Delhi. It was funded generously by the central government, bringing these men a great deal of status and power. At the time, the general population also had little knowledge of the classical arts that had developed in the private worlds of kings and noblemen. All these factors, combined with Birju Maharaj\u2019s gift for stirring the audience\u2019s imagination with the lost glamour of palace life, kept presenters looking to New Delhi and booking accordingly. It also had reviewers overlooking Chitresh\u2019s performances. That is, until Jug Suraiya, a young writer for the Jr. Statesman put Chitresh\u2019s face on the cover of their magazine and captured his performance with \u201cLightning-fast turns on firecracker feet.\u201d Finally, Calcutta\u2019s audiences were ready for Chitresh.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we were settled in California, Suraiya\u2019s tag for Chitresh\u2019s performance provided a culture-free way for me to introduce him to Western audience as an international artist. Later, when we created the Chitresh Das Dance Company, I began attending booking conferences for the Western Alliance of Arts Administrators. \u201cWhat\u2019s a Chitresh?\u201d was a question asked more than once by presenters visiting our booth. It was a hard truth to swallow, but I knew that I still had much to do in promoting Chitresh before I could turn much attention to promoting our Company. When that opportunity came, it presented a whole set of other problems for me at the WAAA conference.<\/span><\/p>\n

At that time, dance was divided into \u201cballet,\u201d \u201cmodern,\u201d and \u201cethnic\u201d genres, and they were valued and funded in that order. Our Company was also comprised of fair-skinned, American women, several of whom were blonde. Even though ballet companies already had prominent dancers of different ethnic backgrounds, we were still an oddity, making it difficult for American presenters to sell us to their audiences. In India, it worked the other way around. We were still an oddity, but very marketable.<\/span><\/p>\n

With regard to acquiring funding from grantmakers, that opportunity came suddenly and it was not to be missed. Our first Company grant was through The Buck Trust. When Mrs. Buryl Buck died in 1975 she bequeathed oil stocks worth $11.7 million to support the arts in Marin County. At the time I submitted our first proposal, it was worth $250 million and grew to $1 billion by 1999. The San Francisco Foundation administered the Buck Trust in those days. When our proposal was first turned down, Chitresh insisted that I make an appointment for him to meet with Mr. John Kriedler, who had overseen our application process. In his office, Chitresh wasted no time. \u201cWe\u2019ve worked extremely hard over the last decade, trying our best to add to the Bay Area\u2019s cultural bouquet.\u201d True, our aspirations were worthy and we had put all our energy towards achieving them. What I learned in Mr. Kriedler\u2019s office was that our proposal had been declined because we were too new. We had only recently incorporated our Company. Much of our support materials also featured Chitresh as a solo dancer. For us to be funded, we needed to demonstrate public support for the Company.<\/span><\/p>\n

I pointed out to Mr. Kreidler that our group of dancers had functioned as a company well before we incorporated. Following a brief rundown of our beginnings, I asked Mr. Kreidler if I could submit further documentation. He replied yes and said that our proposal would be reviewed again. Chitresh and I left the office feeling encouraged. I admitted to him that I would likely have accepted defeat had he not insisted we go to see Mr. Kreidler. What I didn\u2019t mention was how encouraged I had felt by Mr. Kreidler\u2019s remarks about the American component to establishing our California-based kathak dance company.<\/span>
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