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Acclaimed kathak exponent Shobha Koser has beaten many odds to create a niche in the galaxy of Indian classical dancers. And today, she is finding her moorings without the guiding force of her life—her late husband M.L. Koser. Stepping into his shoes, in her new avatar as registrar of Pracheen Kala Kendra, she can, however, feel his presence at every step.
In fact, it was he who had set his 16-year-old bride on the path of success and achievement. Wistfully, she recalls, "As his new wife, I thought life was gung ho. Splurge and enjoy. He indulged me for six months and then told me point blank—this is not life". Thus, her training in kathak began afresh under the tutelage of new guru Kundan Lal Gangani. She adds, "While with my first guru Kanhaiya Lal I shared more of a father-daughter relationship, it was my second guru who taught me that dance is not energy and vigour alone, and introduced me to its subtleties and made me a complete dancer". An exponent of the Jaipur gharana of kathak, Shobha endorses the purity of gharanas in toto and has stuck to it like a religion. She has nothing against today’s generation of dancers who weld styles or who experiment. Even she has created many ballets like Kamayani, Urvashi Milan and Sagar Salila etc, using several styles. Then, she has done Geet Govind, Naayika Bhed and Kalidas’s Panch Naayika within the traditional repertoire of kathak. But she is aghast when dancers take up themes like incest in kathak. She feels, "Let us leave such subjects to cinema. After all, our classical dance forms are about communion with the Almighty". Seriously, is it possible to connect with divinity while dancing in front of mortal audiences? She smiles and quips, "Audiences too are aradhay, worth worshipping. Like the superpower they, too, can make or mar you". Luckily for her, the audiences—critics too—have been more than generous with applause. Even in those formative days when her father was against her learning dance. In fact, as she looks back she is positive that but for her husband’s constant encouragement she wouldn’t have gone on to complete her master’s degree, retire as Principal of Post Graduate College, Mansa, and become a name to reckon with, picking up laurels like the Critics Circle of India Award, Amla Shankar Award, Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Kshetriya Nati conferred by the Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi, etc. "The absence of family support," she asserts, "is the main reason why one doesn’t see many dancers in this region making a mark for themselves". Which is why her own daughter Purva Puri and daughter-in-law Sameera Koser have not been able to pursue dance with the single-minded devotion that she has. Interestingly, while kathak has always been her muse, she also learnt the art of multi-tasking. When Kendra was in the initial stages of inception and hence cash-strapped, she would cook for 50 artistes at one go. At every step of the making of the institution that today boasts of lakhs of students and centres abroad, she contributed fruitfully, though from the sidelines. The only limelight that she cared to bask in was on stage, as the kathak queen. Having performed at prestigious venues, one performance that shall always be special to her is the concert in Malaysia. Learning hours before her performance that her sister had lost her husband, lending credence to the dictum — Our sweetest songs are those that tell of the saddest thought—she danced with a rare emotive fervour. Dance, she believes, is all about emotions. Moreso, kathak, the dance closest to life, sans stylisation or artifice. That is not to say that it is any less demanding than, say, Bharatnatyam or Odissi. She asks, " Can anyone match its tayari, chakras, bhaav or mudras? Kathak’s beauty is inimitable". Any wonder, even though fully preoccupied with her new role of an administrator and organiser, she hasn’t bid adieu to it. Nor ever will. "Dance I will till my last breath". And the gusty woman who has battled cancer, danced with a gangrene-infected foot and much more will continue to sail in many boats. Besides creating more compositions in kathak, she has already begun working on her new book. The previous one that
she authored, Nritya Abhigyaan, has already been translated in
English. Preparing for the viva of her Ph.D, she might be a trifle
apprehensive about the outcome. But she needn’t fret, for in the
odyssey of life and dance she has undisputedly emerged triumphant.
Time and again.
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