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An Apprenticeship in North Indian Kathak Dance

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The Devoted Disciple: Remembering Jaiwanti Das Pamnani

Editor’s Note: Jaiwanti Das Pamnani, principal dancer of the Chitresh Das Dance Company (CDDC) and assistant director of the Chitresh Das Youth Company, passed away on February 26, 2007, after a battle with ovarian cancer. Pamnani began studying with Pandit Chitresh Das in 1991, became a member of CDDC in 1995, and a principal dancer in 1998. Pandit Das and Pamnani participated in Round 1 of ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program. In 2001, Pamnani became an official shishya, or disciple, of Pandit Das in a gandabandhan ceremony, in which a guru, or master teacher, accepts the responsibility of training a disciple.

In the following interview, Pandit Das and Farah Yasmeen Shaikh, a current master artist-apprentice pair in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program, reflect on Pamnani’s successful career and her guru-shishya relationship with Pandit Das.

Farah Yasmeen Shaikh: Before we go into the relationship you had with Jaiwanti, I would love if you could share your description of what the guru-shishya relationship is.

Pandit Chitresh Das: The word guru means one who removes darkness. That is the traditional word. But then, according to my mother, your shiksha guru and diksha guru are the same. Shiksha means one who teaches you a vocation and diksha is the spiritual guru. When I used to ask my father, he would say that you need to have a spiritual guru separately. My mother on the other hand, would always say, “No. I have chosen your GuruJi and he was chosen to teach you dance and that is your way of life. And from this, you will make money, you will survive, you will sustain yourself, and, this should be your path of spirituality. Everything is in one.” So, I chose my mother’s vision and her belief that your guru is a shiksha guru, one who teaches you your vocation as well as a diksha guru, a spiritual guru, at the same time.

I believe that there is a harmony and disharmony, one who can teach you harmony no matter what through your path and you can reach the highest of feelings. High in the sense that you feel one with everything. My GuruJi, Pandit Ram Nayaran Misra, used to say that. Become one with everything. I think that is the path. A guru’s training should be that to push through the fire. Actually, in Charles Dickens’ book, David Copperfield, Charles Dickens, the great Victorian author says, “The best of steel comes out of a lot of fire.” In many cultures they all say the same thing. Go through the fire, go through the fire, go through the fire. What does that mean? That means, go through the agony so you reach your ecstasy. No agony, no ecstasy.

So, there aren’t any sugar-coated pills that you would like to hear. You know, like our “PC” culture nowadays. “Oh, you did well. Oh, how beautiful.” That is a PC culture. Sure, it feels nice but there is no accountability. So, a guru has to be always accountable, always vigilant, and always should be on the case of the student. Guru is between father and mother, and brother, sister and friend. It is all put together.

I am still learning though. That is why a lot of people call me “modern guru in training.” I like that because it cannot end thinking that as a guru you are a master. You are master of what? You are master up to the point. Then from that point, you have to be more. So, the more you do, the more you have to feel that you need to go deeper and deeper and deeper.

Shaikh: In 2001, Jaiwanti Das Pamnani became an official disciple when she went through the gandabandhan ceremony in Kolkata, India. Can you talk about that ceremony and what was the indication for you that she was ready to become your shishya?

Das: Well, I do it a little differently than what was done in my childhood days. I started with my GuruJi when I was a 9-year-old boy. I was initiated in front of the Goddess Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning. There was a fire sacrifice and I was offered to my GuruJi.

But I don’t do that with my disciples because times have changed. Being in America, the Indians are also not the same. Jaiwanti was an Indian, but from Fiji. Her parents came from India to Fiji, then to Hawaii, and finally resided in California. With my students, I have changed things so that they should spend at least a minimum of ten years with me. Then I would feel, I would say, “Hey, it is time for you to become a disciple.” And then, you have to decide in your heart if you want to be my disciple. But it cannot be so easily said because it is not so black and white.

Jaiwanti got an enormous dose of training in the early part of her study. I did not return to India for 8 years and spent that time practicing and training. As I was training myself, I trained Jaiwanti. I teach my students so that you can be better than me. Jaiwanti and Charlotte Moraga, my other disciple, are the two who got the maximum dose of my own training. With the intensity of my training, they got a direct injection.

Even before she became my disciple, Jai went through lots of fire with me. Tremendous. One thing you have to ask, why I did this? She used to ask a lot of questions, sometimes to the point of annoyance. She would go on and on and then I would have to ask her to leave the room. You have seen that many times, you know. She was the one who got kicked out of the room the most. For that she was the most powerful disciple. How so? Because she was consistent and even she would say, no matter what, her belief in me is that I am her guru and whatever, even if she had problems, she would be always there.

She would consistently bring me one bottle of water and one flower – even wilted – to each class, even when I did not speak to her. There was a period of time, one whole year that I did not speak with her, really speaking. But I taught her. Because I believed that when she came to me, when I started teaching her, I should teach her with all my heart and soul. As soon as that class was over, I didn’t give her two words. I didn’t want to speak with her. I had to teach her that you can’t go on talking back, talking this and talking that. No. When a student has a flaw, you have to set an example. Also, I was trying to teach her that she was going to be the next teacher, and how she conducted herself was important. I set an example with a lot of my students of the Indian diaspora. Look, if you are a shishya, you have to set an example. So, I was trying to teach her that.

