India


Ironing

Lucknow, India


One of BDC Director, Jonathan Hollander's favorite memories is of a performance in Lucknow, India.  

With this particular costume-heavy production with lots of printed silk garments, the company had requested an iron and ironing board at every one of the 17 theaters they were touring.  

Normally, a sputtering, rusted iron was provided, scaring the daylights out of BDC with the thought of scorches and rust stains.  

Well, in Lucknow, an iron-wallah showed up, must have been about 80 years old, with a huge, heavy implement and a small board.  

The implement turned out to be an iron and into it, he placed hot coals.  Well -- to the companies Western-bred minds, the combination of fine silks and burning coals did not go together at all.  But BDC was proved completely wrong.  

 This little man with his big iron produced the smoothest, most beautifully pleated costumes ever!
 

Vadodara, India

Vadodara, India

Battery Dance Company worked and performed here in 1997.


Please see New Delhi, India 1997 for Narrative.

India 1997

Vadodara, India
Pune India
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India
New Delhi, India
Khajuraho, India

Pune India

Pune, India

Battery Dance Company worked and performed here in 1997. 


Please see New Delhi, India 1997 for Narrative.

India 1997

Vadodara, India
Pune India
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India
New Delhi, India
Khajuraho, India

Varanasi, India

Varanasi, India

Battery Dance Company worked and performed here in 1997.


Please see New Delhi, India 1997 for Narrative.

India 1997

Vadodara, India
Pune India
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India
New Delhi, India
Khajuraho, India

Chennai, India

Chennai, India

Battery Dance Company worked and performed here in 1997.


Please see New Delhi, India 1997 for Narrative.

India 1997

Vadodara, India
Pune India
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India
New Delhi, India
Khajuraho, India

New Delhi, India

New Delhi, India

Battery Dance Company worked and performed here in 1997.

OVERVIEW – 1997

India Tour


Take-aways

  • Keep an eye out for milestones, celebrations, anniversaries – opportunities increase around these times for performing arts groups. This is especially true if your program includes cross-cultural elements that are compelling to audiences and sponsors in the country where you hope to travel.

  • When your own government is unable to support you, investigate the possibility of building sponsorships from the host country.

  • Beware of power outages! Never sit back and relax – as a director, you may need to be a crisis manager when you least expect it.

  • Be creative in building friendships – you will need advocates in any/all places and they might come from unexpected quarters (hotel managers!)

1997 was a milestone year for India – the 50th Anniversary of independence from Britain. The timing was perfect for a national tour of Songs of Tagore, the production Jonathan Hollander had choreographed in 1995 celebrating the poetry and music of India’s first Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore.

It required slow and steady work (and lots of midnight calls) to build the support for this massive undertaking. However, each week something would happen that gave BDC encouragement and pushed them forward in my quest. At the end, the company had unwittingly cobbled together a two-month itinerary with performances in 17 cities in India and Sri Lanka.

The fact that an American choreographer had chosen to pay homage to Tagore, a revered figure in India, whose worldwide reputation had been at its height in the 1930’s but had since waned, proved powerful incentive for sponsorships and overall cooperation. Tagore was a Bengali and his work is of paramount importance in the State of Bengal. Bengali musicians Samir and Sanghamitra Chatterjee were part of our touring ensemble, another compelling factor. The centerpiece of the production was a solo role for an Indian classical dancer which had been created for Mallika Sarabhai. Mallika premiered the role in New York and was able to perform with BDC at several cities during the South Asian Tour. Sucheta Chapekar Bhide, Rajika Puri, Manjari Chandrasekhar and Luna Pan filled in when Mallika was unavailable, in Mumbai, Trivandrum, Chennai, Delhi, Lucknow and Calcutta respectively.

The sponsorship roster included international and domestic airfare from Air-India and Indian Airlines (the latter being the most significant since BDC were performing in 17 cities); donated hotel accommodations and ½ off on the cost of meals from Oberoi Hotel Group; donated public and media relations support from Ogilvy and local sponsorship in the form of donated theaters in each city that BDC visited.

The missing piece was, however, cash support. Battery Dance Company had a generous sponsorship from Citibank and smaller amounts from State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and a few others, but these didn’t equal the personnel and incidental expenses. As a result, the company lost money on the tour, an unfortunate pattern for BDC's international engagements.

Once again, like earlier tours in 1992, 94 and 95, BDC had failed to secure funding from their own country. The US Embassy had marshaled all of its own resources and those of American corporations with investments in India to pay for a tour by the Paul Taylor Dance Company and Taylor II that took place a month or two before BDC's. It was a bitter pill to swallow – to be overwhelmed by the prestige of the Taylor brand -- with nothing left over for the little guy. The rationale for extending support to ‘another’ American dance company was lost on Embassy officials.

