Rainbows And Grayscales: Understanding Modern Performance Through The Lens Of The Rasa Theory

By Gayatri Aich

The Natyasastra has been integral to the study of performative arts or performance in India and beyond. The classification of rasas or sentiments that are framed in the rasa theory can be used to understand modern day performance. The rasa theory says that entertainment in a performance is supposed to evoke what is known as rasa or “artistic pleasure”. Priya Sarukkai Chabria writes,

“Rasa, or intense aesthetic pleasure, is the crucial element that illuminates the rigorously defined theories of Indian literary and artistic appreciation. Poetic intuition awakens the mystic third eye, the trilochana, allowing the creative mind to access both the past and the future through the trance-like state of higher understanding. This aesthetic pleasure is shared with fellow aesthetes, rasikas, or saha-hridayas who reach a similar state of heightened joy and perception by sharing the artist’s creation, which could be literary, musical or graphic.”

The foundation of rasa is based on some of the primary emotions that are part of the human conscious and subconscious. To understand modern performance through the lens of the rasa theory is interesting in terms of how the classification of rasas is applicable and very much exists in art that is being created in the 21st century - art that is not restricted to the outlines of Indian classical. When we look at the Nava Rasa (or the nine rasas) - Sringara (love), Hasya (laughter), Karuna (sorrow), Raudra (anger), Veera (heroic), Bhayanaka (terror), Bibhatsa (disgust), Adbhuta (astonishment), and Shanta (peace) - within the space of a modern performative creation, we are looking at the layers of bodily movements to understand how a story is being told to the audience or spectator. It is the muscle movement of the limbs and on the face that portrays the dominant (and/or primary) emotional states that are being expressed through the performance. Malavika Sarukkai writes on how her art has evolved because of the profound validity of the “moment” that rasa makes it possible to experience, express, and transform. She writes,

“...the aesthetics of form is vital. It concerns the movement of the body in space and holds true not only for nritta (pure dance) but also for abhinaya (expressive dance). At one level it is the grammar, technique and interpretation of the style, but at deeper levels it is the quality of dance energy that fills the membranes of the body. So, one is constantly and simultaneously working at several levels: the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual."

To begin with, it would perhaps be interesting to try and interpret some of the performances based on Irish musician, singer and songwriter Hozier’s songs with the help of the rasa theory. In Sergei Polunin’s dance performance on “Take Me To Church” by Hozier directed by David LaChapelle, there is a fascinating interplay of light, free (?) movement across the space, and the facial expressions portrayed. Sergei Polunin is a Ukrainian ballet dancer who tells his own story to the sound of “Take Me To Church”, where he explores movement within a constricted space. The performance begins with the performer/dancer sitting on the floor in a posture that can be unpacked into the depiction of the dominant emotional state of karuna. The performance is set and begins with the view of a grey colour palette (image 1), which happens to be the very representation of the shoka bhava.

Image 1: Sergei Polunin, “Take Me To Church” by Hozier, Directed by David LaChapelle

During the performance, there are clear depictions of what Natyashastra calls angika or postures and gestures with different meanings. We find the performer with his head tilted on a side, thus portraying the ancita, a posture used to represent sorrow, anxiety, or sickness. There are slow movements of the head throughout the performance, thus portraying the dhuta, a representation of emptiness and sadness. The fast movement of the head, known as the vidhuta, is found later in the performance, and can be understood as a representation of panic or terror. The performer makes eloquent stretches and controls the shape and rhythm of his body as he does the airborne pirouettes - and all of it while the eyes are in a downcast glance, and half revealed. It is the torn tights, the swift shifts from crouches to airborne leaps, and the way the light plays within the constricted space that screams in grey, that the shoka bhava is performed. When we look closer at the changing expressions on the dancer’s face, there is a portrayal of contracted and raised eyebrows, the mouth screaming, a sense of frustration depicting what the rasa theory calls the raudra rasa.

Image 2: Sergei Polunin, “Take Me To Church” by Hozier, Directed by David LaChapelle

The next modern performance we would be looking at with the help of the rasa theory is the art museum performance scene from Step Up Revolution (2012). The performance begins with the udvahita posture, and an eye glance that represents pride (image 3). There is portrayal of the avadhuta throughout the performance - and in different dance forms - to convey a message to the audience present in the museum, and to strike a conversation.

Image 3: Art Museum performance from Step Up Revolution

In comparison to Polunin's "Take Me To Church", the Art Museum performance from Step Up Revolution has changing colour palettes. The beginning of the performance portrays a multi-coloured painting which has shades of orange at its centre - and that could be looked at through the lens of Veera rasa. The confidence in the movements of the dancers represents a sense of pride. The contrast of the ballerinas in white costumes dancing in the dark (with a tint of blue) could perhaps be understood as the Santa rasa winning over the Bhayanaka.

Rasa theory speaks of human emotions and how they are (or can be) seen and heard universally. Sarukkai writes,

“A painter or sculptor works with an external medium. However, for the dancer her body is her medium. Through sadhana, a process of internalisation within her, she works to align the body and mind so that her being becomes a patra (vessel) which can contain the waters of ‘becoming’. One could best describe the rasa moment as one of ‘mindfulness’. When the being of the dancer is alert with an all- consuming intensity, a moment when thought doesn’t seem to move and feeling is all pervasive. For me the dancing body is the site—a site both sacred and temporal, lit up as it were, during performance.”

Rasa connotes a phenomenon that is non-linear and synchronous. (Shivaprakash, H.S.) Rasa theory is not restricted to being a tool to understand Indian aesthetics and/or performance only. To be able to study modern Western performance through Natyashastra speaks of the overlaps between space, time, and art at large.

Works Cited

Chabria, Priya Sarukkai. “Rapture, Rasa and its Re-enactments in Subcontinental Aesthetics: Narratives of Practice.” Sahapedia, 2018. Last Accessed on January 13, 2022.

https://www.sahapedia.org/rapture-rasa-and-its-re-enactments-subcontinental-aesthetics-narratives-of-practice.

Ghosh, Manomohan. The Natyasatra ascribed to Bharata-Muni. Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1951.

Polunin, Sergei. “Sergei Polunin, 'Take Me to Church' by Hozier, Directed by David LaChapelle.” YouTube, Escuela Terpsicore, 4 November 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozs_f4ZT9sw.

Sarukkai, Malavika. "Rasa - Essence." Sahapedia, 2018. Last Accessed on January 13, 2022.

https://www.sahapedia.org/rasa-essence.

Shivaprakash, H.S. “Transformations of Meanings and Rasa in Inter-Semiotic Translations Across Genres.” Sahapedia, 2018. Last Accessed on January 13, 2022.

https://www.sahapedia.org/transformations-of-meanings-and-rasa-inter-semiotic-translations-across-genres.

Step Up Revolution. Directed by Scott Speer, Produced by Offspring Entertainment, Distributed by Summit Entertainment through Lionsgate, 2012.

By Gayatri Aich