In this episode, NCCAkron’s Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke, enters the ‘studio’ with ANANYA CHATTERJEA Artistic Director, Choreographer and Dancer with Ananya Dance Theatre. An ensemble of transnational feminist professional dance artists who create original contemporary dance theater inspired by the lives and dreams of BIPOC women and femmes around the globe.
Jennifer Edwards: Thank you for joining us for the seventh season of Inside the Dancer’s Studio where we bring listeners like you closer to the creative process. Celebrating a decade of rigorous play and positive failure, NCCAkron is an incubator and hub for dance research and development and serves as a connector, a catalyst, and a cultural matchmaker. Inside the Dancer’s Studio is recorded as an ongoing documentation practice with NCCAkron visiting artists.
Jennifer Edwards: In this episode, NCCAkron’s Executive/Artistic Director, Christy Bolingbroke, enters the ‘studio’ with Ananya Chatterjea, Artistic Director, Choreographer and Dancer with Ananya Dance Theatre. An ensemble of transnational feminist professional dance artists who create original contemporary dance theater inspired by the lives and dreams of BIPOC women and femmes around the globe.
Christy Bolingbroke: I'm here with Ananya Chatterjee today. Ananya, welcome to Akron.
Ananya Chatterjea: Thank you.
Christy Bolingbroke: You're finally here [Laughs].
Ananya Chatterjea: Yes. I'm excited to be here.
Christy Bolingbroke: Let us jump in. How, or when did you, in your personal journey, decide to become a choreographer or first call yourself a choreographer?
Ananya Chatterjea: When I was growing up in India, there was not such a thing called choreography. You learned repertoire and because the whole, so much of the classical repertoire was being recreated, refashioned, reorganized by the gurus in the post-colonial era.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: I was still, I was still in the, you know, it started for Odissi in the 1960s.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And then I was start, my guru and others were part of that creating of new repertoire.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So, um, I learned by watching choreography. So when I was trying to make my own dances, I was just working off of lessons that I had never articulated and never intellectualized or, you know, sort of articulated as choreography.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: But just the making of dances. And I had to teach myself what choreography meant to me.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Because I, um, I came to Columbia University and I was taking dance classes at Barnard.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And I was having arguments with my composition teacher.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And I realized that's not what I, I didn't want to make a well-made modern dance piece.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So then what did I want to make?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So I had to do a lot of investigation to figure out what choreography is to me.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And begs the next question then, because you don't work, uh, solely with Indian dancers, Southeast Asian dancers, or those that have only one way of training. So what, what do you look for in a dancer?
Ananya Chatterjea: Those who have a map of life with them.
Christy Bolingbroke: Ooh, a map of life. Say more.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah, so, you know, not people who necessarily could do 15 turns
Christy Bolingbroke: mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: But who had an appreciation for the nuance with which we live life.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: If life is to be meaningful.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So they know something about the way to walk through life.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And it is my job as choreographer to translate story into movement and spatiality and temporality. And it is for them to find that, apply that nuanced understanding of life.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: To that. So if they don't have a map of life in embodied, they can't. They'll just do it. They'll just do movement.
Christy Bolingbroke: Right.
Ananya Chatterjea: You know, they'll just do like 1, 2, 3, 4.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Like, who cares?
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ananya Chatterjea: Is, can it be 1, 2, 3, and 4?
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ananya Chatterjea: So artistry as opposed to technique because you can study technique.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And, and it's important to, I'm not dissing the study of technique. I'm, I think craft is super important. Because we're actually trying to bring in others into the vision that we are conjuring, right? We want to invite others in. And for that you need clarity. You need craft. You can't only have technique, you'll never find the artistic core of the work.
Christy Bolingbroke: How would you characterize your choreographic relationship to sound and at what point does that factor into the process?
Ananya Chatterjea: Oh, sound. I love dancing, you know, sound is, yeah. And I'll say, um, I'll say that that is because my, of my relationship to temporality
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So rhythm is obviously, is very crucial in understanding my, you know, my lineage, my sort of South Asian…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea:…dance training lineage. But it's also how I hear emotional, emotional landscapes in my head.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So how does a four fracture into a seven and a five? You know, inside my head in order to create that. In order to create the landscape of rage.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Or in order to create the landscape of grief, you know, what does, how does, how does the sort of uniform cycles of time that is part of much traditional work, how do they fracture and create a landscape, or how do they build…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: …on top of each other to create intensity.
