Dance guru Jayalakshmi Eshwar is using electronic music and animated visuals of the Tamil culture to enhance the classical art tradition

Months ago, Bharatnatyam guru Jayalakshmi Eshwar wowed her audience with a dance production that was much more than a regular classical piece.

Fused with electronic music and animated visuals of the Tamil culture, it spoke to viewers about her openness to merge technology, her dance practice and even, her dance lessons. For viewers who saw Eshwar’s production Antariksha Sanchar — literally meaning transmission in space — it was a mesmerising tale of ancient aeroplanes, complete with technological elements that attract the youth today.

It featured many of her own students but the performance stage is not the only place where the dancer shares a relationship of technology with her pupils, many of who often juggle dance practice with other activities. As classrooms change from the guru-shishya parampara, where disciples learnt under their teachers almost everyday, modern-day classrooms become another place where the strict classical often merges with everyday tech. “The students have so fast moving lives that they don’t even have time to write their notes and make sketch drawings of every movement — that we needed to make because there were no photographs or tape in our times,” Eshwar said.

Even dancing for them is a great thing, she said, adding that some of her students who are as young as six years, use mobile phones to record the movements and practice it later. “Technology as a teacher helps a lot. When I am teaching my professional-level students, who are all abroad, and they want to learn a new item, I just tape in it my class bit-by-bit, and upload it. I send the lyrics, meaning, everything and they ask questions and seek clarifications as per the usual practice,” added she.

Many factions of the artiste community are still sticking to pure classical but Eshwar sees no harm in mixing it up a little. “The lives of our generation, our parents, our grandparents was so in tune with arts. My grandfather used to tell mythological stories to children in the evening. That link is not there for children now.

“Antariksha Sanchar was an eye-opener for me. I’ve found that little bit of electronic music gives interest in the classical idiom for the youth. If I just have classical, many youth find it ‘boring,’” said the prolific author and Bharatnatyam guru at the Triveni Kala Sangam. On the fusion, she said, “Without deviating from that classical tradition, keeping it intact, we’re using technology only for enhancement. We’re not losing the grammar. It depends from dancer how you can merge and keep moving forward.”

(The Bharatnatyam opera will be staged at the India Habitat Centre on July 31.)