Kathak Troupe Has Tales From India to Tell

Some art forms require connoisseurship to appreciate them. Kathak, one of the great dance traditions of northern India, is not one of them.

Indeed, the style will seem very familiar--if in somewhat altered guise--even to first-time Western viewers of Saturday’s concert by the Chitresh Das Dance Company at Saddleback College.

Like tap, kathak makes use of vigorous footwork, although it is done with bare feet and with up to 9 pounds of bells around the ankles of the dancer.

Like ballet, it incorporates swift pirouettes and storytelling mime gestures. The pirouettes, however, are done on the heels, not the toes, and the mime is far more complex and subtle than anything in “Swan Lake” or “Giselle.”

And as in ballet, the dancer makes use of intricate, fluid movements of arms and hands, but even the face and eyes are employed to convey a wide range of thoughts and emotions.

Then, on top of everything, a single dancer enacts all the characters in stories that often derive from 1,000-year-old Vedic literature and tradition.

“Kathak comes from the word katha , meaning ‘to tell stories,’ ” company founder Chitresh Das said in a phone interview from his studio in San Anselmo, Calif.

“In ancient times, in all the great countries, minstrels, bards and rhapsodists told stories of the gods and the goddesses, and then they did whatever entertaining form they had. Kathak originated in India in this way.

“The dancers would tell stories, going from village to village, town to town, and as the art developed, it became part of the court patronage of the king.”

At Saddleback, Das and three members of his 9-year-old company will dance a story about the mission of two gods--Madan, the God of Love, and his wife, Rait, the God of Lust--to break the divine meditation of Lord Shiva so that he will look upon the beautiful Parvati attending him.

“The hope is that through their union will come this great general of heaven who will win back the heavens from the evil devils who had conquered the gods,” Das said. “Unfortunately, the plan backfired. Lord Shiva became enraged and burned Madan to ashes with the laser vision of his third eye.”

Eventually, however, Shiva and Parvati will get together, and their offspring, Kartik, will succeed in saving the gods. But that is another story--and another dance.

“On one hand, kathak can be very virtuosic,” Das said. “On the other, it can be very theatrical.”

Indeed, the famous sequence of 32 fouettees in the Black Swan pas de deux in “Swan Lake” seems like child’s play compared to what Das does.

In “Twelve Minutes,” the piece he choreographed for the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival, Das performed a set of 81 consecutive turns.

While this was a special tour de force, such multiple sequences--perhaps “only” 27 turns--occur regularly in kathak.

Further, the style is “heavily mathematical.”

“We dance in terms of numbers,” Das said. “We count numbers or patterns of rhythms. That is, we dance and recite at the same time.

“The dance is highly focused on the rhythm in the music. You have to be very much in tune with the drummer and the musicians. If for a nick of a second you lose the beat, you will be off the rhythm.”

There are three elements of kathak dance, according to Das.

The first is the nitta, meaning the pure technique involved in the dance. The second is nritya, the mood and sentiment expressed in a poem and conveyed partly through mutra-- hand gestures--invoking the deities. The third is natyam, which is mostly mime and drama.

Kathak, which already has been invigorated by a crossing of Muslim and Hindu traditions, is--like other dance styles in India--undergoing further evolution today.

“The art forms of India come mostly from the court or the temples,” Das said. “Now they are going to the proscenium stage, where dance is a whole different thing.

“Now we have to think of choreography. We also have to think about dealing with lights and technical matters.

“In ancient times, one performed in court in all-night concerts. There was one artist, one costume, simple makeup, simple light, and he danced between 2 and 3 hours (at a time).”

At those concerts, audiences reacted spontaneously. Even today, audiences differ from those at Western dance concerts.

“Like in flamenco, they talk in India,” Das said. “They don’t sit quietly. They say, ‘Oh great!’ ‘How beautiful!’ or ‘Oh, how strong!’

“They don’t clap. Clapping is a recent innovation that is heard (only) in the bigger auditoriums. Then people clap. But even there, you still will hear these exclamations.”

Additionally, kathak used to be essentially a solo art form. But Das has created a company to help make the form “more accessible to the general Western public.”

“Because I am a pioneer in this country, I have to do this,” he said. “For a Western audience, I must think of how to be accessible. If I just danced for 3 hours doing all these different things, it might be very good, but I have the mission to spread the knowledge of kathak without breaking the tradition and keeping it intact.

“I believe that in any art form, it is our duty as artists to reach out, of course, without breaking the tradition, so that people will feel happy at what they are watching. You can’t win over everyone. But if an artist tries very hard, he or she will win over a lot. Kathak is quite accessible.

“People should come to this concert with an open mind. You don’t have to prepare yourself. Just come and enjoy yourself. That’s all.”

Chitresh Das (and company) will dance at 8 p.m. Saturday at the McKinney Theatre, Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. Tickets: $11, general; $9, seniors and students. Das will also conduct a free master class in kathak technique at 11 a.m. Sunday. Information: (714) 582-4656.