75 years of Darpana: Mallika Sarabhai on arts that create social change
As Darpana Academy of Performing Arts celebrates 75 years, Mallika Sarabhai talks about social projects that have driven her dance
Mallika Sarabhai was around 10 years old when she was introduced to the idea of art for social change by her mother, noted dancer and choreographer Mrinalini. “Amma, who had been born and brought up in the south, moved to Gujarat after her wedding. It was while she was trying to learn Gujarati from newspapers that she read about young girls in Saurashtra jumping into wells—some times with their newborns," she says. When Mrinalini discussed the news report with other writers and poets who were her friends, including Jayanti Dalal and Umashankar Joshi, they explained the distressing reason behind it—that girls were being harassed for dowry by their in-laws, and unwilling to distress their parents further, they were driven to suicide. “The term ‘dowry death’ did not exist back then. Amma was horrified. So she took Bharatanatyam—her primary form— and shifted from the inherent shringara bhava to talk about dowry-related violence. I grew up watching her use per forming arts to raise voice for such issues," says Sarabhai, 71.
It was in 1949 that Mrinalini and her husband, renowned scientist Vikram Sarabhai, set up the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad along the Sabarmati river not just to create a space for diverse dance and music forms but also for such pertinent issues. Today, as the cultural centre celebrates 75 years, the vision remains the same. “Sadly, the issues from back then have remained the same—violence, hatred and destruction. And hence the work that my parents started at Darpana has become even more relevant now," says Sarabhai. Over the years, the centre has tried to make performing arts accessible to professional and aspiring artists from across the globe—nearly 35,000 practitioners have graduated over the years—and has worked to document and revive dying art forms such as the bhavai and Andhra shadow puppets.
For Sarabhai, her mother’s efforts left a deep impact in the way she thought of dance and choreography. While growing up, she had assumed that every single art ist thought along the same lines. However, Sarabhai was in for a rude shock many years later when she became a professional dancer and learnt that her mother had been an exception. “I had seen the impact of such constructive efforts—the piece on dowry deaths was watched by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who ordered a white paper and the term dowry death came about. When I joined Darpana in early 1977, I was very sure that with the kind of issues facing society, we had a very powerful tool in the arts," she says.
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Sarabhai started Darpana for Development in 1980 and worked across artistic disciplines and with national, international and government institutions to create awareness on matters ranging from maternal and infant mortality, inoculation, smokeless chulhas and HIV/AIDS. In 2001, Sarabhai found a like-minded young collaborator in the form of film graduate Yadavan Chandran, who is now the creative director at the academy and also runs Darpana Communications, a production house that has created over 3,000 hours of issue-based programming, for television. The idea for the latter stemmed from her father Vikram Sarabhai’s vision to bring instructional television programmes to rural India through the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment in collaboration with US space agency NASA in 1975-76. “I was brought up on this dream of using television effectively to create content that is insightful while also being engaging. We worked on issues ranging from communal harmony to menopause in collaboration with nearly 100 not-for profit organisations between 2002 and 2005. We got instant feedback from the viewers on what worked and what didn’t," she explains.
The presence of Mrinalini still lingers in most ongoing projects at Darpana. Take, for instance, the documentation and research around performing arts that are fast going extinct. This endeavour to instil pride in the younger generation of com munities of indigenous artists started in the 1980s when Mrinalini was chair person of the Gujarat State Handi crafts Corporation. She would travel to remote parts of the state to meet folk artists and craftsper sons and would often take Sarabhai along. During one such visit to a far flung village, the mother-daughter duo were welcomed with a Hindi film song. They looked at one another, wondering why a village so rich in cultural heritage was not proud of it. That’s how the Janavak project began to give a platform to the folk legacy from across the country.
Darpana started bringing in different generations of families from various communities. An elder, for instance, would talk about why a particular embroidery meant something to their community. The third generation would be unaware of this. They would state that they had a tradition of wearing red in the village, but would not know the reason why. “Gulabo, who is now the most famous kalbeliya dancer in India, came in with her family, who recounted how the elders in her community would go out to protect snakes. So, Janavak would celebrate dance and music traditions while also shedding light on the sociological and anthropological aspects of these practices," says Sarabhai, who taught a course, also titled Janavak, at Ahmedabad University for two years. The idea was the same—to reintroduce the plurality of India to the youth.
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This focus on the younger generation continues with ongoing projects. Today, as part of Darpana, she runs a project called Nritya Parichay in 10 municipal corporation schools to improve mental health and self-esteem of youth from marginalised communities through dance. “One village is home to migrants from Odisha. We are trying, through folk dance, to lift their self-confidence and to not be ashamed of their bodies. Girls would earlier feign headaches to stay away from class during their menstrual cycle. Today, the transformation is immense. Not only girls but boys too are talking about menstruation and that there is nothing to be ashamed about," says Sarabhai.
To celebrate the platinum anniversary of Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Sarabhai and Chandran have come up with a new production, Meanwhile Elsewhere, which was shown in Ahmedabad at the centre’s Natarani theatre, until last week. The production focuses on human longing and ambition through the metaphor of invisible cities. “Are we chasing dreams that are external instead of looking inwards? Meanwhile Elsewhere stems from our mandate to create a mandate that reaches a part of your soul that you might have forgotten. Our performances need to reach people, who might even disagree with us," says Sarabhai. She gives the example of My Sita’s Daughters (1990), which has had over 600 performances. It is a retelling of myths from a feminist perspective and a social critique on injustices faced by women. “A lot of men might disagree with it, but the next time they read a report about sexual assault, they will remember the perform ance," she says.
To mark this milestone, she has also launched a project called Sulah to create conversations among the youth about generosity, compassion and cooperation. “Is there a different way of living, which is not aggressive? The project explores that through discussions with people, who work with arts, climate change, and more," she adds.
One can’t help but wonder if it has been difficult to not just change the outlook within groups of society but also within the community of artists, who might frown upon deviations in the more formal style of dance. “To my great relief, there are now a growing number of younger dancers and choreographers—mostly women—, who are looking at intersectionality and at subjects that are relevant to society today. Until five years ago, this was not happening to a large extent. But I am very hopeful now with the work that is coming in," she says. “And they can be assured that they will always have a space with us."
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