Experiments with dance

Well known Kathak exponent Sharmistha Mukherjee's latest experimental production “Rainstorm and Autumn Leaves” blends diverse elements : the poetry of two world famous poets from opposite ends of the globe, Tagore from the East and Percy Bysshe Shelley from the West, the vivacious melody of Rabindra Sangeet with Antonio Vivaldi's classical “ Four Seasons”. All this with Kathak as the centre piece.
In an e-mail interview Sharmishta who conceived and choreographed “Rainstorm and Autumn Leaves” articulates the complexities of her new production staged on August 6:
How was “Rainstorm and Autumn Leaves” conceived?
Well, it goes back a long way. I read both Tagore's "Barshoshesh" and Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" in school and was really struck by the similarities. Later, learnt that Tagore probably wrote his poem inspired by Shelly. But of course there was not even any remote thought of bringing them together through dance.
It was only recently that the idea struck me... I always liked the vivid imagery of "Barshoshesh", so thought why not to do something on it. Then came Shelley and the thought of combining both. Vivaldi's “Four Seasons” contains some wonderful pieces which I thought could go well with the imagery of both the poems, and which I felt could work well with Kathak
Was it difficult to choreograph such a complex production?
It was pretty difficult to put it together. In fact the main challenge was to create the structure: what should come after what---how to fuse the two poems----and how to link East and West musically. The crossover points had been technically challenging, because Western classical music, and Indian music are so completely different. We had to negotiate issues like pitch, scale, different sounds---Vivaldi being a full orchestra and recorded, whereas on the other side we had only three live musicians. In terms of putting the works of two great poets together, we had to be very careful that the meaning or the flow of individual poems should not get disturbed; they should complement each other. Creatively it has been my most challenging choreography so far.
Was there room for improvisation in your production?
In such choreographies, there is little scope for spontaneous improvisation. The structure is too well defined for that. If changes are to be incorporated, that could be done only in a well-thought-out manner. I have done many choreographies before, worked on some poets like Maithili Sharan Gupta, Faiz, Ghalib. A very interesting experience had been to work on classical Arabic poetry of 10th-11th Century and work with local musicians in Jordan.
What do you have up your sleeve now?
No future plans as such----till another idea strikes me. My next performance is on the theme of the monsoon. That's going to be on traditional lines, except I'm planning to use visual images----slides and films. It's a unique composition for which I have actually used different kinds of Ghungroos to create multiple layers of sounds along with rhythmic variations.