LE MONDE/ THE WORLD | 29.11.02 | 10h50

Raghunath Manet and its bayadère modernize the crowned dance of India A tradition reserved to the women interpreted by a man.

Like the nose of Cléopâtre, if Raghunath Manet had not been equipped with such a physique, perhaps it would never have dared to hustle at this point the orthodoxy of the bharata-nâtyam, dance of the south of India , generally reserved to the women. "the Brahmans monopolized the art which that of the vestals was crowned of the temples , it explains. In the judgement which is related to a dancer enter also the clear color of its skin, its beauty, richness of its costume. The beginning, the purists wondered while seeing me who was this so black man of skin, which in addition claimed to dance." Coming from the margin, Raghunath Manet developed with much intelligence its eccentricity. Its narcissism, very worked, surely born from its desire to strongly exist vis-a-vis with the uses, confines aujourd' with chief-of work today. With the scene as at the city. But never not forgetting from where it comes, turned towards the others, opening for the problem childs an academy of music and dance with Pondichéry, its birthplace.

It is this work of ground, financed by the only money of the rounds, which attracted with him old the bayadères, driven out dancers of the temples by the British laws, generally due to prostitution, and which had found refuge with Pondichéry, then under French supervision. Indra Rajan, with which it occurs in Paris , is one of the last. It is with it, and around its thundering talent, which it conceived its creation, quite simply named Pondichéry . One will not say the age of Indra Rajan, say simply that it is sublime. Truculent, popular, quintessence of the MIME : of a raising of eyebrow, it tells an anecdote, of a bearing of its eyes, one in ten volumes. But it is its dance which appeared radiant to us : not needing nothing to prove, being located almost in the draft, one however sees the movement slipping until the end of his arched fingers.

With Raghunath Manet, it forms a pair eager to be rendered comprehensible, far from the din Indian and (wrongfully) erudite which often surrounds the bharata-nâtyam, but also all the other forms of dances which one finds in India (kathakali, odissi, kathak, manipuri). And which singer, with her voice which orders. And how that jumps ! Raghunath Manet, itself excel musician, first price of veena, graduate of prestigious Académie Kalâkshêtra of Madras, take the traditional steps, take the attitudes and the installations, too happy to obey this voice returned from all, dominating, which the extatiques tonalities of Prema KUMAR relay, accompanied by the percussionnists Mani Ankappan and Sendil KUMAR.

SOFT PLANING MADNESS

As for Raghunath Manet, it does not hesitate to offer a festival of costumes. In embroidered gold white to play of the veena, then twisted naked to dance, in blue trousers, then green, red. Collar of gold, grelots to the ankles, it is, it too is, kitsch perhaps (but which is not it in India for a Western eye ?). To have seen it rather often dancing, it is known that it has this soft planing madness which enables him to live its art exactly as it imagines it. This 27 November, stimulated by the presence of Indra Rajan, it is more than ever Raghunath rock' roll, seriously shouldered by the players of drums.

The man built his own circuit. Last year, it had chosen the Circus of winter for its spectacle with the violonist Didier Lock- Wood, and the Amphitheatre of the Opera Bastille to present Chidambaram . All was not always also pink, one sometimes saw it dancing in dreadful rooms, environment which did not change anything with its mood nor with that Didier Bellocq, his producer and friend. CD of the musics of Pondichéry has just left to Dreyfus. The artist and musician count ten works to date. And its house of discs is on the point of making it play with other personalities of the jazz. One speaks about Michel Portal. Concerning the publications, one can get, translated into French, Bharata-Nâtyam, temple with the scene , Bayadères, the carnatic Music . All written by Raghunath Manet, one-man band in Technicolor.

Domenica Frétard

 

Raghunath Manet & « Bollywood Ballet »

Raghunath restitue leurs lettres de noblesse aux chorégraphies ancestrales du bharata natyam, avec une touche très personnelle en choisissant minutieusement les ragas et des chorégraphies sophistiquées du cinéma de bollywood…  

"des chorégraphies superbes" INDIAN EXPRESS “ Raghunath fouille le répertoire et l'ouvre à une écriture plus contemporaine ; d'une nouvelle génération, Il ne rompt pourtant pas avec la tradition ; il la fait sienne tout en bousculant bien des codes” Libération  

« Le Noureev indien » Télérama Raghunath dévoile des chorégraphies traditionnelles et du cinéma indien; le public perçoit la continuité et l'influence des arts ancestraux dans la création contemporaine. Au 19 ème siècle, la réforme sociale de Madras met fin à la consécration des jeunes danseuses de temple. Une loi est votée et l'abolition des danseuses de temple entraîne l'abandon de la danse. Les maîtres de danse, sans emploi, émigrent vers les capitales du cinéma comme Madras, Bombay, car dans les années 1950, l'industrie cinématographique se developpe et a besoin d'acteurs sachant à la fois chanter, danser et jouer la comédie. Les maîtres contribuent aux choreographies tandis que les danseuses deviennent actrices : le cinéma les rend célèbres ainsi que les plus grands musiciens indiens .