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ananya Chatterjea: So if the articulation of emotion is at the core of the work. How does that happen?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Because of temporality then I need to work with sound to help me either not give me that not layer, not not lay out, uh, sort of, uh, grid of rhythm…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea:...So that I can impose my rhythms on it…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ananya Chatterjea:…and go in and out of rhythm.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Or at some point I need to emphasize it. And one of the things that is one of my favorite things to do is find a, a contemporary take on bol. So bol is a syllabic accompaniment. So, you know, I might say in a, in a traditional
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: I might say ta..ah.ah [recites a traditional bol]. So that's a traditional cycle, right?
Christy Bolingbroke: Okay.
Ananya Chatterjea:One abartan, or one cycle of the eight, eight-beat rhythm, which is the basic form. And then how can I make it taka taka dhini dhak dhak dhini dhayi dhayi ta dhagin dhagin ta jham…
Christy Bolingbroke: Hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea:…something like that? Like something…
Christy Bolingbroke: The emotional landscape.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ananya Chatterjea: So I actually make bold for my soundscape now, and I work with, of course, I work with, uh, you know, with composers. And one of the composers I am fond of working with is, uh, Greg Schutte, who is, uh it's fabulous percussionist.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: But also, and he plays the drum kit and, um, and I'm really sort of really, and my other instruments as well, but finding sort of the understanding of where we must land on the beat, even in a completely. Um, arhythmic section.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: How do we land on a beat together? That becomes part of my, the understanding of that nuance inside of craft. So sound is super important to me.
Christy Bolingbroke: Well, and like your movement choices, like your dancer choices, it also sounds like it transcends any single type of genre or practitioner.
Ananya Chatterjea: Absolutely. And I'll say one more thing about that. So I describe my work as transnational feminist choreography. It means that what I get to do in the sound is invite in different ways of, different kind of vocalization traditions, different kinds of sounds. So, you know, for years I've worked with, uh, Pooja Goswami, who's trained in Hindustani classical. Mankwe Ndosi, who is her own funky sound, Queen, who is, you know, Queen Drea, who has also got her own sound. Aida Shahghasemi, who is Persian singing, Persian language, traditional singing. So all of these intersect to create the world that I'm wanting to conjure. And all, you know, among the dancers, we have so many different kinds of languages that we speak.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So oftentimes I'll create text or somebody else will create text, and that gets translated and spoken in different ways inside the text. So there's a layer, layer, layers and layers of sound that for me is part of conjuring the world of um, folks, women and femmes who come from. Everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
Christy Bolingbroke: Just hearing the complexity and the layering, that becomes a part of it.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: I think one of the challenges that a lot of artists face…
Ananya Chatterjea: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke:…is then, then you have to title this thing.
Ananya Chatterjea: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: Right? It's a 70 minute experience.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: And you're trying to come up with something in a hundred characters.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: How do you name a dance?
Ananya Chatterjea: I name a dance always in my, my language, Bangla.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And then, you know, because I want to, I want to make sure that the language, Bangla is not a language. Um. It's a, it's spoken. It's not like Sanskrit, which is this high elite thing.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: I want it, I want, I wonder how when people put the, put the title in their mouth, how it sounds, how it rolls in their off their tongues. So that sensory experience is important. So…
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah,
Ananya Chatterjea: I always title it in Bangla, but with English subtitles, of course.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea:The hope is that it's sort of the, the doubleness of it, this year's work is Swapnō Jhnāp: Dream Jumping.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: You get the dream jumping, but how does Swapnō Jhnāp feel in your mouth?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Like how, how intimately can you experience the work…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea:…By saying the name of the work as well.
Christy Bolingbroke: I, I love the multisensory invitation.
Ananya Chatterjea: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: Right? Both visually auditorily and then how does it feel in your mouth?
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: I'm gonna think about that. Swapnō Jhnāp.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah. There. There you go.
Christy Bolingbroke: You know, one of the other things, particularly from training as you acknowledged in your own, in your own background in Odissi, is, you know, and now having done this for 20 plus years.
