"The popularity of ballet as a dance form has not waned over the years. Instead, it has gained popularity. However, the lack of training ground does not harbour well for the survival of this creative form," says Kumudini Shanker, wife and disciple of Sachin Shanker. Back from a hectic tour of Mexico as part of the Cervantino Festival, from Oct 1-18, the unit is exhilarated at the response they received there. The enthusiasm with which the unit was received is, however, not very different in other foreign countries. "Abroad, audiences love the items we put up for them.We take a conscious decision not to perform long ballet pieces. Instead show small pieces like The Fisherman and the Mermaid or Palkhi, which are simple to understand and at the same time reflect Indian values and themes," says Kumudini. To help foreign audiences identify further with Indian culture, the Ballet Unit also performed folk dances from Rajasthan, the Punjab and Gujarat. "In India, there is no sense in performing folk because there are traditional folk dancers who are much better and authentic. But, ballet is the most convenient form of dance for conveying a message in any language," she says.Sent and sponsored by ICCR, New Delhi, Sachin Shanker's Ballet Unit covered 10 cities including Guatemala and Compeche. "Since the festival had a restriction of 12 members, we had to choose from our 20-member unit of professional dancers. And everywhere we went, the language barrier notwithstanding, theatres were always filled to capacity. And after almost every performance, the audience surged on to the stage asking questions about the music, the bindis and even the costumes," recalls Kumudini.The cousin of ballet dancer Uday Shankar and sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, Sachin Shankar, learnt creative dance under the tutelage of Uday Shankar. In 1953, he branched out on his own. Soon began a rich era of the creative form of dance which, despite its classical base, was easy to comprehend and thus a `festival favourite'. The Sachin Shanker Ballet Unit greatly owes its run of success to the inspiration and help from eminent poets like G D Madgulkar, Harindrananth Chattopadhyay, music directors like Ravi Shankar, Vishnudas Shirali, (late) Salil Chowdhury, Vijay Raghav Rao, lighting experts like Tapas Sen, S Roy, Indumati Lele and others.The unit comprises 20 dancers 10 women and 10 men. For five days of the week they rehearse for three hours, for practice makes perfect. Now, after having taken a day off after Cervantino Festival, the unit is practising for Uday Utsav, a three-day festival in Calcutta to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of Uday Shankar. "We have not yet decided the items for the festival. However, a 40-minute-ballet on the goings-on from morning till night on a typical Calcutta street is one of the likely pieces," reveals Kumudini.Reverting to the lack of training academy for the ballet, Kumudini says that though the unit has received land from the former Shiv Sena-BJP government, further development is caught in the web of funds and finances. "It is not always that the government comes forward to nurture art. In dance, the preference is for the classical forms. We have had to fight for our place under the sun and many young people are taking up dance as a career. Now, what is most important is the imparting of training which is not possible without a permanent place."
