A series on legendary musicians, the lives of their children and how they take the torch ahead, by APARNA SHIVAPURA
PREAMBLE
Some lives are more stories, stuff that dreams are made of. Some lives are magical, make what you see almost unbelievable. Some lives are inspirational, they give you the motivation to be better, yourself. Some lives become legends, and they live on, forever, crafting an inexplicable experience in your mind and soul. Our series HOW LEGENDS ARE BORN – HOW LEGENDS LIVE ON cover the lives of two or more generations of musicians; stories of how children or siblings live with legendary musicians, how children sustain, and revive the legacy and how they carve out their own unique identity and finally, make it matter. ANANYA FOUNDATION and ANANYA KALASINCHANA celebrates the lives of stalwart musicians; veterans and passionate artists who gave their life unto music, who showed us that there is oceanic-depth and a lifetime may not be enough to get hold of this divine experience. We also celebrate and discover the lives of their children, for whom, life runs on multiple tracks, sustaining the legacy, reviving it and above all, building and retaining one’s own identity, to be known beyond the name, and to keep the contours of the past separate and unique from the present.
REMEMBERING THE LEGENDARY MAYA RAO - IN CONVERSATION WITH DAUGHTER, THE SPECTACULAR AND VERSATILE MADHU NATARAJ KIRAN
Indian Classical Dancer, Choreographer, Educator, Dance Ballet Pioneer, Connoisseur and Guru Smt Dr Maya Rao was born on 2nd May 1928. It is only appropriate our series on legends is inaugurated with a few gems from her life (as a single article may not suffice) in the words, experience and reminiscence of her daughter, Smt Madhu Nataraj Kiran.
Living with a legend
This series is but a frugal, humble attempt to understand the life of Maya Rao, more from the inside than from the outside, more a home view than a world view. What a supremely creative person like her was, how did she bring such uncompromising excellence to her field of work, how did she create such a voluminous legacy in one lifetime, how did she grow in stature and above all, how was she as a mother, what does a daughter do from here on?
Madhu – A sparkling soul
Through our conversation, Madhu Nataraj Kiran gave tremendous insights into the life of her mother and artist, Maya. She spoke at length about the incredibly eventful life her mother led, how her mother built her artistic repertoire and why Maya lives on. Madhu also spoke about the creative path she has chosen for herself, her birth from a ‘dance-womb’, taking Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography ahead, building a future for Natya STEM DANCE KAMPNI and more. However, what strikes me apart from her creative genius is her individuality, a persona that comes forth as a spectacular human being first, a woman of high artistic caliber, a person of high ethics and principles, an unflinching attitude towards artistic excellence and very compassionate and affectionate. Genetic component included, I strongly believe, this is Madhu’s own making, a summation of her gifted DNA and her own cultural orientation.
Being of light
For Madhu, Maya Rao’s passing away has created an inexplicable void, a vacuum she is struggling to fill. It is the loss of a mother primarily, combined with the loss her best friend and Guru. At her death, Madhu dealt and continues to experience mixed feelings ranging from the absence of the musical ecosystem at home, to the responsibility of the Institution and legacy she left behind – not necessarily only in the art form but in the artistic soul she carried, the artistic energy, her ability to create, innovate and speak her mind – the list goes on. Madhu’s Buddhist friend, Dipankar Khanna offered a plausible way to deal with the loss. He called her mother a BEING OF LIGHT, a form, presence and energy that will reach, return to loved ones and never go away, a lingering fragrance of Maya, truly.
Maya Rao, a Utopian World
Maya Rao stopped dancing on stage at 43, when she had her daughter. She took to choreography and teaching in a big way. Perhaps, one of her biggest contributions to the world of music is creating a generation of dancers, teaching students and building global audiences, global passion and interest for our classical heritage and culture. She was not only an icon of dance and music, she was an iconic teacher, a great Guru, a passionate creator and above all, a supremely large-hearted humanitarian. It is not easy to capture her spirit, her essence and her core. Madhu has initiated several projects, activities and programs to ensure her contributions are archived in print and digital media – books, audio and video, tutorials and programs and several digitally advanced methods are taking shape in the institute in memory of Maya Rao.
