Kalapriya Dance
Tradition has an internal logic that resists disruption, and transcending it requires more than mere rebellion, as recent concerts by Kalapriya Dance and Luna Negra Dance Theater demonstrated. The Kalapriya program suggested that anyone wishing to overthrow tradition must, like a martial artist, exploit her opponent’s strength. It also suggested, tantalizingly, that those most devoted to showing the way into an art form are best equipped to identify pathways out of it.
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“Kathak-Natyam” featured Kalapriya artistic director Pranita Jain and Indian guest artist Pallavi Raisurana. Each dance on the program began with a voice-over explanation, underscoring Jain’s interest in spreading understanding of the traditions while expanding them. The south Indian form bharatanatyam, which she performs, was devised to tell stories and often comes close to mime, while kathak–the north Indian dance in which Raisurana is trained–is more allusive and fluid. But the differences go beyond this: as the narrator explained, kathak grew up in the royal courts while bharatanatyam emerged from the temples.
By contrast the Luna Negra concert suffered from a concentration on the company’s stated goal: “to break the stereotypical image of Latin dance.” This aim almost requires artistic director Eduardo Vilaro to discard the tradition’s strengths as well as its weaknesses. What’s left is choreography free of Latin gender stereotypes but also of the electricity that traditional partnering can provide. Liberated from the lockstep of unison dancing, it ends up exalting fragmentation over connectedness.
Such exciting dancers deserve better choreography. When Vilaro finds a middle ground between the tradition he comes from and the place he is now, perhaps they’ll get it.
