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As a well established kathak dancer, what is it like to look back on your experiences of kathak? What encouraged you to take your very first kathak class, and what was your very first class with Guruji like?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\nThroughout my life, I have figured out what it is that I want to do, by discovering what it is that I don\u2019t want to do. I was immediately so smitten with kathak and Dadaji\u2019s classes of course, that I never thought much about the future. I only knew that I was going to go to class, and had to go as much as I possibly could. My study path continued like that for the years I was in California and in India. My study did include teacher training in Marin with Dadaji, however, I never thought about being a teacher, or even about being a professional dancer. My mind was absorbed with being a student.<\/span><\/p>\n When I returned home to Canada in 1987, the first time living here for some years, I was forced to take personal stock. I realized that my passions, interests and abilities were all kathak dance related, so I began shifting from the mindset of being a full-time student, to being a student that included sharing what I love, in whatever way I could.\u00a0This let to the opportunity for teaching, through the University of Toronto’s Athletic Department, my first group of independent students and the beginning of a new path.<\/span> This fresh direction included annual travel to study in California, annual trips to India with Dadaji and bringing Dadaji regularly to Toronto to teach at our growing school M-DO\/KathakToronto. <\/span> Dadaji came a total of 18 times to teach in Toronto with me.<\/span><\/p>\n It is surprising to look back and have so many years behind you. A road with one basic focus, and the incredible variety of experiences that this focus can facilitate. I feel incredibly lucky, and absolutely in awe that my life\u00a0 path aligned me with giants in the field of North India dance and music. Through Dadaji, I was introduced to his brother Ritesh, and therefore their parents Nrityacharya Prohlad Das and Smt. Nilima Das, the great Ustad Ali Akbar Khan,<\/span><\/p>\n Padmashri Swapan Chaudhuri, and through a friendship with Antonia Minnecola, her father-in-law and husband, Ustad Alla Rakha, and Ustad Zakir Hussein. The generosity of these amazing artists, leaves me with a deep sense of gratitude.<\/span><\/p>\n How did this begin? On a fateful Sunday afternoon, I\u00a0 saw an outdoor performance at Fisherman\u2019s Wharf, by Marni Ris, along with a live tabla player and sarod player. I was mesmerized by her performance, and spoke with Marni after. She directed me to the classes in San Anselmo across the Golden Gate bridge, and I travelled the next morning to observe a class. I hadn’t planned on taking class, but Dadaji told me to go in the back and try it. Once on the floor, where Dadaj encouraged us to sing while he played the tabla, I was hooked. Somehow or other, it made sense, even though none of it made sense. At the end of the class, he said, \u201cyou know, I think you need a beginner class\u201d (obviously- and THANK YOU Dadaji) and he directed me to the classes on Fulton Avenue in San Francisco. I went to the ashram I believe, the next day and that’s where I met Michelle Zonka, who was to become my long term duet partner. It was her first class too, and we met on the porch of the ashram. She’d seen an ad in the newspaper. So we both walked in to take class with him for the first time together. We were very dedicated to kathak study for many years, and remain close friends to this day.<\/span> As a young man in Calcutta, Dadaji often worked with different kinds of dancers and did different types of\u00a0 performances. He even worked at the Grand Hotel a couple of nights a month, doing folk dance with a friend of his from Manipur, who was a master folk-dancer. That\u2019s why Dadaji was such a great folk dancer as well. He had a knowledge of the traditional repertoire of the particular folk dances from the north and the northeast of India, and we were the benefactors of that. The influences of Lok Nritt, or the dances of the people, is undisputed as the basis of classical dance forms around the world. Our exposure to these folk dance styles increased our knowledge of movement vocabulary, rhythm and melody.<\/span><\/p>\n As a younger student I just danced what I was given to dance, or shall I say TRIED to dance what I was given. Having nothing to base our level of study upon, it was just class with Dadaji and we were all in love with it. Many esteemed musical and dance guests would visit the class and be so impressed with the material he was giving us and the level to which we were all trying to express it. It wasn\u2019t until I went to India however, and went often with Dadaji\u2019s father (Baba as I called him) to dance events and competitions that I realized what gifts were regularly given by Dadaji. All respect given to the teachers in Bengal at that time, but the understanding of sangeet, layakari, khoobsurti and nazaqat that we were imbibed with from Dadaji was so far and beyond what these students had been exposed to.<\/span><\/p>\n Over the years many things changed. Society as a whole changed and not so many could dedicate the open time required to truly embody this art.\u00a0 He understood fully what he was up against and distilled his teaching methods masterfully never to ever short change the art, nor the learner, in this situation.