Ananya Chatterjea: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: Is this idea of new vocabulary and old vocabulary, right? Like I'm sure you have a sense of, uh, especially with the dancers that you work with and you're like, we're gonna do something that might remind them of a past piece.
Ananya Chatterjea: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: And then there are sometimes when you're pushed, you're finding new edges. How do you navigate that idea between new and old, especially when it isn't, about perpetuating a single genre or technique?
Ananya Chatterjea: It is actually about perpetuating a single technique, because I realized when I started to work with the artists I wanted to work with…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: …that we have to have a common base to start.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm. Is this the training that you talk about?
Ananya Chatterjea: This is Yorchhā dance language is the, is the language I created by intersecting principles from Odissi, Yoga and Chhau, the martial art form that I studied.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So, you know, so if I get, you know, these sort of sculpturesque forms from OI and I get the rhythms from OI and I get the sort of length and extension from Vinyasa yoga.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: From Chhau, it's this quick movement.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And this sort of agility that is required, these jumps that are required, you know, uh, from the martial art practice and, all of those intersecting, all of those, I came up with a whole system of training and a whole aesthetic. So, Yorchhā is this form, which helps us get into, but it, it's also not a fixed form, right?
Christy Bolingbroke: Hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Because it keeps evolving as I see. Oh, I see they're not quite understanding how the heel to sits bone relationship must be really solid.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So how can I help them create it? So the more I teach, the more I see different ways in which people can enter the form and understand its difference.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Its specificity. So I'm all about aesthetic specificity because when you have that grounding in aesthetic specificity, then you can really improvise and grow and blossom. The choreography is really all Yorchhā-based. I hope that people can see that it's a very distinctive dance language. And it's distinctive because it's a contemporary dance language. It's not Odissi, so it doesn't have.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Um, it doesn't have some of the things that, you know, that from my feminist perspective may not quite work. It's not exactly Chhau because we're not trying to be al for its own sake, but how, how is it, how is it deployed in this landscape of transnational feminist…
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ananya Chatterjea: …choreography. And you know, it's also not a demonstration of Yoga. It's not yoga for its own sake, right? But how do we take this line from yoga and find the solidity of the warrior stance for this moment and then move from it? So the language is, the dance language is really specific, whereas the vocalization, the vocals that I talked about can actually intermix and draw in all these different influences.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So the invitation, the core invitation is to come into this world.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And then inter, you know, intermix with it.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm. I'm, this may go off on a tangent somewhere, but I am curious because of the transnationalist feminist perspective. And because where you're pulling from so many different roots and languages. We are also confounded by the lack of how we talk about dance. I spoke to an artist once in the visual arts who was like, dance, y'all use a lot of words [Laughs]. And I said, yes. That's one of the reasons we work in movement.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yes.
Christy Bolingbroke: But one of the words that's, and phrases that are often used is culturally specific.
Ananya Chatterjea: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: Or culturally-rooted forms.
Ananya Chatterjea: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: Is that something that you identify with for your own work?
Ananya Chatterjea: Yes.
Christy Bolingbroke: Or something you wanna push against?
Ananya Chatterjea: Yes and no. You know, I, what is culture like? There's no one culture. I work with a group of Black and Brown women and femmes. If there's a culture we share it's about thirst for justice and to make art that is justice related.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And justice compassed, you know, the compass of justice. I would say more like. I'm interested in aesthetic specificity.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: I'm not, I don't know about cultural specificity so much.
Christy Bolingbroke: And, and what I also heard in your description was a much broader definition of culture than just one's national identity.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. I definitely push back against culture as…
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ananya Chatterjea:…nation-based. And, you know, it makes me, it makes me, uh, irritated, uh, Chrisy, because I feel like. I feel like when someone says postmodern dance…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea:…they don't have to say, oh, I do, I don't know, New York postmodern dance, but when I feel like when people look at they, they see me and they, and I say, I do contemporary dance.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: They're like, oh, Indian contemporary dance. I do contemporary dance.
Christy Bolingbroke: Hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Don't you know this sort. Reverting us back to nation state identification…
Christy Bolingbroke: Yes.
Ananya Chatterjea: …is a really conservative trend, and I push back against that one.