A life of greatness – Mystical Maya
She was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, given by Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama in 1989. In 2011, the Akademi awarded her the Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Ratna, given to 100 artists from across India to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, for their contribution in the field of performing arts. She systematized training methodologies, created the first choreography course and curriculum in India, created inspirational dance ballets, has many firsts in contribution towards music and dance. What makes Maya so magnetic, so colossal is that she lived a life of simplicity and humility. It was not an easy life, a life of struggles, of challenges and innumerable obstacles, but she never gave up.
Madhu recalls how her mother never took her talent, her creative genius seriously and let it affect her persona. She learned from the greatest dance Gurus, biggest names of the times, she moved and worked with artistic geniuses, her life revolved around greatness and yet, she stayed simple at her core. “My mother taught me to be gracious, large-hearted, put art above all, taught me to share.” These are more life lessons than dance!!!
Madhu – Stemming out, uniquely!
Interestingly, Madhu never wanted to dance. She believed she was meant for the tenacious corporate world and was ready. Life had other plans, and the memory of the womb was meant to instill a calling in her 19 years later, when she decided she could choreograph her life, she could innovate, create and dance her way through. In New York where she went to study contemporary dance, she introspected on how she could synthesize contemporary dance into the traditional Indian classical dance. The answer came in 1995 when STEM (Space. Time. Energy. Movement) was born.
In STEM’s formative years, while the purists discouraged Madhu from integrating contemporary dance with classical, it was her mother who supported, encouraged and inspired her. That remains her strength to the day, even as, STEM has traveled the length and breadth of the world leaving a mark in peoples minds and hearts with every innovative and impactful performance. In their own words, STEM has an original & unique repertoire, which includes Kathak, Dances of India, contemporary dance and ballets on mythological, historical and contemporary themes. Madhu’s body of work is inspiring, as it uses a blend of dance styles, story telling to bring out awareness about causes, tell great stories, showcase great characters and is an experience in entirety.
Osmosis and Entrepreneurship
A rare combination, but a successful one at that, Madhu believes that she learned dancing, conceptualization, innovation more from genetic osmosis than actual training. Intuitive aesthetics, implicit sense of dance, rhythm, an innate sense of abhinaya, voracious reading are gifts from her family. Madhu believes she is deeply entrepreneurial, a quality needed in the world of arts. Today The Natya Academy runs three main tracks – one, training center for Choreography, two, the performing unit and three, the Outreach vertical which takes innovative concepts like community projects for working women, confidence-building programs, healing as a concept and so on, fourth, the Maya Madhu Company Arts which works on scholarships, funding based projects, programs and so on. Quintessential to all her initiatives and projects, Madhu ensures she does not practice a crowd-teaching or a mass program. It continues to be on the principles of 1 – 1 teaching and focuses on core value systems like how to uplift standards of performance, how to rise above mediocrity, how to work on better presentation methodologies and more. Madhu says, “an artist has to constantly reinvent.”
I ask Madhu to share one of her favorite mythological characters she has worked on and she quickly chooses Yashodhara, the wife of The Buddha. The character presents itself to several opportunities of rendition, presentation and questioning of women’s identity and her turmoil. Our conversation continues but there’s more we need to know. It is not easy for children of great achievers. Amongst other things, they deal with stigma too. People think art comes easy to children and assume that a readily-built stage awaits their performance. Not true. It is a tough life, and what makes it tougher is they have to step out of shadows of the great past and build their own identity that is accepted and loved. They must sustain, retain and restore the legacy that their parent left behind. And above all, live with the irreversible loss of greatness. Our best wishes to you, Madhu Nataraj Kiran.
One look at the Autobiography, Maya Rao – A lifetime in Choreography, and you will know what an artistic genius Maya Rao was. I personally invite all of you to get your copy today. It is a story of her life, her struggles, her genius, her colossal stature and her great humanitarianism. The story told largely pictures have stories in each one of them, every moment Maya created artistic excellence.
