Meet Thomas Vo Van Tao, a uncommon male Mohiniyattam exponent from France

Thomas Vo Van Tao performing with different dancers on the 2023 version of ‘Sougandhika Lasyalahari’, organised by Sougandhika Centre for Mohiniyattam, that includes the disciples of Neena Prasad
| Picture Credit score: Haree Fotografie

Thomas Vo Van Tao, identified for his expressive abhinaya is a uncommon male Mohiniyattam exponent from France. After studying Bharatanatyam for 10 years, he veered to Mohiniyattam the place he discovered his calling. His aesthetics was additional formed underneath the tutelage of Neena Prasad. Thomas performs extensively and teaches Mohiniyattam in Paris. Excerpts from a dialog.

Query: What drew you to Indian classical dance?  

Reply: I used to be round eight once I occurred to look at a documentary on South India on TV on the finish of which there was a brief excerpt of a pair dancing collectively and it left me fascinated. It was a number of years later and by likelihood that I met my first trainer who taught me Bharatanatyam for greater than 10 years. Mohiniyattam got here a lot later in my life once I travelled to Kerala and determined to offer it a attempt. The primary class was a kind of revelation. 

Mohiniyattam is labelled because the dance of the enchantress and was additionally solely carried out by girls. Why did you veer in direction of this dance model and do you ever really feel constrained by your gender?  

I finished Bharatanatyam and veered in direction of Mohiniyattam for the sensation of plenitude I expertise each time I dance it. The gradual or medium tempo of Mohiniyattam and the character of its actions’ vocabulary made me really feel that I used to be lastly dancing. As a Bharatanatyam scholar and dancer, I used to be anticipated to bop a sure method and I used to be solely taught sure kind of compositions that might supposedly spotlight my masculinity. With out actually figuring out it, I used to be within the quest for a dance that responded extra to what I’m and that might enable house for what we label as femininity. I wouldn’t say that my gender was ever a constraint, quite the opposite Mohiniyattam gave me ample house to discover and totally embrace my gender in its complexity. Now could be my gender perceived by a number of as a constraint, sure actually. 

What about language? Is that ever an impediment? Are you able to emote with out comprehending the lyrics?  

In relation to dance compositions, I don’t suppose language is extra of an impediment for me than it’s for some other Indian dancer from India. However your query is fascinating as I don’t suppose anyone would ask a Bengali or a Gujarati Bharatanatyam dancer whether or not the languages of their compositions, largely in Telugu and Tamil, is an impediment for them to emote. All of us fall again on translations or have pals assist us translate and perceive sure lyrics. Furthermore, a local Tamil speaker may not have the ability to totally perceive a Sangam period textual content or a Malayali a closely Sanskritised Manipravalam textual content. Additionally, one of many misconceptions about Mohiniyattam is that its complete repertoire is in Malayalam/Manipravalam, this is because of the truth that, not like Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam is perceived as a regional dance type. That is true to a sure extent however Mohiniyattam’s repertoire has all the time included compositions in numerous languages. For instance, the primary Varnam taught in Kalamandalam was in Telugu and never Malayalam.  

Now to reply your query extra virtually, sure it does make a distinction to know the language of the composition because it brings extra spontaneity in abhinaya. The one space the place I undoubtedly really feel I’m lacking out is relating to the on a regular basis communication in Kerala. 

You even have coaching in analysis. Did analysis come to tell your observe in some methods? Do you primarily dance what you have got been taught by your gurus or are there new interventions too based mostly on what you have got learn and know in regards to the historical past of Mohiniyattam?  

Sure, I wrote my Masters’ thesis on the up to date historical past of Bharatanatyam. This analysis did influence my observe and I feel has been to some extent essential in my determination to cease training this artwork type. I used to be conflicted between what I used to be studying in regards to the historical past of Bharatanatyam and what was taught to me in dance class. The bhakti-loaded repertoire that was taught to me and its supposed antiquity and sacredness didn’t match with what I used to be studying in regards to the conventional repertoire of Bharatanatyam.  

I’ve not finished formal analysis on Mohiniyattam however I do learn all the pieces I can about it. Sadly, solely few tutorial works have been devoted to this artwork type and particularly to its historical past as all of the pre-Kalamandalam period practitioners and witnesses of their artwork are not alive.  

You reside and work in France. You have got carried out in Europe. Is {that a} problem for a performing artiste as a result of the place you learnt this dance and the place it’s anchored in some methods is so vastly completely different from the place you reside, observe, and educate. How does an artiste then reconcile this distinction?  

There’s a lengthy custom if I could name it so, of non-Indian practitioners of Indian dance in France. Simkie, the primary French girl who learnt Indian dances did in order early because the 1930’s within the midst of the Revival Interval when a complete new narrative was made round Indian dance traditions. So Indian dances are usually not fully alien to many right here however it’s generally what paradoxically makes it much more troublesome for me to set a context for my observe. Reconciling each my expertise in India as a scholar and as a dancer and folks’s notion of Indian dances can certainly be at instances difficult. The viewers usually involves see or expertise what they think about unique or historic with loads of preconceived notions based mostly on what they’ve learn on the so-called revival. Ensuring that the context through which the artwork type my college students be taught or the viewers see on stage, evolve, and thrive, shouldn’t be one thing that one can do within the span of a category or in a five-minute dialog with the viewers after a efficiency. It’s an ongoing work which contains spreading consciousness in regards to the artwork type by way of performances but additionally paradoxically making folks perceive that issues are usually not so vastly completely different and unique. 

Is Mohiniyattam up to date? Do you’re feeling the necessity to make it up to date to your time and context? 

Mohiniyattam or Indian dance for that matter, shouldn’t be certain by time and house. it’s an artwork that’s made and practiced by folks of at this time and regardless of how historic it’s or not, Mohiniyattam continues to be transferring ahead and retains on creating and recreating itself by way of completely different our bodies. So, sure Mohiniyattam is up to date and I might even say that it’s most likely forward of its time. It asks us to decelerate and observe.  

(Kunal Ray writes on artwork & tradition. He teaches at FLAME College, Pune)