At Mother’s Feet

Dance in India is paradoxically old and young, as is the country itself. Sensuous dance poses can be seen in the friezes of temples hundreds--if not thousands--of years old. Yet the dance tradition, once associated with worship but later regarded as morally questionable, died out during the Victorian era of British domination. Only with prompting by Westerners such as Anna Pavlova from without, and Indians such as poet Rabindranath Tagore and dancer Uday Shankar from within, did Indian dance revive early in this century.

Similarly, while the first traces of civilizations in India date from about 6,000 BC, modern India achieved its independence 50 years ago.

Dancer Ramya Harishankar and her Arpana Dance Company will tie together these ideas in “Nritya Saram” (The Essence of Dance) on Sunday at Fullerton College. Divided into two parts, the program will explore myths about the creation of dance and issues focusing on women.

“In India, dance is considered sculpture in motion,” Harishankar said. “Sculpture is considered frozen dance. Did dance come out of sculpture or did the dance poses become sculpture? We don’t know.”

We do know several stories about how dance came into being. Each story involves a god--Kali, the goddess of destruction, or Shiva, lord of creation, as Nataraj, “the lord of the dance.”

“Kali created dance and created this universe through dance,” Harishankar said. “But Kali, the primeval woman, is actually a very high philosophical concept. She represents the universe, and she is the universe.

“Even though we have given her physical form as a beautiful woman, ultimately she doesn’t exist. She’s only an illusion.”

The universe has no limit, so Kali has no limit. In that sense, she is an illusion.

Shiva Nataraj similarly represents the cosmos in constant motion. “So the universe is a dance. That’s the higher significance of that concept. Dance is the representation of the universe in constant motion.”

Of course, ordinary people had a hand in creating dances too, particularly folk dances, which grew out of the communities and their festivals. Such dances also will be on the program.

The second half will shift the focus to the human realm, with dances about women’s lives.

“They’re really love songs, sometimes expressing a woman’s dedication to the male god. They cover the entire range of emotions, from love to anger at an unfaithful lover or pride in who she is. They cover the entire range of emotions in a woman’s life.”

Though centuries old and written by men, the songs show that “even in those days, women’s feelings were validated and given importance. The songs are as relevant today as they were hundreds of years ago.”

The program will end with a “Vande Mataram” (Salute to Mother), dedicated to mother India.

“This is a very famous song in which India is described as a woman,” the dancer said. “This is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of our independence as a nation.”

The two primary musicians playing at the concert are from India--composer and vocalist Reji George and drummer D. Kannan. Six dancers will perform with Harishankar in the classical selections, eight in the folk dances.

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In making dances today, Harishankar must walk a fine line between tradition and innovation.

“Any art form has to be constantly evolving to keep up with the times,” she said. “Whether the change is drastic or gradual is the question. I am trying to keep to the integrity of the dance as much as possible and yet try to make it as accessible as possible.

“Earlier this year, for instance, I did a storytelling piece, and I just spoke as I danced, telling the story. It was a big hit. Actually, I had prepared it for schools and children, but adults liked it just as much. They don’t understand always the symbolic language of gestures which we use, which are very stylized. That’s why I’m speaking a lot more during the dances, to make them as understandable as possible.”

* Ramya Harishankar and her Irvine-based Arpana Dance Company will present “Nritya Saram” (The Essence of Dance) on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Campus Theatre at Fullerton College, 321 E. Chapman Ave. $10-$15. (714) 552-9043.