Shaikh: Jaiwanti’s husband often says that he feels that you are harder on the Indians. Do you feel that is true? If so, why do you feel you have to be harder on your students and disciples of Indian origin?

Das: Yes, I am harder on the Indians. Extremely hard on the Indians. And I believe that more so. Because they, non-Indians, they have adopted the art form with their heart and soul and that is not their culture. That is not their tradition. But for the Indians, or South Asians, it is different. What I mean is that that they have to be more careful because it is their heritage and it is my duty, good or bad, to bring it to them. It is your heritage, so pay attention to your culture, art form, from which your forbearers have come. When the children grow up in America, like you did, then it is a whole different ball game because they become American kids. They are American kids but Indian origin or Pakistani origin and so that is where I come in. I have to be ten times stronger because the parents don’t always understand the dance and music and art culture. They know the heritage and the culture, but not necessarily the classical Indian dance culture or the classical music culture of India. They are not aware of that.

My approach is that the dance becomes a way of life. In this religion of ours, in our Kathak religion, you can be a capitalist, you can be a communist, you can be atheist, you can be spiritual, and you can join any religion you want, but your mantra, your mantra, the three mantras: practice, practice, practice so that you will feel high. At the age of 60, you never know what kind of grandchildren you will have. You don’t know what kind of husband you will have. You don’t know what kind of children you have, but your dance will keep you going.

So, I have to be extra … well I wouldn’t say extra harsh or anything, but extra careful.

Shaikh: As Jaiwanti’s illness became a reality in 2004, and she still continued to attend classes, rehearsals – and often the day after receiving chemotherapy – she would still come to class and give so much energy, so much joy in everything she was doing, but how would you as her guru, how did you have to assess what she needed?

Das: You have to also understand Jai was a pharmacist. That had an extra effect on her. That is why she became a big champion of the health benefits of the dance. She used to use that phrase “weight-bearing” a lot. And, it is not only dance. And as you know in this traditional art form, it is historical, it is philosophical, and it is mathematical. Jaiwanti was fascinated by Kathak Yoga, and really, that is what she developed. That kept her going until the end of her last day. The doctors couldn’t understand how everything could be failing, but still her heart is going. Why was it going? Because she believed in that kind of strength. Maybe, maybe that has something to do with it. I cannot guarantee 100 percent, but even with a tumor, and a 102 degree temperature, she performed in the Kathak festival last September.

Shaikh: There was obviously some unspoken faith that she was able to do what she did so well on that opening day of that festival. But how do you let go to let that happen?

Das: That again is time. It is evolutionary process. And, it was her training over the years.

Shaikh: Jaiwanti was the Assistant Director of your youth company, the Chitresh Das Youth Company, she was a Senior Instructor at the Chhandam School of Kathak, and a Principal Member of the Chitresh Das Dance Company, not to mention that she was also a mother and wife. Having her fill such important roles in your organization is obviously a testament to your faith in her and her strength and ability. What would you want Jaiwanti’s guru sisters and future generations of Kathak dancers to learn from her approach to the dance and her relationship with you?

Das: The most important thing that she did was prove herself. Jaiwanti proved that being a mother and being a wife, she can also carry on and become a very powerful practitioner of Kathak to the level where she can be a professional dancer or she can be a great teacher. She can be a promoter of the art. She can maintain and preserve the Indian tradition. She can also set an example to other mothers and other wives how you balance your life with being a wife, being a mother, and practicing something so serious and be able to preserve it. That is my teaching. That is what I believe. So, Jaiwanti’s role was that she was a role model.

There is a price tag. You might make a lot of enemies. But the people who get past all that, they reach tremendous ecstasy. That ecstasy is so high and so powerful, and Jaiwanti is a testimony to that by the way she danced in the festival. With a tumor in her like that. Because she believed that no matter what, “My GuruJi is going to get me there.” She believed in that. And I believed that she could do it. It is unending. Unending. Guru-shishya is unending.

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An Apprenticeship in North Indian Kathak Dance

Sherwood Chen, Associate Director, ACTA

As a son of two dancers in India, Pandit Chitresh Das studied classical North Indian Kathak dance with Pandit Ram Narayan Misra in Kolkata before arriving to the United States in 1970. Since then, he has established the esteemed Chitresh Das Dance Company (CDDC) based in San Francisco, and the Chhandam School of Kathak Dance in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has performed and taught internationally, and is the creator of Kathak Yoga which incorporates singing, rapid calculations and dance performed autonomously by a dancer. As a master performer and dedicated teacher of the Kathak tradition, he has trained many dancers in the United States and India, many of whom have gone on to establish their own careers in Kathak dance.

