Ushering in mambo, samba and more

Nadim believes that training in contemporary dancing should be introduced at the school level.

Kamrul Islam Nadeem: I've been dancing on stage from my childhood: it's my hobby since my early days, along with painting and music. The school which I went to at New Delhi taught these formal western dances as a part of the curriculum. When I'd moved away from India, when I was in class VII, I'd been taught the aesthetic of dance along with yoga and gymnastics to develop the required stamina for dance. Dancing deals with physical motion for which you have to have a musical sense. Without a sense of rhythm and music you cannot dance satisfactorily: you might be able to swivel your hips and gyrate your body, as they do on the dance floors occasionally in Dhaka, but that is not enough.

You must master rhythm to follow the teacher's steps; timing of beats must be kept in mind. Just following mentally is not adequate: there must be physical learning. In order to maintain the physical balance, which is prerequisite to dancing, body fitness and concentration are necessary. Control of breathing and body flexibility to bring in fluidity and spontaneity in your movements concentration are necessary. Whether you go in for folk or ballet your rhythmic sense and body shape play important roles.

First the student masters certain basic steps and mind as well as body control and then moves on to decide what kind of dances he/she will opt for.

Apart from the sense of rhythm, there must also be a basic aesthetic sensibility in the student's mind. This sense of proportion comes from fine arts: he/she must be aware in his/her mind of the length of the steps and the accompanying body movements and hand positions. Facial expressions and eye-contacts must be mastered too. Even the accompanying smile should be measured and yet natural. The dance sequences depend on them. The performer should be gladly accepted by the audience. Both western and eastern formal dances are based on theoretical sense and practice naturally makes the student perfect. The space in front is free: the student must practice as long as his body can bear it and he has the time and inclination.

TDS: What were the dances that you had been taught at New Delhi?

KIN: We were taught staff notation of western music, Indian 'swarolipi', the difference between the two and how to follow the rules and regulations of the two. In the first case, a lot is based on the piano: anyone who knows the piano knows the rudiments of any western musical instrument. We were also introduced to the history of eastern music: we were taught the basics of 'guru shikhha'. The specialization obviously followed later. From this the student could branch out to any level, given the proper guidance and encouragement. There were lots of inter city competition and we were sent there after selection and this gave us great impetus. There were some experimental dance plays too: we were encouraged to create dance sequences of our own. We were introduced to the theatre and mime too, in which we were egged on to bring in stories of our own.

When I came to Dhaka in 1986 I found no educational institution at that time which taught contemporary dance along with other academic education. I continued through practice of my own, and study through illustrated books and sections of magazines. Thus my practice of dance had continued through self-teaching. When I began my Intermediate studies, I had pure science background, but at the same time I wanted to do something that was aesthetically creative, and so I switched off to fine arts that had the scope for me to follow dancing and western music, specially the piano. I followed the cultural scene of dances and music as much as was possible for me. There were academies for music and dancing where lessons normally took place twice a week but they didn't quite appeal to my sensibility.

TDS: What is your impression of the contemporary western dances as presented on social occasions, infrequently on stage, at Dhaka, at present?

KIN: Apart from visiting Indian, Korean and Russian dancers and performances by few dance groups as 'Nryttanchal' with Nipa and Shibli, and the occasional dance drama at Osmani Memorial Hall, there aren't frequent enough dance performances, in general. About our troupes going to foreign countries, we get very little feedback. Even the ball dances at five star hotels follow basic steps and gestures, with a few twirls and hip swinging; we don't have discos as in India and the nearby South East Asian countries. Our society is a conservative one and western dance belongs to a certain upper echelons: even there it's 'free for all,' and one hardly sees anything like a proper waltz or foxtrot. One can't expect the acceptable version of tango, mambo or samba, let alone the lambada.

There is a lot lacking in the presentations. As there is little such training in western contemporary dancing in the form of extra-curricular activities at the school level, as was done in New Delhi, in my childhood, there is not much practice of this among the average bourgeois. This applies to most cultural fields, I believe. If there are any dance students, this is because of the enthusiasm and support of a few parents, and not through the average schools or colleges. Most people are caught up in the race of earning a living, rearing children, having the casual 'addah', and leaving music, dancing and plays for the infrequent stage performance or the average TV screen viewing.

TDS: What is your impression of dance performances on BTV and other available channels?

KIN: In BTV and the local, private channels the performances on dances follow our traditional cultures on the whole: they present sequences based on the musical compositions of Tagore, Nazrul or folk dances. The Indian channels present contemporary dances which tend to be more like physical exercise with little subtle choreography, in most cases: they do not follow any western contemporary steps -- they are purely experimental: they don't always appeal to the conservative viewer -- they tend to be sensational and not necessarily very aesthetic. On the other hand, in the older presentations from cinema on the same channels, there was no appeal to the baser instincts, even though the dances were more basic.