Comments on: Interview: Leela Samson

By: mitalee Chaudhry

mitalee Chaudhry — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:26:52 +0000

me an ex student of kalakeshtra and know Leela aka personally well.i appriciate her the way she thinks about the art and handling everything in kalakeshetra.after reading this interview i can say that our Leela aka is a living legend in the field of art,she remains always fresh in my mind,wit best regards

By: terri

terri — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:09:50 +0000

Wow, what an interview! I know squat about the fine arts, but your description made it feel as though I was in the same room with Leela, with a rattling fan whirring above me.
Let me go find my jaw that dropped somewhere on the floor as I began to read this interview.

By: gitanjali kolanad

gitanjali kolanad — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 13:53:35 +0000

I loved your interview with Leela, she’s a good friend. I was at Kalakshetra when she was still there, and she was as poised, elegant and sweet-natured as she is now. But if you want a less rosy-lensed picture of Kalakshetra in those days, please read my piece “Sleeping with Movie Stars” at Drill Press (online journal).

By: Mohan Viswanathan

Mohan Viswanathan — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:04:02 +0000

I’m hooked on your writing; especially your film reviews. Enjoyed this piece. (you may delete the following) Would like you to watch a Washington, DC-based Indian Classical Dance Company, Kalanidhi Dance (www.kalanidhi.org), perform at the Kalakshetra on October 9th, on their way to perform the same piece at the Ananya Dance Festival in New Delhi (http://www.seher.in/ananya.php) on October 12th.

There are all the elements of a great story in their trip to India. Almost all of them were born and brought up in North America; one dancer (born to Guyanese parents while they lived in UK) who is going to see the country of her great grandparents for the first time; another youngster born to a Telugu mother and Danish father; almost all of them who cannot speak with ease an Indian language but can express themselves effortlessly through the medium of Indian classical dance; very knowledgeable about Ramayana and Hindu mythology when it comes to dance but their iPODs will be full of rap and soft rock! Then there is Ms. Anuradha Nehru, the graceful and committed Artistic Director of the Company who fits in perfectly on the stage while performing with her students, some as young as her children.

By: NeeliAankhen

NeeliAankhen — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:54:06 +0000

In case you have other western fans besides me, in New York – and I think you do – I’d like to mention this “bridge” information: the school B Rangan is writing about here is the school where the dance sequences were filmed in Louis Malle’s six-hour documentary Phantom India — by coincidence I watched it (again – I saw it in 1969 too!!)(it was even longer then) this week and recognized the spirit of the place in this article.

If you’ve never reviewed that movie I’d love to see what you have to say. In any case it’s fascinating to see all this brilliant footage from almost 40 years ago.

By: Dasi X.

Dasi X. — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:54:01 +0000

” ticks off her guru’s achievements – …that she was the greatest choreographer of the last century”

This is an irresponsible statement from someone in a prominent and senior cultural position. It undermines her credibility. It’s fine to say that Rukmini Devi was an accomplished artist, it’s fine to say that she brought dance out of a narrow enclave and made it more accessible than before. However, it is not OK to say “greatest choreographer of the last century” – I mean, that’s like the principal of Guindy Engineering College saying “we are the finest engineering college in the country” when right across the street there is IIT which is a hundred times better.

By: Dasi X.

Dasi X. — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:37:58 +0000

It is not about getting a “well rounded education” (Munimma) or understanding “the heritage” (Sachita). It is about placing a totally fake “intellectual” theoretical skill [a certain way of writing about dance] over the practical and totally unrelated talent/knowledge of dancing. They are two separate things. My position is that a theoretician on dance is a false prophet: someone who claims an elevated authority based on a superior insight that he cannot possibly have. Look at the great ballet companies such as the Bolshoi, Kirov etc. They have a system of teaching movement. They have great teachers. The teachers are all dancers. Their students learn dancing: not latin, not philosophy, but dancing. We do not judge the profundity of a philosopher by how well he or she sings out their ideas in a correct pitch. It is fine for a philosopher to have lousy pitch. Because that’s irrelevant. Ditto for the dancer. The dancer communicates everything through movement. We have gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick when we allow “dance scholars” power over people who practice dance.

By: Anuj

Anuj — Wed, 23 May 2007 14:24:42 +0000

Ravi Shankar of the “Art of living” hoax is a charlatan and a fraud, who misleads weak people.
And to claim that he [Shankar] does not use religion to sell his snake oil is preposterous.
An idiot can notice the similarities between some Hindu texts and his “way of life”.

By: Sachita

Sachita — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 17:02:08 +0000

I second munimma. Your articles are a good read always, we get a chance to read about interesting people and you save yourself from all those run of the mill movies!

Dasi-X, Is there anything wrong in making the students undersand the heritage so that they the learn it with the respect it deserves. Those days, students were blindly obedient. Today’s students don’t provide such luxuries(rightly so according to me) to their teachers.

By: munimma

munimma — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:11:11 +0000

Hey, this topic being one of my passions, is definitely of interest to me. I think for every movie review, we need a corresponding non-movie art review , so says brangan’s third law of reviews. (I don’t remember the other 2.)

BTW, do you know anything this lady who does kathaa kaalatchebam, by the name of vishali or vaishali? She was in cleveland thyagaraja festival and got some good reviews.

As to teaching other arts, it is all about getting a well-rounded edu. I guess it would be more rounded(if that is logically possible), if they taught science and engg too. But, most stalwarts in the field do seem to have knowledge of sister arts.