Birju Maharaj's program at St.Louis

[manvantara]

I happened to have the chance to see the great master perform in my city this evening and it was definitely a real treat!

I am not writing a review here - just sharing a few thoughts...

Today I came back realizing that only a true master can, with a few beautiful strokes of his brush, create a painting for the viewer - a painting in which the viewer is invited to fill in and then look at and enjoy the full picture.
Birju Maharaj-ji is certainly one such master and I felt fortunate that I had a chance to see him dance today.

How many times have we witnessed the episode of Krishna stealing butter and getting scolded by the gopi? And yet, today, when I saw this, it was so fresh and beautiful! The young Krishna, happily eating up all the butter painstakingly churned by the gopi, the gopi returning to see the mess and finding out who did it and being angry with the little Krishna, the little one completely denying any such incident, the gopi about to slap the little one - but in that instant seeing the innocence on His face, turns away to supress her laughter and then back again, to feign anger......all done so beautifully. It was later, after the program, that I realized that this was a 70 year old man who had portrayed all this and had us audience mesmerized!

He spoke mostly in Hindi, while explaining what he was portraying, also sharing with us his thoughts on various topics. Two that really stay with me are:
He wondered why everyone is crazy about arangetrams these days.....he said there isn't enough time in one's life to prepare for it, adding: "My arangetram has not happened yet".
The other thing was about today's crass songs and dances. He said that our epics, our mythology have a range of emotions and feelings and wondered why there have been songs like "choli ke....neeche..or was it choli ke peeche".

After the last item, local artiste Ustad Imrath Khan, who had seen Birju Maharaj's father and uncle dance, said: "You bring back some wonderful memories....and today, I could really see little Krishna in you...".

There are a few pieces of Birju Maharaj on youtube - recordings usually don't capture the magic so well, but do watch them to catch a glimpse.

[Nick H]

He is not a dancer: he is a magician! He becomes what he dances!

A master story teller. He can express more in the movement of a finger and a twitch of the face than most dancers can in an entire dance with their whole body.

[manvantara]

You are right Nick - "he can express more in the movement of a finger...". At some point, as a dance student, I tried to figure out exactly how he could communicate so much with apparently so little effort - I really could not find out, so I went back to simply enjoying the item (instead of trying to analyse it).

[rshankar]

He can express more in the movement of a finger and a twitch of the face than most dancers can in an entire dance with their whole body.

Couldn't agree more - not by just a twitch of his face, but by a mere quiver of an eyebrow, or the flicker of a glance he can speak eloquent volumes.

I remember my first opportunity to watch him live (in an open-air, amphitheater-like ambience) - just when I was totally enslaved by his dancing and felt he could not impress me more, he started to sing while Ms. Saswati Sen danced, and I relaized that he can evoke visual imagery through his voice. Just as I thought that I was in the presence of a fantastic artist, he started to play the tabla for a 'savAl javAb' session with Ms. Sen. That is when I realised that Sri Maharajji was not an artist, he was the art!

[Nick H]

When he dances a peacock you can almost see the tail!

I don't know how often I've repeated myself (sorry) about these two dancers, but it was love-at-first-sight when I saw Saswatiji dance, and I never thought that anybody could take my eyes off her on stage --- until I saw Birju Maharaj dance with her.

I've seen him in a classroom situation, no make up, no costume, no fuss, using just that finger, and that glance, to tell the story.

His voice is unassuming and pure: rshankar, you are right, he is the art.

[manvantara]

Ooh, I forgot to mention about the peacock dance - he depicted lightning, the first few drops of rain, the peacock...wondering for a moment and then beginning to dance, ever so gracefully and then open its entire fan of feathers and dance so majestically! You are right Nick- he is a magician!!