‘Dance is an ocean. Every dive yields only one pearl’

Why did it take so long for this biography to launchThese things canrsquot be planned My family and disciples have all been hankering after me to pen an autobiography Since therersquos already a featurelength autobiographical documentary I kept putting it off During the pandemic my niece Radha Khambati agreed to work on this biography under my watchMany feel recognition take its time finding youhellipIsnrsquot it bigger than any recognition and award that people think so For sevenlong decades I have pursued dance with my heart and soul without hankering after fame I built Nalanda Dance Research Centre against all odds While the Gujarat governmentrsquos Gaurav Puraskar 1989 Padma Shri 1990 Kalidas Sanmaan 2006 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 2010 Padma Bhushan 2013 and the Kerala governmentrsquos Gopinath award 2018 are vindication that Irsquom on the right path itrsquos best to be detached about these thingsYour family has no connection with the performing arts and yet you chose danceIt was the other way round Dance chose me Unmindful of my resistance it took me in its embracemdasha space that I will enjoy till my last breath My motherrsquos family of fierce Gandhians were next door neighbours to the Tatas at Altamount Road When widowed at 21 her maternal family brought her back home I was barely 10 To help her out of her sorrow my maama Madhukar took us with him to Shantiniketan where he was learning painting with Satyajit Ray and Nandlal Boseas classmatesLeft Dr Rele says that dance chose her ldquoI wanted to dance but mom said nordquo Her maternal uncle brought Kathakali dancer Raghavan Nair to stay with them and teach but no one wanted to learn the alien lsquorakshas nrityarsquo so her maama made her his disciple right At Shantiniketan with her mother Dr Rele 10 absorbed a mix of culture fine arts and performing arts ldquoThe idea of questioning everything would leave a deep indelible mark on merdquo she says Pics courtesyDr Kanak ReleWhat did you do thereI ran around the campus all day and often saw Rabindranath Tagore walking around I used to ask my mother why this man wears gowns laughs The heady mix of culture fine arts and performing arts on the campus along with the idea of questioning everything would leave a deep indelible markon me Yet you switched from the soft lyricism of Rabindra Nritya to KathakaliI donrsquot see too much classicism in swaying both hands from the left to the right and calling it dance demonstrates But to each her own My Bombay school had none of the magic of Shantiniketan I wanted to dance but mom said no My maamarsquos group of culture buffs were into painting theatre and dance They invited Kathakali legend Vallathol Narayana Menonrsquos disciple Raghavan Nair to stay with us and teach None of us had seen Kathakali till then One look and we all called it lsquorakshas nrityarsquo The result Raghavan Nair had no students He made his displeasure known saying that he didnrsquot want alms Since no one came forward to learn maama made me a disciple He felt it would both assuage Nair and channelise all the energy a fouryearold hadAnd in a year you were training under his guru Panchali Karunakar PanickerYes Raghavan Nairrsquos guru was also his fatherinlaw Maharaja Sayajirao Gaikwad of Baroda was his patron This Kathakali maestro was training not only the princesses of the royal family but also daughters of several courtiers When they married he was left with no disciples and came to BombayAfter a traditional welcome to our home mom called me to bow but I crawled under a bed Panicker then crawled towards me Using Kathakali gestures he made me come out To my familyrsquos shock I was mimicking him gesture for gesture He gathered me in his arms and told everyone This one will dance I trained rigorously under him for years giving up sports since he felt pure lasya in me would be damagedThe Kathakali dancer was introduced to Mohini Attam only after her son began school She decided to research Mohini Attam in Kerala and a Sangeet Natak Akademi grant helpedBut you graduated in law at the Manchester University pursuing aviation lawMy family wanted me to be a doctor but medschool left no time for dance So I opted out Irsquod also met cricketer and fellowWilsonite Yatin Rele fell in love and got engaged before leaving for university education together I chose international law with a civil aviation major and was the only womanin a class of 28Was this a break from dancingCan a person be told not to breathe Apart from putting up the dance performances across the length and breadth of UK I occasionally travelled all over Europe performing Kathakali to recorded musicWere your marital family and partner supportive of your danceOver six decades ago when pregnant Yatin asked me to quit I had to nip this in the bud Then and there Knowing how close he is to his eight brothers I suggested he break all ties and communication with them for good and if he did I would stop dancing Though stunned he realised how important dance was to me Since then he has not only been supportive but also been a close allyMohin ttam wasnrsquot even part of your repertoire till thenI first became aware of the genre after my son began school Rajalakshmi a Mohin ttam dancer was in Bombay Apart from my familiarity with everything Malayali because of Kathakali the lyrical feminism of Mohin ttam had me hooked despite her limited repertoire which I began learningBut it consumed youhellipRajalakshmirsquos dance whetted my appetite and I wanted more I then decided to researchMohin ttam in Kerala A Sangeet Natak Akademi grant helped In Kerala Mohin ttam was seen as crass because of being reduced to overtlysexual routinesAnd you perseveredThrough 197071 Yatin and I filmed surviving exponents Kunjukuttyamma Chinnammuamma and Kalyanikuttyamma Except the latter others were in their late 80s Their remote locations ensured their styles retained the original unaffected training I used that with the texts Natyasastra Hastalakshanadeepika and Balaramabharatam to create my own styleYour research later kept you in Mumbairsquos Prince of Wales museum for monthsLaughs Mohit Chauhan headed the museum in those days He helped me corelate dance with sculpture I went with Rajalakshmi and some musicians on the days the museum was shut While the housekeeping got busy Irsquod choreograph my ashtanayikas in front of the sculptures representing themWhat do you feel about efforts by some classical dancers at introducing popular movementsDonrsquot give up classicism for cheap popularity What is portrayed as classical dance on reality shows makes me cringeWhen you look back are you satisfiedHow can a seeker ever be satisfied Like all the arts dance too is an ocean Every dive only yields a pearl or two