Shoma Mumtaz: Committed to her own style of Bharatnatyam

Shoma Mumtaz performing Bharatnatyam

Shoma has very faint memories of her first performance on TV because it was a long time back. She performed the Jhumur dance at the former television station at DIT building and the programme was telecast live from the studio. She continued to learn dancing under her mother for quite some time but after completing her Higher Secondary education she got admitted to the Law Department of Dhaka University. But her craving to go abroad and continue lessons in dance never left her, she felt that she could do without studying law but not without dancing. She recollects, 'When my mother tookd take me to different places in Kolkata to watch dance performances, I dreamt of going there as a student.'

Eventually Shoma got a scholarship from the Indian Government and was admitted to the MS University of Baroda. There she learnt Bharatn-atyam for five years under the gurus C V Chandrashekhar, Nargis Katpitia, Pradip Kumar Barua and Dr. Parul Shah. She completed her Bachelor's and Master's in Performing Arts (dance). Then she completed the PhD programme in Folk Dance of Bangladesh at the Rabindra Bharoti University in the early 90s.

She thinks there is more pleasure in practice than in performance itself. According to her, guru is always there to make the necessary corrections during practice but during the performance there is no such chance. A guru is very important for a student because s/he teaches the basics of dance until the mudras are perfect.

One of the very interesting experiences during her Master's exams took place when they had to play a piece called Palagai with a stick known as Tattakali and this whole thing is called Nattuangam. She was asked to play Alaripu in Ushi by her guru C V Chandrashekhar, which had not been practiced in the class. Shoma felt nervous but did not lose confidence. She gathered courage and said to her guru, 'I can do it only if you perform with me.' Her guru was very impressed at this and he performed accordingly.

Shoma feels that Taal (rhythm) is the most important thing in dance. If one wants to be an expert, s/he must understand Taal. Shoma says, 'Taal is everywhere in the universe, even the heartbeat of human beings is very rhythmic. Everything has a system of its own, disorder only brings disaster.'

According to Shoma if anybody wants to be a dancer s/he must be an educated artiste. One must learn dancing with the view of learning an art and also be open to criticism. To attain perfection only one style of dancing should be followed. A Bharatnatyam dancer can never perform a Monipuri dance perfectly. Each dance has its own beauty and characteristic.

Shoma does not quite agree with the idea that the audience is limited in our country. She feels that if the audience is not interested in dance then it is the dancer's discredit. 'A successful dancer must have the ability to hold the interest of the audience. The audience should never be underestimated.'

On her return from India,, Shoma Mumtaz got involved with choreography. Her first direction was Bhanusingher Padavoli. She later directed the dance drama Shesh Ragini where many of the top-most dancers totalling 50 artistes, performed at the Shilpakala Academy.

She is now a teacher of the Drama and Dramatics Department at the Jahangirnagar University. She is an active member of an organisation, Nritya Shilpi Sangshtha, and wants dance to be included in the SSC and HSC syllabus. She says, 'It will help us promote dances of all kinds in our country.'