Tehreema Mitha Dance Company
Foyer, Harman Hall
Washington, DC
January 16, 2008
by George Jackson
copyright 2008 by George Jackson
Are angularity and edge Tehreema Mitha’s personal traits or do they belong to a new variant of India’s ancient dance form, Bharatanatyam? To tell dance from dancer in this instance is impossible since Mitha invented both herself as a performer and the so-called Pakistan style that she now teaches to others. The cushioned plasticity and sensual elasticity of the traditional Indian school have been replaced by urgency and a charged interplay of tensions. Mitha used this sharp approach both in dances with a classical step vocabulary and those with freer movement sources.
Two classical studies came first. Indeed, the percussive footwork, pretzel gestures and ping-pong of the head were pristine. The quick pace that predominated already made the dances partly variant. In the first number, a love solo performed by Mitha, she cut unrelentingly to the core of the movement and of the infatuation. This made the style fully distinctive. Presumably this variance on the original Indian manner of dalliance is what Mitha wants the Pakistan style to be. However, being terse also seems to be Mitha’s nature as a dancer. The second number, a duet supposedly abstract but perhaps about awareness of the body and the self, was performed by Praneetha Akula and Deepa Ponnappan. They haven’t Mitha’s drive but give the movement a modesty and add neat touches of humor. Still, they refrain from softening the steps and gestures the Indian way.
The designation of the other two dances was contemporary. The first - “Dance of the Soul”, another solo for Mitha - seemed a fusion of two traditions. Of course, the very notion of melding two disparate techniques is modern, no matter how venerable each ingredient may be. “Soul” was derived in part from Sufi stretching, turning and yearning. Yet, added to this dervish material was a percussive drive, although more sublimated than in Bharatanatyam. The blending didn’t blemish either type of dance but projected each into new, surprising and vital dimensions. The final “All Borders”, performed by all three dancers, was too much a mixture to jell.
Choreography for the program was principally by Tehreema Mitha; her mother, Indu Mitha, co-choreographed the opening solo. This free performance was part of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s new performing arts series each Wednesday at noon in the Harman’s downstairs foyer. Steven Scott Mazzola, a director of plays, arranges the series and serves as moderator.
