'I want younger generation to absorb our rich heritage'

AHMEDABAD: "I am keen to perform for the younger generation now, to expose our kids to classical traditions, so that they understand, absorb and adopt this rich heritage," said Padmashri Darshana Jhaveri, the youngest of the Jhaveri sisters, who are renowned exponents of classical Manipuri dance.
In the city as part of The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY), she will perform in various schools like Adani Vidyamandir, Shreyas Foundation School and Delhi Public School, East from April 16 to 20, where the student groups would include municipal schools and slum children.All her performances for SPIC MACAY are free and open for all.
Looking serene in her green 'phanek', the traditional Manipuri dress, and occasionally conversing in immaculate Manipuri with Latasana Devi, her senior disciple, Jhaveri talked to TOI about the grace and expressive brilliance of the dance form, which had found a dedicated patron in Rabindranath Tagore. "He used Manipuri for all the female characters in his dance dramas," said Jhaveri. Under Tagore's influence, the dance form started to be accepted as serious pursuits for girls in respected families.
"We the four sisters - Nayana, Ranjana, Suverna and me - were lucky to be born to our parents, as they gave us the congenial atmosphere for learning. In 1943, the eldest sister, Nayana, played the female protagonist in Jai Somnath composed by Guru Bipin Singh, and we started a new phase."
The phase, 1950's was about discovering the ecstatic and devotional oral traditions of 'raas' and 'sankirtan', the folk forms, and the Manipuri percussion instruments. "These are rooted in the fabric of traditional Manipuri lives. We went there, researched the oral traditions, studied the texts, systematized by establishing underlying themes and started creative work around it for stage performances".
Today, through their academies in Kolkata, Mumbai and Manipur, the Jhaveri sisters' pioneering work towards preserving classical Manipuri dance is thriving and alive.
Jhaveri is happy to perform in the state, where Manipuri dance was learnt even before Mumbai awoke to the form. "Leelaben Sarabhai of Shreyas had herself learnt from Naba Kumar Singh under Guru Rabindranath's instructions. I am happy I will also be performing in Shreyas school," says Jhaveri.