In computing the pros and cons of the 1997 tour, it is important to consider its pivotal role in global recognition and relationship building-for Battery Dance Company. A follow-up national tour of India in 2001 could not have happened without the foundations laid in 1997 and before.

India 1997

Vadodara, India
Pune India
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India
New Delhi, India
Khajuraho, India

Khajuraho, India

Khajuraho, India

Battery Dance Company worked and performed here in 1997.


Please see New Delhi, India 1997 for Narrative.

India 1997

Vadodara, India
Pune India
Varanasi, India
Chennai, India
New Delhi, India
Khajuraho, India

The Importance of Maintaining a Press Archive

Delhi, India

Battery Dance Company's 1995 trip to India was one of its earliest and most extensive trips. It was the third annual tour in what would evolve into over a decade of tours in India. Below are some of the press quotes from the 1995 trip. It is important that a reliable archive of media clippings be created and archived after each trip. These can be essential when applying for funding to support future tours.

1995 India Quotes

India Press, 1995

Femina Magazine - Hima Devi

"Once in a while, and only once, comes choreography with the lyrical beauty of Moonbeam: a breathless, magical moment in the history of dance."

SRUTI - Nala Najan

“Hollander possesses a sensitive awareness of the substrata of the stage and a deft control of those dimensional kinships between earth and air-space into which the body travels with endless surprise.”

India Currents (U.S.) - Jyothi Kiran

Battery Dance Company artistic director Jonathan Hollander boldly goes where most men generally don't dare: into the world of dance... Hollander soars beyond the limits of tradition in his production "PURUSH: Expressions of Man.".

The Economic Times (Calcutta) - Sunil Kothari

"the romantic adagio drifts on at a hypnotic pace after bringing a man and woman together; a moment of transforma¬tion from lonely yearnings to fulfillment."

Economic Times (Madras) - R. Gowri

"(Hollander's) Testimony to Nataraja was a separate American entity, with no material or spiritual connection to the Indian segment. What it did, however, was to reveal quality of a kind rarely achieved in Indian performances; disciplined purposes, faultless rendition.... The music composed and performed by Badal Roy on the tabla and Ken Wessel on the guitar set up intense moods... the dancers Kevin Predmore and John Freeman achieved so many (rhythms) in their movements. Their leashed power forced viewers to sit up."

Indian Express Sunday Magazine (Madras) - Vasanthi Sankanarayanan

"The feel of water, the occasional eddies and whirlpools, the rhythmic rowing of boats, the water spirit flitting across, the mys¬terious night blue aura of the underwater world. Interspersed with staccato tabla beats punctuating and guiding the movements." "Lovers, lonely in a fierce world, seeking out each other, entering the quiet, tranquil world of a moonbeam, cocooned by its sil¬ver glow, protected from a world of violence beyond, reflected the pathos, uncertainty and the occasional glimmer of hope."

The Hindu (Madras) - Nandini Ramani

"Both the dancers exhibited perfection, precision and total involvement in their work. Special patterns and rhythmical structures and a variety of movements depicting grace and elegance, marked this presentation, sometimes even including some of the Karanas or stances of Nataraja. ... A joyful blend of music and movement."

Ahmedabad, India

Ahmadabad, India

Battery Dance Company worked and performed here in 1994.

Please see Mumbai, India 1994 for trip's summary.


India and Sri Lanka 1994

Colombo, Sri Lanka
Ahmedabad, India
New Delhi, India
Mumbai, India
Bangalore, India
Chennai, India
Calcutta, India

New Delhi, India

New Delhi, India

Battery Dance Company worked and performed here in 1994.

Please see Mumbai, India 1994 for trip's summary.


India and Sri Lanka 1994

Colombo, Sri Lanka
Ahmedabad, India
New Delhi, India
Mumbai, India
Bangalore, India
Chennai, India
Calcutta, India

Mumbai, India

Mumbai, India

The salient characteristics of Battery Dance Company’s 1994 can be summarized as follows:

1) This was the Company’s first big international tour that was unconnected from Fulbright . BDC had sought financial support from the Embassy in Delhi but were turned down. However, two Foreign Service Officers went out of their way on a personal basis to help the company. One of them managed to get posters and playbills designed and printed by the Embassy and hosted a dinner in her residence in New Delhi; the other organized a reception for BDC in Chennai. ICCR sponsored the companies performance at Kamani Auditorium in New Delhi and local arts organizations hosted all of the others. Battery Dance were met with tremendous success which helped counter-balance the pain of maxing out the company credit cards. (Despite having many of the expenses covered in-kind by local sponsors, and airlines sponsorship from Air-India, there is no substitute for cash.)

2) BDC's engagements in 6 cities were promoted by friends and colleagues within the Indian dance and performing arts community. These relationships had been established during Jonathan Hollander's Fulbright posting in 1992. The Company’s rigorous tour that year gave the company the opportunity to locate good-hearted individuals within local Indian institutions that gave BDC the wherewithal to do the tour “on their own”.

