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Renowned dancer and choreographer Sudarshan Dheer has overseen many projects throughout his long career but one particular project of which he is justifiably proud is Nauch, a celebration of classical Indian Khathak dance.
Sudarshan is fiercely passionate about Khathak and has promoted it widely through his dance academy, Nritya Sadhna. It would be easy to dismiss Khathak as just another Indian dance, however, learning Khathak style is far from trivial. To become proficient takes ten years of hard practice, to become an expert even longer. It is the specialised nature and romantic history of Khathak that the Nauch project communicated brilliantly.
'Khathak dance started in the temples from India about 300 years back.' Sudarshan explains. 'In India there used to be only temples. In temples everything used to be studied; there were no universities or colleges, or that sort of thing. They used to teach the religion in the dance.'
Whilst Indian epics were narrated at the temple the holy men would begin to dance, inventing different dance steps and different expressions, and so Khathak evolved over time.
In order to implement the project Sudarshan applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund. 'The officer came over here to my residence and he was very much interested.' Sudarshan says. 'I discussed with him [the project] for about 2- 3 hours...and showed him different material regarding this project. Then he went back and gave me the funding for this.'
Once the funding was in place Sudarshan engaged the help of his students to realise the project into a deliverable performance worthy of an audience. Norden Farm was chosen as the venue and despite its size the tickets sold out phenomenally fast. Arts Development assisted with the publicity and featured the event in the artsinfo magazine. 'Whenever I wanted some information they were ready to give it to me.' Sudarshan comments. On the night of the performance Nauch played to an appreciative full house and left the audience demanding a repeat showing. Sudarshan believes the success of the project is due to its wide-ranging subject matter. 'It was unique in the sense that it had everything.' He says. 'From the temples, to Moghuls, to films, and the people were very fond of dances from films. It was a different range of Khathak dance.'
Although Sudarshan relishes the prospect of fronting another project he is keeping an open mind as to what form that project will take. Sudarshan stresses that running a project is very hard work, 'Once you are involved in a project it is on your mind all the time.'
Considering his long career in Bollywood and his two decades of teaching in Britain it's likely that Sudarshan doesn't feel the need to prove himself anymore. He has already taken early retirement and now occupies his time with teaching dance through the Nritya Sadhna Dance Society purely for enjoyment and the benefit of his students. However, it's safe to assume that his public won't have to wait too long for Sudarshan to deliver another stunning performance.
Interview: Andrew Unsworth