By James Khangenbam Imphal 8 March 2023
When our body touches something it gets reflected in our mind and we move. Our body and mind are always together. We have learned to bath inside the womb of our mother. When the conceived mother is not happy the foetus felt it. Dance is about how we keep up the senses. We are born as a dancer remarked Contemporary dancer Surjit Nongmeikakpam. Surjit after his B.A Choreography course started performing as a professional artist from 2006 onwards.
In his initial stage of being a Contemporary Dancerhe was lacking experience and he made a fusion with some moves from Manipuri dance and Kathak. But he learnt a lot from a Residency (Gati Residency) and it changed his course of career.According to him contemporary dance is a kind of development which helps him bring out the capability of innovation. Human have the capability to sense and predict the weatheruntil electronic equipment invaded to take up the role. And the need to awaken the sense of our body could be achieved by connecting to the body felt Surjit. When he taught kids the tactics of connecting to the body the kids were quite amazed which makes him feel good.
To make people understand contemporary dance they need to see performances. And to develop a piece residency are conducted where performers stays day and night researching on the project. Sharing emotions, introducing about their dancing talents, learning from each other and brainstorming on how they can develop the project are parts of residency conducted. By mentors.
Surjit is an international artists having performed in Europe and Asia. He has been training students since 2008 under an organisation he founded Nachom Arts Foundation. He owns a dancing studio at his home and a dedicated studio space for contemporary dance practice in Imphal. He always teach his students to be unique by incorporating Manipuri traditional dance moves in contemporary dance. Surjit also incorporates traditional Manipuri music in his performances. He also have the skill of Manipuri martial art which makes him stand out in his moves and flexibility.
Surjit opined that contemporary dance movement is new in India but gaining popularity slowly. He had a feeling that people see Contemporary dance as Western dance. But fail to see the concept. He further explained that Contemporary dance is the showing of one’s capability of the body.In classical dance different anatomic personality have to dance the same dance, like a fat and thin person subjected to dance the same thing while it is not in contemporary dance. An individual has different energy and different volume of weight and his comfort in dance needs to be addressed.
He was drawn into contemporary dance as he found it innovative, creative, has feelings and can reflect on social issues. All ofhis works are the expression of what he came across in life. He dances not for the sake of dance but to tell something.
One of his piece ” One Voice’ came after he met traumatic victims at Kolkata. He listened to their stories and learn the root cause of their state of mind.Then he kept on reasoning for his dance movements. Thoughts pour to him like “How the torturer felt before he torture someone. Is it forced by someone, who is ordering to torture the victim? Is it torturing somebody because that is his job? How the torture is executed how one felt tortured.He continued meeting several victims and digested their woes and played a solo on the theme.One Voice is Torturer and the Victim Dance.He put the two characters together and danced. When he pinch hard on his skin he knew he will feel the pain. He slap himself hard to induce more pain. He toucheshis ear and experience what he felt. After he felt the slap, touch etc. it became very natural to him to dance out his feelings and he go dancing, a dance for the traumatic people. A dance to spread message of how the victims felt. A dance to reflect the mind of the torturer in action. A dance he dance after lots of research not just for beauty but beauty with cause.
