A Pioneer of Indian Ballet
Shanti Bardhan will always be remembered in the history of Indian Ballet as a creative artist who gave a new orientation to the evolution of dance in India through his choreographic compositions.
A gifted dancer specially trained in the Manipuri and Tipperah schools, to which he devoted twelve years of study and practice, Shanti Bardhan was thoroughly acquainted with several other classical and folk forms. His creative gifts were unmistakable from the beginning of his dance career, and four years of association with Uday Shankar at the Culture Centre in Almora prepared him for the pioneering course he was to follow.
From 1944 onward, when the opportunity came for him to express himself as a choreographer and not only as a dancer, he created ballets on many themes, utilizing his vast knowledge and varied training. His ballet ‘Bhookha Hai Bengal’ created a profound stir. An increasing appreciation for the richness and complexity of India’s cultural heritage and for the national struggle led successively to the creation of ‘The Spirit of India’, ‘India Immortal’, and ‘The Discovery of India’—the last ballet drawing inspiration from Jawaharlal Nehru’s book of the same title. All these were phenomenally successful and justified Shanti Bardhan’s bold experimentation.
The LITTLE BALLET TROUPE came into being in 1952. The choreography of ‘Scenes From the Ramayana’ and ‘Panchatantra’ was the result of a mature vision, given added intensity by the fact that the creator could no longer dance himself. The themes were traditional and invested with age-long familiarity. With the unerring insight of a genius, Shanti Bardhan shed the religious superstructure of the Ramayana story and transformed it into a simple human story of universal significance. The visualization of the epic heroes as characters in a puppet dance drama, with living puppets, made full use of the power of symbolism while giving free play to fantasy.
In his treatment of the Panchatantra, in which birds and beasts of fable live out human situations, the stage again presented that piquant blend of realism and fantasy, which is perhaps the real source of ballet’s power as an art form. In the choreography of these ballets, he combined the elements of dance, drama, opera, and music to create something that was traditional yet had contemporary significance and appeal. The imaginative power and precision of his grasp of essential movement elements, his interpretation of birds in flight, mice pattering, frogs leaping, and deer jumping, and the intricacy of his patterns, ushered in a new epoch in Indian ballet.
His untimely death was a tragic loss to the contemporary movement in Indian dance. But his work lives on and is a source of joy to children and adults alike. Had he lived, he would have found his fulfillment in this enduring impact and in the inspiration he brought to the artists who worked with him.
