Twenty minutes before the world premiere of her latest production, The Battle Within, Malavika Sarukkai, ‘India’s greatest living dancer’ according to pre-eminent art critic B N Goswamy, stands alone in her green room, warming up.
It’s November 2, 2019, and Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Bengaluru, which seats 1,100, is overflowing with fans and admirers. Two Dutch dancers say they timed their India trip to take in the performance. A kathak troupe has flown in from Ahmedabad to see exactly how “Malavika-ji will make the ephemeral personal.” Local dance students in matching saris flit around like excited butterflies, wondering how Malavika will contemporise the gestures and movements of a dance form that goes back to the Natya Shastra, a second century CE treatise.
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