<\/span><\/p>\n Once I moved back to Canada from India, I spent less time around Dadaji. For some of those years I\u00a0 saw him twice a year, once in California in the summer, and in India during the winter. Some years travel did not work out, and it would be an extended time that I wasn\u2019t with him. This allowed me to see his personal artistic transformations in distilled chapters. The most important things to witness were his continued dedication and persistence to his artistic path and growth, to his dedication and inspiration as a teacher and Guru, his dedication to kathak\u2019s inspired longevity, and his continued openess to artistic opportunities cities and challenges. There was never any question of retirement. It was inspiring and overwhelming. It was just who he was.<\/span> Sri Prohlad Das was a very well respected dance scholar throughout India and was a major examiner in Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Manipuri, and Odissi. While living in his home in Calcutta, I seasonally saw stacks of written examination papers, coming wrapped up in cloth and secured with wax seals, delivered to him by post. He, with tremendous discipline, as he had in many facets of his life, would open these exams, and methodically grade them, over weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n Baba, was 48 years old when India got its independence, so he lived quite a full life as an artist while India was still a British colony.\u00a0 It was a very different reality; one where there was no Pakistan or East Pakistan, no Bangladesh. Baba was originally from East Bengal, now Bangladesh.<\/span><\/p>\n When I arrived in Calcutta, Baba and Ma talked with me about my dedication to kathak, to the fact that as a non South Asian, I would need to work hard to be respected and to uphold the teaching I was receiving through their son – Dadaji. They introduced the idea of a dance degree in kathak, which was a new concept to me. Due to my years with Dadaji, I was allowed to go directly to a Bachelor\u2019s Degree, and work towards a Master\u2019s.\u00a0 Both of these degrees required not only solo performances with live musicians, but also 3-hour written examinations.<\/span><\/p>\n It fell perfectly into place then, that Baba as a dance scholar, took me under his wing and became my theory teacher, and\u00a0 prepared me for the written examinations and guided my ideas as to what to present in the examination solo dance formats.<\/span><\/p>\n Where Dadaji was the genius, inspired firebrand, Baba was the quiet, methodical, disciplined theorician. He sat with me every evening, gave me homework, and corrected it daily, reporting back to me with what was correct, and what needed improvement.<\/span><\/p>\n I believe he felt I was in very good hands studying with his son, Dadaji, so, though he came regularly into my dance practice room, he rarely corrected me. He did however share his gems of insight and wisdom about kathak with me. Keep in mind that he was a man of 82 years old when I first met him, but he exhibited the incredible persistence that is so evident in the collective Das\u2019 gene pool!<\/span><\/p>\n Had it not been for the support and love showered on me by both Baba and Ma, I would never of completed my degrees, nor had the opportunity to embody kathak as an individual.\u00a0 My time with them helped set the road I continue to walk today.\u00a0 Ma and Baba, I love you.<\/span> Throughout my childhood and adolescence, I played piano, guitar, flute, and sang in a variety of vocal ensemble settings, so the musical elements of kathak, came the easiest. Its storytelling aspects are where I felt more vulnerable, as I\u2019d never been in a drama group to experience that, and of course the stories we traditionally tell in kathak, were all new to me. The formal classes were of course very very concentrated times of kathak aesthetic and technique, and time outside of the classroom with Dadaji is where we became more apprenticeships rather than students.\u00a0 This was invaluable time, where we would hear stories, be given histories, philosophies, techniques and challenges, all in a very organic way. The main thing was that we made ourselves available to the time he was willing and able to spend with us.<\/span><\/p>\n Kathak is really physically challenging and at our peaks in Dadaji\u2019s classes, many of us were practically elite athletes. For many years, over 25 of us studied directly under him, from 10 am- 1 pm – so\u00a0 3 hours\/day, for 5 days\/week.\u00a0 A number of us then took evening classes. Michele Zonka, Noelle Barton and I also accompanied Dadaji each Saturday, on what we called the \u2018round robin\u2019. We would leave Marin at 8:30 am, do a few classes at the Ashram in San Francisco, eat lunch on Clement St., then travel over Bay bridge to Berkeley, then Hayward then back to Marin via the Richmond bridge and be back to his home by 6 pm.<\/span><\/p>\n This type of training, where the highest we could possibly give, was his normal expectation of us (and FOR us), has cemented the physical, mental and spiritual centre of my life path.<\/span><\/p>\n To be in his class was to try your best to be constantly (like having spider senses)\u00a0 wide awake. It was a total state of being. When I traveled back to California to study, after working in the field of kathak, here in Toronto,\u00a0 I would say to myself \u201cWhoa, I gotta polish up here\u201d, as I would feel asleep at the wheel compared to what was necessary to be in the room with him. Such a challenge and so very blessed.<\/span>
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As one of the senior most disciples of Pandit Chitresh Das, having studied with him since the 70s, what was it like to watch him transform as an artist and teacher?<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nWhat was it like to study with Pandit-ji\u2019s father, Pandit Prohlad Das?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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What elements of kathak came easily to you? And what was most challenging?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
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