'Nutcracker,' Indian style

Indian classical dance master Kausalya Srinivasan has translated the Western holiday favorite ballet "The Nutcracker " in to the language of Indian dance.

Srinivasan, a visiting professor this year at Bridgewater State College, teaches world dance and has been rehearsing her dancers, many of them dance majors, all semester to prepare for the dance in a style she says can best be described as "Indian fusion."

The dancers -- who wear brightly colored silk costumes, with rings of bells around their ankles -- beat the floor with pairs of sticks in the rapid percussive rhythms of the "stick dance." They express their characters with smiles, frowns , and hand gestures.

The music they dance to -- sweeping their arms in fluid circles as they move to Srinivasan's intricate, but broadly based , choreography -- was written for the piece by Indian composers, with contributions by Bridgewater State College faculty. The music conjures up images of sitars and the travels of Rama (hero of the Sanskrit epic the "Ramayana ").

Srinivasan, regarded as one of the premier dance instructors in her native India, is directing 20 Bridgewater students in the Indian-flavored version of Tchaikovsky's ballet. The dance will be performed Dec. 12 and 13 at the college at 8 p.m.

A dancer of international renown as well as a choreographer, Srinivasan directs the Sunartaka School of Bharatanatyam in the southern province of Madras .

"An Indian Nutcracker" is choreographed in Bharatanatyam , a classical dance style from southern India. It also makes use of Indian folk dance, said dance program professor Nancy Moses , the production's artistic director. The second-act "spice dances" draw on ethnic styles of dance.

At rehearsal last week, dancers opened their fingers and swayed to suggest monkeys in Clara 's dream sequence. Other hand and facial gestures express birds, deer, and various animals of the forest. The bare-chested male dancers strike manly poses, hands on hips. Armies line up with hands in military posture holding invisible swords.

"Expression is an important part of classic Indian dance," Moses said. "All the emotions the dancers feel can be expressed in facial expressions."

Three years ago Srinivasan, on her first visit to Bridgewater as a Fulbright scholar, taught her students very traditional movements of classical Indian dance. On her second visit two years ago, she wove these elements in to a dance drama with a story line like a Western ballet.

This year, she decided to try a version of "The Nutcracker" for the Christmas season involving styles from various regions of India with elements of world dance as well. "The Nutcracker" lends itself to this approach, Srinivasan said, since the original spice dances paired the treats of the Christmas party -- coffee, tea, chocolate, and various sweets -- with national dances.

"An Indian Nutcracker" includes dances with a Spanish flavor-- a couple paired in formal movements suggesting flamenco -- along with Chinese, Russian, African, and Indian dances.

The premise of a holiday party -- where, in Tchaikovsky's story, an excited little girl's dream transforms the soldier-shaped nutcracker in to a prince who leads a file of soldiers against an enemy of mice -- lends itself to universal interpretations, the choreographer said. For the Russian folk tale, she substituted the Ramayana epic. Clara's dream becomes a dream of Krishna .

"Art doesn't have any barriers," she said.

A holiday celebration is a fertile universal motif. "I asked the students, how do you decorate for Christmas?" Srinivasan said. "OK, we light candles, we eat, we invite people to their houses. . . . In our Indian festivals, it's the same things. You take the blessings of the elders, you share things, you bring people in."

For Christmas, she noted, Americans "decorate with pines." Indians also decorate with plant materials -- "mango leaves, banana leaves, good luck signs." Instead of candles, they light circular oil lamps. These festival elements are mimed in the dance.

Hand gestures peculiar to Indian dance all have specific meanings, she said. "Early man did not communicate with language," she said. These gestures are "mudrahs, " she said, such as the familiar palm-to-palm prayer gesture of greeting. A wide range of mythical associations can be signed as well.

"We have so many gods and goddesses," says Srinivasan, pausing to play an invisible flute, the sign of Krishna.

Her teaching style relies on the nonverbal as well. At rehearsal, she led the stick dance, beating her sticks energetically on the gym floor. She raised her arms, hands joined above the head, and leaned to one side, telling the students to emphasize the gesture.

The student cast includes principals Emmalee DiTullio in the role of Clara, Jen Kenneally as her mother, Stephanie Rowland as Aunt Drosselmeyer , Mallory Walker as the Sugarplum Fairy , Jocelyn White as the Snow Queen , and Addison Kaetere as the father; also dancing are Loni Allen , Anna Brough , Lauren Carelli (who also choreographed the dance of the snowflakes), Brittany DeVincent , Amy Fitchenmayer , Rachel Matheson , Diane Olson , Sara Torpey , Stephanie Webb , and Debra Ylijoki .

Jim Yautabes , who plays the prince, is also found dancing on the football field, where he plays quarterback for the college team. A criminal justice major, he was recruited for the role. "They needed a prince," he said. "It's the fun. The girls are great."

Tickets for the performances at the college's Rondileau Campus Center Auditorium Dec. 12 and 13 cost $10 . For more information on the preformance, which begins at 8 p.m., call the box office at 508-531-1321 .

Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.