Pandit Birju Maharaj speaks on Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra

Pandit Birju Maharaj - doyen of Kathak dance - had a close friendship with the late Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra - doyen of Odissi. Here, Maharaj-ji talks about this association, and the many duets they performed together in a freeflowing conversation that touches on several other aspects of dance and dance culture in India today.

Panditji was conferred the lifetime achievement award at the Natya Darshan conference at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai on 22 December 2013. This year the conference was themed 'Purush: the global dancing male', and was presented by Karthik Fine Arts and the Arangham Trust, curated by Dr. Anita Ratnam and Professor Hari Krishnan. This conversation took place on the sidelines of the conference, and was with the Purush blog team of Ranjana Dave and Vikram Iyengar.

'I am still a one-man army' - Astad Deboo

From your memories of forging a new path for dance in India, when you started dancing, it seemed difficult enough for a man to enter the classical dance world and stick around. In your case, you explored something new and unnamed - could you talk about that experience?

I was trained in Kathak. Growing up in Jamshedpur, one took part in annual school productions. But there were no solo performances, because there was no scope for that at the school. When I finished school and was serious about dance, my parents refused, because they felt I should study further. I wasn't allowed to train, but I rehearsed what I had learnt and the solo parts I had played in the dance dramas at my school. I started watching other dance forms in Bombay. I noticed that there were many innovations in theatre, music and the visual arts. When Asha (Uttara Asha Coorlawala) returned to Bombay and was looking for dancers, I worked with her and told her that I would like to study at the Martha Graham School, where she was training at that time.

I was lucky to have had forward-thinking parents. After my graduation, I told them that I still wanted to be a dancer. Neither they nor I knew the journey I was going to embark on...that pursuing dance would become the purpose of my life.