3) In 1994, BDC had to rely on faxes, airmail letters and phone calls (kept short because they were expensive) in order to set up the tour. E-mail was up and running for some people but it hadn’t reached Battery Dance Company yet. When it did, shortly after this tour, everything changed – the speed of organizing and building international programs accelerated rapidly.

4) A very important point that the company is only recognizing now after all these years: In 1993, after having witnessed so many great Indian dancers in situ during my Fulbright posting, BDC organized cross-country American tours for two Indian dance companies under the umbrella of Battery Dance Company. The two companies – Jhaveri Sisters Manipuri Dance and C.V. Chandrasekhar’s Nrityashree of Vadodara – were highly respected by their peers in India and their debut American tours, organized by BDC, resonated throughout the South Asian dance community. As a result, it is likely that Hollander and company treated as a VIP and people did more for me than they would have, knowing that reciprocity was a concept BDC understood and respected.

5) Another important aspect of the tour was that Hollander had choreographed a new work, “Seen by a River”, to a score composed by Indo-American tabla player Badal Roy who joined BDC for most of the engagements on the tour. Badal was a famous name in India, having been the first Indian to make it in the mainstream American jazz world. He had performed with Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and many others; so, in a sense, Battery Dance were riding on his coattails in India.


India and Sri Lanka 1994

Colombo, Sri Lanka
Ahmedabad, India
New Delhi, India
Mumbai, India
Bangalore, India
Chennai, India
Calcutta, India

Bangalore, India

Bangalore, India

Battery Dance Company worked and performed here in 1994.

Please see Mumbai, India 1994 for trip's summary.


India and Sri Lanka 1994

Colombo, Sri Lanka
Ahmedabad, India
New Delhi, India
Mumbai, India
Bangalore, India
Chennai, India
Calcutta, India

Chennai, India

Chennai, India

Battery Dance Company worked and performed here in 1994.

Please see Mumbai, India 1994 for trip's summary.


India and Sri Lanka 1994

Colombo, Sri Lanka
Ahmedabad, India
New Delhi, India
Mumbai, India
Bangalore, India
Chennai, India
Calcutta, India

Calcutta, India

Calcutta, India

Battery Dance Company worked and performed here in 1994.

Please see Mumbai, India 1994 for trip's summary.


India and Sri Lanka 1994

Colombo, Sri Lanka
Ahmedabad, India
New Delhi, India
Mumbai, India
Bangalore, India
Chennai, India
Calcutta, India

Vadodara, India

Vadodara, India

Person-to-Person Must bring Meaning to Both Parties

Baroda (or Vadodara, as it is now called) was one of the cities where BDC director, Jonathan Hollander was to be based for his assignment as a Fulbright Lecturer. The M.S. University there is one of India’s finest, and Hollander had been aware of the art department since 1968 when he was an American Field Service high school exchange student in India.

C.V. Chandrasekhar occupied the position of Dean of the Dance Program within the Music College at M.S. University. Waiting to get his approval for thr lecturing position was a nail-biting time for Hollander – but it finally came and that unlocked the key to the entire program.

Chandrasekhar became a very close friend. Riding around the crowded lanes of Baroda on the back of his motor bike was a memory Jonathan Hollander will never forget. Like so many Indian dancers Jonathan met, he was a polymath – his first degree was in Botany; he was a consummate musician; his choreography was stunningly original; and even as he reached the age of a grandfather, he has continued to dance and perform.

When thinking about the many chapters of this relationship, it seems important to point out that the best international cultural projects are bilateral; and that, at the heart of it, the person-to-person element must offer something meaningful to both parties.

In this case, Chandrasekhar showed Hollander his choreography – performed by magnificently skilled dancers who all had “day jobs” followed by long-distance commutes in order to appear for nightly rehearsals at their Guru’s studio/home. Stunned by his powerful choreographic voice, Hollander determined that American audiences should have the opportunity to experience it. Months later after having returned to the U.S., he also met with Jenneth Webster, the artistic director of Lincoln Center’s Out-of-Doors Festival, and she, like Hollander, recognized Chandrasekhar’s brilliance and agreed to present his company.

This led to a very intensive undertaking – the booking of a national U.S. tour for Chandrasekhar and his troupe of dancers and musicians. It was an exhausting endeavor but BDC learned many important lessons (ie. applying for work visas for dance companies - P-3 is the category for culturally unique performers) and made a name for Battery Dance Company among academics and Indo-philes across the U.S.

India 1992

Vadodara, India
India -- Overview
Hyderabad, India
Vijayawada, India
Vishakhapatnam, India
Mumbai, India
Tirupati, India
Ahmedabad, India