As a current master artist in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program, Das has been working with apprentice Farah Yasmeen Shaikh, who has studied with Das for over eleven years. She is a primary dancer in CDDC touring and performing with them nationally and internationally, teaches Kathak classes, and assists Das in classes at Stanford University and San Francisco State University, where she first began to study Kathak with him as an undergraduate.

Kathak is one of six major Indian classical dance forms, and is derived from the Sanskrit word katha, meaning “the art of storytelling.” Kathakas were communities of artists whose hereditary profession was to narrate history while entertaining. Characterized by technical virtuosity through challenging rhythmic patterns produced by the feet and ankle bells, called ghungroo, Kathak is characterized by punctuated, rapid chakkars or spins, crisp stances and poses, and complex, subtle expression to depict various stories of ancient India.

As tradition indicates, Farah has been working with Das towards developing a debut solo slated for this fall—which typically lasts anywhere between two to three hours without break—and will serve as a flashpoint in Shaikh’s career as a Kathak artist.

A Kathak soloist must be able to recite compositions, sing, develop stamina, technique, rhythmic acumen, and improvisation skills, activities which Shaikh has been dedicated to under Das’ instruction. Improvisation, or upaj, is a key characteristic of the tradition, demanding spontaneous and precise interchange between a dancer and live musicians as well as a thorough understanding of the prescribed rhythmic structures and principles which shape the tradition. To develop upaj, Das considers the apprenticeship with Shaikh “a stepping stone. Then, she will perform, by herself. I may sit there with my tabla, but I may not conduct it. Upaj is a huge thing in the Indian tradition…she has to come up with her own songs which she does not know yet. If you cannot do upaj, you’re not learning.”

“This apprenticeship comes at a time when I am also seeking an increased interest and passion in observing others in their processes. Every time I watch a solo it is different, which is circumstantial, but is also about where the individual is, that the individual must continue to evolve,” notes Shaikh. Earlier this year, she accompanied Das to India for a fourth time, where she intensified her training and performance skills with musicians, as well as strengthened her connection to Das’ dance lineage. The tours to India also exposed her to the blend of Hindu-Muslim influence on Kathak, and Shaikh witnessed that dancing Kathak required that one become a kathaka, a storyteller. While there with Das, “seeing some of the things he brought on stage which I have never seen before, a composition or a unique approach or interaction with musicians, was almost like watching him for the first time all over again.”

As Shaikh prepares for her forthcoming solo seasoned by over a decade of devoted study with Das, she will achieve “depth of technicality, speed and power; the grace; the mind; storytelling; and singing,” Das articulates. However, he also asserts that “The solo is not the end, but the beginning of one’s path in Kathak.”

In addition to intensifying Shaikh’s ongoing relationship to Kathak, Das and Shaikh’s work together “will far exceed her individual experience, as it will aide in the preservation of the solo as she continues to pass this tradition onto future generations” through her work with the younger students at the Mountain View branch of the Chhandam School of Kathak, where she serves as the branch director. Learning to teach is as much part of the training of a Kathak dancer, and, just as Das had to begin teaching children when he was twelve-years old, he demands the same from his serious students, Shaikh included.

Chitresh provokes Shaikh and his other students to reflect on what they will do without him, and he wants to ensure they have enough grounding to support and perpetuate the tradition independently. “You come alone and you die alone,” he says. “Everything is directly related to life. You can’t separate things from life.”

Farah echoes his thoughts: “After completing ten years of study, I still feel that I have just begun to scratch the surface of this deep tradition. Observing a Guru that is still, after over fifty years of practicing this art form, developing and evolving as an artist, it makes me realize that this is truly a life path. I know I have the potential, but more than that I am fortunate to have a Guru who pushes me in the direction of achieving that potential.”

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California Traditional Artist to Premiere New Work

“Charya Burt fans her fingers like an exotic flower, lowers to her knees with her back leg bent skyward and bounces gently to the xylophone-like tones of a Cambodian roneat ek. It's a warm spring day in a Santa Rosa high school auditorium, but Burt is wearing traditional Cambodian attire: tight silk bodice, folded sarong pants – and, far more unusual – a microphone pack with a black wire snaking up her back.

“Her throaty voice sounds natural as birdsong, but for a dancer to also sing is revolutionary in Cambodian classical dance. Even more extraordinary are the words that follow: ‘Isolated from tomorrow, surrounded by beautiful antiquities, surrounded by loneliness,’ she says, then takes tiny soft steps as her arms form exquisitely sculpted arcs.”

– Rachel Howard, San Francisco Chronicle

This weekend, classical Cambodian dancer Charya Burt will premiere her new work, Pka Kolab Khiev (Blue Roses), based on Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie, at World Arts West’s San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival.

The creation of this new work was supported in part by ACTA’s Traditional Arts Development Program. Pka Kolab Khiev (Blue Roses) also features dancer Prumsodun Ok, Charya’s apprentice in the current round of ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program. (Please see An Apprenticeship in Cambodian Classical Dance in last month’s The New Moon.)

To read Rachel Howard’s full article on Charya Burt’s Pka Kolab Khiev (Blue Roses), please visit the San Francisco Chronicle’s website.

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