A series on legendary musicians, the lives of their children and how they take the torch ahead, by APARNA SHIVAPURA
PREAMBLE
Some lives are more stories, stuff that dreams are made of. Some lives are magical, make what you see almost unbelievable. Some lives are inspirational, they give you the motivation to be better, yourself. Some lives become legends, and they live on, forever, crafting an inexplicable experience in your mind and soul. Our series HOW LEGENDS ARE BORN – HOW LEGENDS LIVE ON cover the lives of two or more generations of musicians; stories of how children or siblings live with legendary musicians, how children sustain, and revive the legacy and how they carve out their own unique identity and finally, make it matter. ANANYA FOUNDATION and ANANYA KALASINCHANA celebrates the lives of stalwart musicians; veterans and passionate artists who gave their life unto music, who showed us that there is oceanic-depth and a lifetime may not be enough to get hold of this divine experience. We also celebrate and discover the lives of their children, for whom, life runs on multiple tracks, sustaining the legacy, reviving it and above all, building and retaining one’s own identity, to be known beyond the name, and to keep the contours of the past separate and unique from the present.
REMEMBERING THE LEGENDARY MAYA RAO - IN CONVERSATION WITH DAUGHTER, THE SPECTACULAR AND VERSATILE MADHU NATARAJ KIRAN
Indian Classical Dancer, Choreographer, Educator, Dance Ballet Pioneer, Connoisseur and Guru Smt Dr Maya Rao was born on 2nd May 1928. It is only appropriate our series on legends is inaugurated with a few gems from her life (as a single article may not suffice) in the words, experience and reminiscence of her daughter, Smt Madhu Nataraj Kiran.
Living with a legend
This series is but a frugal, humble attempt to understand the life of Maya Rao, more from the inside than from the outside, more a home view than a world view. What a supremely creative person like her was, how did she bring such uncompromising excellence to her field of work, how did she create such a voluminous legacy in one lifetime, how did she grow in stature and above all, how was she as a mother, what does a daughter do from here on?
Madhu – A sparkling soul
Through our conversation, Madhu Nataraj Kiran gave tremendous insights into the life of her mother and artist, Maya. She spoke at length about the incredibly eventful life her mother led, how her mother built her artistic repertoire and why Maya lives on. Madhu also spoke about the creative path she has chosen for herself, her birth from a ‘dance-womb’, taking Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography ahead, building a future for Natya STEM DANCE KAMPNI and more. However, what strikes me apart from her creative genius is her individuality, a persona that comes forth as a spectacular human being first, a woman of high artistic caliber, a person of high ethics and principles, an unflinching attitude towards artistic excellence and very compassionate and affectionate. Genetic component included, I strongly believe, this is Madhu’s own making, a summation of her gifted DNA and her own cultural orientation.
Being of light
For Madhu, Maya Rao’s passing away has created an inexplicable void, a vacuum she is struggling to fill. It is the loss of a mother primarily, combined with the loss her best friend and Guru. At her death, Madhu dealt and continues to experience mixed feelings ranging from the absence of the musical ecosystem at home, to the responsibility of the Institution and legacy she left behind – not necessarily only in the art form but in the artistic soul she carried, the artistic energy, her ability to create, innovate and speak her mind – the list goes on. Madhu’s Buddhist friend, Dipankar Khanna offered a plausible way to deal with the loss. He called her mother a BEING OF LIGHT, a form, presence and energy that will reach, return to loved ones and never go away, a lingering fragrance of Maya, truly.
Maya Rao, a Utopian World
Maya Rao stopped dancing on stage at 43, when she had her daughter. She took to choreography and teaching in a big way. Perhaps, one of her biggest contributions to the world of music is creating a generation of dancers, teaching students and building global audiences, global passion and interest for our classical heritage and culture. She was not only an icon of dance and music, she was an iconic teacher, a great Guru, a passionate creator and above all, a supremely large-hearted humanitarian. It is not easy to capture her spirit, her essence and her core. Madhu has initiated several projects, activities and programs to ensure her contributions are archived in print and digital media – books, audio and video, tutorials and programs and several digitally advanced methods are taking shape in the institute in memory of Maya Rao.