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah, no, and I appreciate the opportunity to expand on…
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah, yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke:…that a little bit too, because it is other systems, right? Whether it was a major university presenter that said, well, we have our music series and…
Ananya Chatterjea: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke:…our dance series, and then we have our world music and dance series [Chatterjea laughs]. And, and, and I appreciated a music curator once who said to me, you know, uh, like over in Vienna, Austria, that, um, it, you know, the Appalachian music would be considered world music.
Ananya Chatterjea: There you go.
Christy Bolingbroke: It was like, oh, you know, being really aware of your perspective.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: And your own biases. And when whiteness especially is, uh, assumed…
Ananya Chatterjea: Exactly.
Christy Bolingbroke: …as the center point inside of all of that too.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: Let me zoom out then again, 'cause I know you also work with university students.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: Particularly if they came from competition dance or their studio training. You know, I can only speak from my own experience…
Ananya Chatterjea: Mm-hmm..
Christy Bolingbroke:…Doing that. And then you get into university and there's a certain undoing, unlearning to find…
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke:…your way through again.
Ananya Chatterjea: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: And to become able to navigate the map of life.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: So I'm really curious how you might confront or explain to them what virtuosity is. Especially if it isn't how high you can kick your leg or doing 15 turns.
Ananya Chatterjea:Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: What does virtuosity mean in your transnationalist feminist world?
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah, so how to take on something that might look similar. But must be approached from a very different, very different, point of view or very different embodiment in order to be, not mimic, but actually embody the form.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So what is the difference between a mandala and a plie?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Right. It's, they're not the same. The plie goes down to go up, the mandala goes down to go down.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So if you just are mimicking the form. You'll also not be able to hold it. You know, the mandala is also based on sometimes when we do kumbha pada, where we lift the heels up…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea:…it's this notion of, of an, oh, sitting on an overturned water pot. So if you're sitting on water, how, that's how you get to do footwork. Right?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Otherwise, you'll not be able to find it.
Christy Bolingbroke: For someone less informed or may just mimic it, they'd be like…
Ananya Chatterjea:Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke:…oh, releve, I'm gonna raise my heels.
Ananya Chatterjea: There you go.
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ananya Chatterjea: And then, then it does, it never quite settles in their bodies.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And it never, you know, so virtuosity is, is really about that keen appreciation of difference, I think.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And then finding the rigor to get inside of it so much that you can articulate it like, you know, like. I think of ferns.
Ananya Chatterjea: Christy…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea:…my favorite thing about Minnesota are these fiddlehead ferns that are tightly curled up.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And they unfurl all through spring.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And to me that's the blossoming of technique is like that.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Like it becomes artistry and virtuosity and rigor are part of that. Like just imagine the level of spinal awareness that fern has …
Christy Bolingbroke: Yes.
Ananya Chatterjea:…to do that.
Christy Bolingbroke: The constant act of becoming.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yes. Yes.
Christy Bolingbroke: And moving through it instead of just hitting the spots.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yes.
Christy Bolingbroke: And, and so all of that as well as you've, you've taught me something new to sort of frame. Is this mimicry or is it truly embodied?
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: And how to look for that.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah. Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: So much of, uh, this particular podcast series is also geared for anyone who's trying to navigate a creative life.
Ananya Chatterjea: Mm-hmm.
Christy Bolingbroke: And so I know you also are a robust writer and author as well as dance maker. When you find yourself in a creative rut. How do you proceed? Do you have a way of working around it or working through it, or do you do something for yourself to kind of reset? 'cause I think, I'm sure everyone's faced the blank page…
Ananya Chatterjea: All the time.
Christy Bolingbroke:…and a deadline [Laughs].
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah. Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: What do you do?
Ananya Chatterjea: I read fiction.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: I, you know, I follow a lot of creatives, whether in fashion, whether in design, different kinds of design are really interesting to me. You know, people working with light.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Um, uh, people working with, you know, visual artists, different ways in which visual artists conjure their worlds. Very interesting. So I, I really look to other artists and see how, what kinds of, of ways they are using design to make a statement.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So design, just not for its own sake
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea:But for, for a statement, you know, for, for, for Yeah. To sort of say something meaningful. And that usually, and fiction is always a great is a great thing to get me out. I also, I'm my partner's a filmmaker…
Christy Bolingbroke: Mmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: …so I end up seeing films all the time.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Um. Films that are not, but films that are not just about story, but have some abstraction so that they can sort of have their space for me to go off thinking, what if it were this way?
