MOM AND POP FUSION

Asuka Randeniye

Bharatanatyam movement in ‘Hybrid’ India, 2012

She was born in Bayonne, in the South West of France. Her parents are from two different cultures: mother French and father of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. In an interview with Daily News Céline Pradeu-Kanagasabai talks of her ‘Hybrid’ in Sri Lanka and many more......

Q: How did you start dancing?

A: I started dancing in France with Western Classical ballet and after that I went to National Superior Conservatory of Paris to study Contemporary Dance and after getting my dance diploma I studied Bharatanatyam with a master in France for three years.

Q: Your show in Sri Lanka is called ‘Hybrid’. Why?

A: I chose this title because I wanted to find a hybrid choreographic language between my father’s side and mother’s side; the ‘Father language’ and the ‘Mother language’ of Bharatanatyam and Contemporary dance. This is what I call “Bharatemporary.”

Q: Was the choreography difficult to do? Did it take a long time?

A: Yes... it did take a long time. I feel I’m still in the process. I can’t tell you it’s done. It’s over. In the show— which is a conference, a dance conference with the audience— I explain how I’m searching for this hybrid language. I speak about the basics of each style so everybody in the audience know the basics and then I take one basic technique from Contemporary and one from Bharatanatyam, mix it and try to show how it’s expressed through the body. Then the audience can see the process.

Q: What can we expect from ‘Hybrid’?

A: The Hybrid project is tripartite. I explain to the audience in the Conference how I create a choreographic piece. So I explain who I am, what I do as a dancer and as a choreographer. I also speak about my next performance, the Hybrid Solo. The Solo has no speech— it’s one hour of dancing. After that I have created an Exhibition of drawings related to dance. Hybrid is all about the process. The Conference is about the process of creation, the dances, the choreographic language etc. The Solo is about the process of transformation and the Exhibition is about the process of interpretation.

I watched one of your performances online, “A Dancer and a Violinist” which was mesmerizing. Why did you choose to perform something new in Sri Lanka rather than something ‘tried and tested’?

Well, “Hybrid” was created in 2012 and it’s a continuation of the tour in India. The dance is pedagogic and there’s time for both speech and dance. So it’s quite lively.

The duet with the violinist was one of my earliest pieces. Now, it’s a bit difficult to imagine touring it in India or Sri Lanka because I’m in underwear for some of the performance (laughs). In Europe I can be naked on stage and no one will say anything, but in Asia, I can’t do that.

But the content of the Duet is like the ‘Hybrid’. It’s about identity: how to match both the Occidental and Oriental roots in me. That’s my search at the moment.

In ‘A Dancer and a Violinist’ 2009

Q: You are into ‘Bharatemporary’ too. Bharatanatyam has a spiritual foundation; Contemporary is very performative. Have you ever had problems in fusing the styles together?

A: Not really, because I have learnt Bharatanatyam but don’t practise as a performer because I came to it for myself, for my inner search, so it’s more intimate than spiritual. I have all the vocabulary, the mudras, the adavus to speak that language with my body but I don’t have a repertoire.

Contemporary seems demonstrative but you will see in the conference— it is more about expressing freedom. Whether you like it or not really depends on what you, as an audience, feel at the moment; if you don’t like the subject maybe you will like the quality of the body movement. It’s not all yes or no; it’s more subtle than that, so it’s more interesting. In classical dance it’s difficult because if you’re not a good technician, very quickly the audience will say, “Oh, she can’t do this.”

In Contemporary you don’t have to understand everything, you only have to feel. That’s the real difference with the Classical styles, I feel. But it’s quite hard for the audiences to lose themselves and forget the rules in the mind.

Q: Have you ever worried that when you are performing in India or Sri Lanka, the contemporary aspects of the performance might not resonate with the audience, because it’s not very familiar?

A: Yes, of course, but that’s the challenge. There aren’t many people who can propose this kind of dance in this context and that’s good for me because it’s all a discovery. When you discover a new dish, you don’t know yet if you like it or not, and this is the same. Most of the time the audience is very curious and they are surprised by what I can introduce because it’s quite pedagogic and when it’s over they say, “Oh, I didn’t know that” or “Now I can appreciate contemporary dance” etc.

I remember when I was performing in India, there were some traditionalists in the audience. There is a part in the Conference when they can speak, and one of them said, You used a traditional song played by a band for a Contemporary moment! It’s a sacred song! But another one said, No, no, it’s a personal search, it’s not your song, she can use it. So it’s interesting to see the different reactions.

Q: You’ve said before that you performing Bharatemporary is a personal quest to connect with the two cultures you represent. Do you think you have succeeded in this quest?

A: To a certain extent, yes. I am on the right way. I am still searching because I was obliged to choose certain aspects for my performances and fix them in position, like the order of the dance. But the content is not fixed, so I can improvise. I want to continue searching this language, even in the next creation but this project, the Hybrid Project, gave me the opportunity to start the process of searching.

Q: Was it a struggle for you to connect with both cultures, before you started the Hybrid Project?

A: I came to an “identity crisis” in my first creation, the Duet with the violinist in 2009. It started when I was twenty, when I chose to learn Bharatanatyam and I realized my body was ideal for it; I have flat feet which I can clap on the floor for Bharatanatyam but not so good for going en pointe in Classical Ballet. But the search for an identity in my life started earlier and afterwards, I had to search in my artistic life as well.

Q: And dance has helped?

A: Yes, yes... Or not. Because I have to always negotiate between the artistic and the personal, will the artistic choices fit the personal? and vice versa. I started to create this choreographic piece because of the personal and because of the subject (identity), I have to know where I am, inside me, to decide on the choreography. Am I going to be traditional for the Indian dance? Do I need a Hindu god or goddess statue on stage? Do I perform naked? It’s always a choice.

Céline Pradeu. Picture by Saman Sri Wedage

Q: Do you think that the kind of style you perform in, a fusion of two different cultures, can help people understand each other better?

A: Yes, I think so. First of all I would say it’s easier if you are of mixed heritage; mixed cultures. Mixed heritage doesn’t necessarily mean from two countries; it can be from this village and that village. The problem is, firstly, where is your middle? Where are you? Are you, you? Or are you part of two? And after that, if they want, they can project themselves to one side but you have to find a middle ground. Me, in my Conference, I speak more about an inner search but it can be a dual search, why not?

Q: Do you use other dance styles in your performances, apart from Classical Ballet, Contemporary and Bharatanatyam?

A: In my own projects, no but I can perform a bit in Flamenco style and Persian style. It wasn’t very difficult to learn and it was a lot of fun.

Q: What are your interests apart from Dancing?

A: I like music, theatre, really any artistic discipline. I love my family, I have a child and I’m expecting a second one now (laughing) so I’m very happy.

I love to travel so touring is very nice. Even if I don’t have so much time to visit places, because I’m working, it’s interesting to meet the people involved in the technical fields. It’s always different so that’s really nice.

Q: Would you want to teach someday, pass on what you do?

A: I used to, I have the diploma to teach in France and I taught in schools and I do workshops along with the performances— I like that. I like the exchange, so yes.

Q: Any extra thoughts?

A: You don’t have much contemporary dance in Sri Lanka and that created a space for me, to come and propose that here. I would like to open the discussion about Contemporary dance in Sri Lanka and India too. In India there are maybe five choreographers who do Contemporary but not so much here. So I would like to open an eye for the audience here, if I can.