A language she believes in

Fluid movements, soul steering expressions and an ability to invoke reality, is what Malavika Sarukkai is known for. What started as a mother’s ‘push’ to motivate her daughter to learn dancing, forty years later, has become not just a passion, but a language Sarrukai swears by. “Dancing for me is a language,” says the veteran dancer who broke free from the old school classic dancing to experience ‘freedom’. “When I look at dancing as a language, it liberates me,” says the dancer who performed at St John’s John’s Medical College Auditorium on Sunday evening.An energised production, Sarukkai’s Sakthi Sakthimaan, moved effortlessly from the spaces of the Sacred Divine to the spaces of collective and personal worship. The dance narrative invoked, recreated and called upon the energies - both auspicious and fearsome. In the process space was dynamised with sound and silence - recounting the primeval clash between good and evil cosmic forces with the good emerging as the triumphant victor.  Worship was portrayed both as a ritualistic offering and also as an intimate personal thanksgiving.The production saw two unique choreographies, inspired by Varanasi, the first piece saw a melange of a pan Indian sound scape, explored in the abstract and the plurality of approach to Siva. The other, was a riveting narrative piece which drew inspirations from the plural traditions of India. It was in praise of Devi as Mahishasuramardini.Sarukkai says that for her the art form grew on her almost like a moss on a rolling stone. “I began learning it for the heck of it. But soon that changed and flipped itself into a fire that still burns in me as fiercely as it did a few decades ago. I realised that dance was an expression and an extension of your thought and emotions. It encapsulates more than what meets the eye. Apart form being impulse oriented it has an intellectual aspect as well,” she revealed. Sarukkai has worked with various mediums till date of which, some of the closest to her heart were the productions that were based on poetry composed by her sister, Priya. “The collaboration on ‘The Bird Song’, a poem by sister is one of my works that I am particularly fond of,” she adds.What a layman would call ‘a performance’ for Sarukkai, it is invoking an experience. “Dancing is like living in the moment. When the mind and body are in perfect harmony, they together ooze a huge sense of new and different kind of energy. That is when dancing seizes to be a form of entertainment and takes on a special meaning in life. It is not longer a performance, it is larger than that.Speaking of complex dance pieces which may be hard to comprehend, Sarukkai says that dance should have a ripple effect on its viewers. It should empower him or her to make their own individual interpretations. “I do not have a repertoire, nor do I work with productions that have no message in them. For me to decide on a project I must be fired by it. It has to be poetic, stylised, infused with emotions, mentally stimulating and must have a strong body language to it. Of course the intuition too plays an important role,” she informs.Sarukkai is a firm believer that no matter what happens, Indian classic dance will always have a strong fan following. “Classical gives you the intangible,” says the dancer who asserts that no other dance form can give the audience a high like classic dance can. “If you do not understand it, you can still be inspired by it. And at the end of the day, the human race thrives and craves for inspiration. Its a whole emotion that has to be experienced,” she says.Ask the dancer how she unwinds at the end of her show, and she is quick to add, “Laze and chill out with my friends. There’s nothing like a quite warm evening after an energy packed evening,” she says.