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And not that way.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: You don't usually that prac like imagination is a practice, right?
Christy Bolingbroke: Yes.
Ananya Chatterjea: It's not a, it's a discipline practice. You can't just expect it to come to you and hit you.
Christy Bolingbroke: Yes, yes. Yeah. The muses don't just come.
Ananya Chatterjea: Exactly. Right.
Christy Bolingbroke: right. Yeah. And it's not about capturing lightning in a bottle [Chatterjea laughs] but I love this.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah. So it's a practice.
Christy Bolingbroke: Imagination is a practice.
Ananya Chatterjea: Exactly. So….
Christy Bolingbroke: Amazing.
Ananya Chatterjea: So that practice is what helps me.
Christy Bolingbroke: Very cool.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: I have one last question.
Ananya Chatterjea: Yeah. Yeah.
Christy Bolingbroke: And this is an invitation, in, in all of your gurus and mentors, if you've received a great piece of advice that continues to serve you. And you'd like to pass it on, or, because you also are a mentor to so many, if you would like to offer a piece of advice.
Ananya Chatterjea: The first one [Laughs].
Christy Bolingbroke: Okay, great.
Ananya Chatterjea: Um, that I learned from, definitely from my guru is, uh, rigor. The value of rigor. Sometimes rigor gets caught in the world of. Power systems.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So it feels like this cold, lifeless thing.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: But it's not. It's actu to me. You know, Christy dance to me is a spiritual practice. I dance because I believe that that is the way for my spirit to rise up outta my body and meet others.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: Um, I believe that dance has the, has the ability to conjure life.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm-hmm.
Ananya Chatterjea: And, you know, presence, whether seen and, or unseen, seen and unseen it has the capacity for prophecy. And especially when it's connected to justice, right? Like you have to be able to imagine. Imagine what a just world looks like.
Ananya Chatterjea: So for me, I think that rigor, unless you have a rigorous practice, so dance, sorry, So dance becomes in service of.
Christy Bolingbroke: Mm.
Ananya Chatterjea: So then you must have rigor in order to make sure you are able to really fulfill that vision. Either for yourself or the choreographer or with an ensemble. Whatever it is, rigor is so valuable. So my guru, you know, very, very talented, Sanjukta Panigrahi, my Odissi guru, wasi, uh, amazing, performer renowned, world renowned, and she would often hold classes late at night. After she finished her performance, she would come home and meanwhile you're sitting here in the mosquito bites, you know, outside. Anyway, she comes back and then, you know, you start, you start class at 11:00 PM
Christy Bolingbroke: Wow.
Ananya Chatterjea: One time I was so tired, and she was like, if you don't feel like doing it, just don't. She's like, oh, shit. And I was like, so tempted to say, I, I am tired. But of course, you know, I didn't. So many years later, it still prompts me to say something in my body said, I was, said to her, I was not wanting to do it. And it, it's so much bigger than me. I had to want it in a, I had to want it. And that, and the want is about finding rigor and you know, you may never find the kind of external validation that's so much so often drives the notion of success...
Christy Bolingbroke: Yeah.
Ananya Chatterjea:…in performing arts. But at least you know in your heart that you found that balance. At that moment. At that moment, you connected with what was divine.
Jennifer Edwards: Inside the Dancer’s Studio Conversation Series is produced by NCCAkron supported in part by Audio-Technica, a global audio manufacturer with U.S. headquarters in Northeast Ohio.' Our podcast program is produced by Lisa Niedermeyer of Handmade Future Studio. Rahsaan Cruz is our audio engineer, with transcription by Arushi Singh, theme music by Floco Torres, and cover art by Micah Kraus. Special thanks to Laura Ellacott, Nakiasha Moore-Dunson, Dante Fields, Jen Garlando, and Mariclare Hulbert. To learn more about NCCAkron, please visit us online at nccakron.org. And follow us on Instagram or Facebook at NCCAkron. We hope you enjoyed this episode, and we encourage you to subscribe on your favorite podcast streaming platform by searching for Inside the Dancer’s Studio. Thanks for listening and stay curious.