A life of greatness – Mystical Maya
She was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, given by Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama in 1989. In 2011, the Akademi awarded her the Sangeet Natak Akademi Tagore Ratna, given to 100 artists from across India to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, for their contribution in the field of performing arts. She systematized training methodologies, created the first choreography course and curriculum in India, created inspirational dance ballets, has many firsts in contribution towards music and dance. What makes Maya so magnetic, so colossal is that she lived a life of simplicity and humility. It was not an easy life, a life of struggles, of challenges and innumerable obstacles, but she never gave up.
Madhu recalls how her mother never took her talent, her creative genius seriously and let it affect her persona. She learned from the greatest dance Gurus, biggest names of the times, she moved and worked with artistic geniuses, her life revolved around greatness and yet, she stayed simple at her core. “My mother taught me to be gracious, large-hearted, put art above all, taught me to share.” These are more life lessons than dance!!!
Madhu – Stemming out, uniquely!
Interestingly, Madhu never wanted to dance. She believed she was meant for the tenacious corporate world and was ready. Life had other plans, and the memory of the womb was meant to instill a calling in her 19 years later, when she decided she could choreograph her life, she could innovate, create and dance her way through. In New York where she went to study contemporary dance, she introspected on how she could synthesize contemporary dance into the traditional Indian classical dance. The answer came in 1995 when STEM (Space. Time. Energy. Movement) was born.
In STEM’s formative years, while the purists discouraged Madhu from integrating contemporary dance with classical, it was her mother who supported, encouraged and inspired her. That remains her strength to the day, even as, STEM has traveled the length and breadth of the world leaving a mark in peoples minds and hearts with every innovative and impactful performance. In their own words, STEM has an original & unique repertoire, which includes Kathak, Dances of India, contemporary dance and ballets on mythological, historical and contemporary themes. Madhu’s body of work is inspiring, as it uses a blend of dance styles, story telling to bring out awareness about causes, tell great stories, showcase great characters and is an experience in entirety.
Osmosis and Entrepreneurship
A rare combination, but a successful one at that, Madhu believes that she learned dancing, conceptualization, innovation more from genetic osmosis than actual training. Intuitive aesthetics, implicit sense of dance, rhythm, an innate sense of abhinaya, voracious reading are gifts from her family. Madhu believes she is deeply entrepreneurial, a quality needed in the world of arts. Today The Natya Academy runs three main tracks – one, training center for Choreography, two, the performing unit and three, the Outreach vertical which takes innovative concepts like community projects for working women, confidence-building programs, healing as a concept and so on, fourth, the Maya Madhu Company Arts which works on scholarships, funding based projects, programs and so on. Quintessential to all her initiatives and projects, Madhu ensures she does not practice a crowd-teaching or a mass program. It continues to be on the principles of 1 – 1 teaching and focuses on core value systems like how to uplift standards of performance, how to rise above mediocrity, how to work on better presentation methodologies and more. Madhu says, “an artist has to constantly reinvent.”
I ask Madhu to share one of her favorite mythological characters she has worked on and she quickly chooses Yashodhara, the wife of The Buddha. The character presents itself to several opportunities of rendition, presentation and questioning of women’s identity and her turmoil. Our conversation continues but there’s more we need to know. It is not easy for children of great achievers. Amongst other things, they deal with stigma too. People think art comes easy to children and assume that a readily-built stage awaits their performance. Not true. It is a tough life, and what makes it tougher is they have to step out of shadows of the great past and build their own identity that is accepted and loved. They must sustain, retain and restore the legacy that their parent left behind. And above all, live with the irreversible loss of greatness. Our best wishes to you, Madhu Nataraj Kiran.
One look at the Autobiography, Maya Rao – A lifetime in Choreography, and you will know what an artistic genius Maya Rao was. I personally invite all of you to get your copy today. It is a story of her life, her struggles, her genius, her colossal stature and her great humanitarianism. The story told largely pictures have stories in each one of them, every moment Maya created artistic excellence.