With a successful run this season of her most recent dance drama, Shankara, Lokha Shankara which gives a window to advaita and on the shanmadha through the eyes of Adi Shankara, Sudharani spoke to KutcheriBuzz on where dance is going today. Excerpts:

How has it been, staging Shankara, Lokha Shankara during the season?
It's been wonderful. Not that its the greatest production, but it is about the world's greatest concept. The season is actually a difficult time to do dance dramas because of exam time. Most of the children have to be away and so we rework the choreography for the core dancers.

That is the beauty of Shree Bharatalaya. All the dancers are so well versed with all the parts that anyone can take any part. And even if we have to sacrifice a character because the team member is not there, the core dancers can still prop up the character. They are the ones who knit the group

What do you think of the classical dance scene today?
The fact is there are too many dancers. And yes, there is a lot of mediocrity. But I am an optimist. This will sort itself out. Many people come into the field for the wrong reasons and that means inordinate competition for the serious ones who want to pursue it as a profession and for the sake of the art. But talent will shine out like a star anyway.

I have seen days when hardly any dance or music was there. There were a few names, like Ariyakudi.....but today.....

What's happening will die a natural death. Even if it continues the stars of classicism will come up This feeling is not new though. They've been talking about it since 1955!

Bringing film glamour into this will affect the art, but since is the thing of the day, one has to accept it as a fact. But then, I think, why not let everyone have their day!

How do you feel being a dancer today and through the years?
I have been dancing for 53 years now. One you are moulded into the dance your angularitities are smoothened out. You rise above yourself. sentiments and conveying them take over. And you have rasanubhava. everything else is lost.

If that was lacking I would have been eased out.

Do you think that classicism is being sidelined in the art? What can dancers do to prevent this?
If dancers programme things bettter and with integrity to the art it is enough. But we have to keep striving to get better and better. To improve our technique, to maintain the integrity of each style.

It is like a game of tennis. If you don't practice your serve everyday, it will not get better, it will not get perfect....

And you must have an audience as you practice. Never practice alone with a tape - this is something that many dancers are doing. You should have somebody watching you everyday who knows the art and who will be critical of your work and not just praise you.

Younger dancers should also develop the right spirit. The finer points that their seniors make should be taken in the right spirit. But that is lacking. They are too sensitive to criticism, and many don't consider us from the older generation as dancers.....

What do you think about the art today as it is practiced and performed?
This performance craze is bad. Buying out the critics is not enough. It's not a competition!

Sometimes I think I don't belong here. It is like Yudhistira said, "kaliyuga is here, it is time for us to leave."

Gresham's law works equally well in the arts - the bad driving out the good. And there is more bad than good around now!

But good cannot be destroyed, only suppressed. You are involved in an art because you love it. If you want to preserve it, you do not flaunt it. You don't flaunt classicism, it shines out by itself.