Tehreema Mitha - Naima Prevots

Ambitious but Incoherent Framework

Tehreema Mitha Dance Company
Classical and Contemporary
The Atlas Performing Arts Center
Washington, D.C.
December 9, 2006

by Naima Prevots
copyright© 2006 Naima Prevots

Tehreema Mitha labeled her dances on this program as Classical, Classical-Contemporary and Contemporary, and this proved to be an ambitious but incoherent framework. Her two classical works were a group piece and a solo, based in her Bharatanatyam training, and these showed her to be a strong performer with a solid grasp of this Indian form. These were followed by four works which carried the label “Contemporary”, marked by basic modern dance movements mixed with traditional vocabulary, introduced with long spoken scenarios before the pieces began. While attempting to deal with themes about women, passion, and chaos theory, these pieces emerged as choreographically weak and unclear, lacking in focus and meaning.

Mitha was born and trained in Pakistan, and her background includes classical training with her mother and study in the Uday Shankar style of modern dance. She began her choreographic career in 1986, and came to the U.S. in 1997, forming her company in 2001. In her brochure, she claims that her work is “ground breaking in the world of Asian dance… continuing to push the envelope through daring choreography and thematic material.” Granted that her themes move away from the classical stories of gods and goddesses and attempt to deal with contemporary issues, but she has not yet mastered basic choreographic elements that would transform her ideas into powerful visual statements. The dances have a sense of movements put together in an arbitrary way, with little coherence, unclear phrasing, lack of spatial and dynamic exploration, and themes that are often conveyed through mimed gestures and lack of continuity. It is hard to reconcile her statements with the revolution that has occurred in Indian dance, where choreographers today are truly exploring and integrating contemporary ideas, with their classical backgrounds as a jumping off point. For anyone interested in the intense activity in this area, a recent issue of Dance Research Journal (Winter 2004), “Re-presenting Indian Dance” should be required reading.

The most successful of Mitha’s “contemporary” works shown on this program was “Andar Bahir (Both Sides of the Divide)”, premiered in 1995 in Lahore, Pakistan. Based on an Urdu short story “Lihaaf”, published in 1941, the dance is about a woman whose husband is interested in the outside world, while she is limited to life in the “Zenana”, the women’s quarters. Here she finds distraction and is aroused by the attentions of another woman, and discovers solace in these new feelings and in this relationship. The role of the husband is played by Dipta Basu, and we see him sitting stage right, smoking a water pipe with another young man. His actions consist of bored gestures with hand to face, getting up from the chair and walking, and miming conversation with his male companion. The role of the abandoned wife is played by Mitha, and she utilizes a quilt to develop the symbolism of both her initial loneliness, and then her involvement with the other woman. With a missed opportunity to develop a true contemporary feeling of sadness, the wife has only some simple movements of the head and torso, and some manipulation of the quilt. When the two women come together, they fold the quilt around themselves. There is a sequence with undulating torsos, where they create a feeling of sensuousness as the two bodies move in a tight circle. The potential of the theme is never fully realized, as we see very little of the struggles and passions of the individual or the couple. The movement exploration is minimal and sporadic, and the dynamics remain fairly consistent. However, if Mitha is interested in truly exploring contemporary connotations of her traditions, she is at least on a possible pathway in this piece.

The music for “Andar Bahir (Both Sides of the Divide)” is listed as “Combination of East and West.” Based on “Taal tilwara” with sixteen beats, and “dadra” with twelve beats, the music is scored for tenor saxophone, tabla, and harmonium. In the various program notes, great emphasis is placed on the fact that the music is always original, and that it is “meticulously set to each movement so that they flow together seamlessly.” This actually helped to create a rather un-musical environment, as there was little play and interaction between the dance and the sound. The music was not used to enhance the movements, and the movements did not enhance the sound. Rather the consistent coupling of the two allowed for no breathing with the dance and no absorption of the music, but rather a sense of pounding. Good choreography, whether classical or contemporary, allows for a partnership with music, where phrasing and dynamics have a chance for conversation and play. Many musicians and composers over the last fifty some odd years, have integrated the Indian ragas with western rhythms and harmonies, with profound results. This particular East/West combination did not enhance either tradition.

The last dance of the evening was probably the best example of the problems Mitha has in her choreography. Titled “Kya Yeh Tazabuzub Hai (Isn’t it Chaos?), and premiered 1994 in Islamabad, Pakistan, it is based on “Chaos Theory”. The program itself had no written notes about any of the dances, but in the press kit I received extensive information both on chaos theory and its relationship to the dance. We are told that this is “a mathematical theory, which in the 20th century greatly influenced the outlook of scientists, philosophers and theologians.” In summary, the notes say essentially that chaos comes and goes, but “perhaps there is some method to the madness? And then, there is the human world… and how goes it?” That basically, is my question to the choreographer: How goes it? What is she trying to say and how is she saying it? The dance consisted of six performers mostly running in and out and around with very simple beginning modern dance movements, and an occasional Baharatanatyam vocabulary component. They did all of this against a series of large screen projections, reminiscent of early Alwin Nikolais and some of the older, simpler, multi-media experiments.

I am sure chaos theory is fascinating and provocative, but a dance with this theme supposedly is designed to have a message, whether emotional, intellectual or artistic. Artistically there were no compelling movement sequences, riveting phrases, challenging spatial creations, or original visual ideas. Working with a “big idea” requires a perspective, a commentary, and a distillation. No emotional or intellectual message was crafted out of the vast material that I read in the press kit, and certainly no sense of how this theoretical structure has an effect on our contemporary lives. It did not help that the dancers in the group looked as if their training and experience were fairly limited, and they could not imbue even the simple movements with any conviction. Mitha also performed, but did not look as comfortable with this material.

Other parts of the program were two film clips from “a series based on Water, Air, Fire and Earth” and premiered in Washington in 2003; a Classical-Contemporary group piece “Atish Angaiz (Igniting”) which was a world premiere; and “Between Blood” (1999), a solo for Mitha. There were some technical difficulties with the film projections as they were rather murky, and also did not exhibit anything very different from what we were seeing live. The piece called “Igniting”, which had four performers, was explained in press kit notes: “Passion comes as if out of nowhere, to burn red hot, to sizzle in the breast, to leap through one’s mind, to shimmer forever…. In the end, that which can consume your soul, burst out in wondrous creativity, reduce life to ashes, is what also gives rise to the most beautiful, intangible, ephemeral visions emotions feelings.” Unfortunately, the dance itself did not exhibit any of this, and remained more of an exercise in some basic group movements drawn from mostly from the classical vocabulary, with some attempts at using the body in other ways. The solo for Mitha showed that she enjoyed being on the stage, but she needs substantive material to really perform something meaningful. This was supposed to be a dance about the struggle of forces, and how healing brings joy, but no patterns of movement existed to convey these feelings or ideas.

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