PAUSHALI CHATTERJEE MANIPURI DANCER

Her creativity is unending. Be it dance or advertising Paushali Chatterjee is always at her creative best with unique innovations.
A post graduate in English literature Poushali has worked for several advertising firms and is at present working for a multinational advertising agency as its creative head.

A n exponent of Manipur dance she gave marvelous performance. In a chat she explains the origin and development of Manipuri dance and she combines tradition with innovation, classicism with creativity and the ethnic with contemporary.

My mother Atashi CHATTERJEE is a renowned vocalist and since 1972 she has been accompanying the legendary Manipuri dancer Bipin singh” said Poushali who had her initial training in Manipuri dance from Kunjo SINGH, Darshana Javeri and Kalavathui devi” said Poushali.

She has natural grace and sense of taala and adept at tandava, lasya, and abhinaya. She has masterd in Pung- the Manipuri drum and Thang Tha the Manipuri martial art form from Chingam.

Sama the Harmony of life is a much lauded work of Paushali. It is a combination of Manipuri classical and folk dances, Thag tha Odissi classical and folk puppetry Indian and western philosophy and literature. It deals with the rhythm of life and how they are being broken by an increasingly intolerant and violent world order.

Agni the life force yet another production deals with many moods of fire from the nurturing to the destruction through the different styles of Manipuri dance viz Lai HAROBA Rasleela, cholon, and Thang Tha.

Maharaja Bhagya Chandra in his dream saw Lord Krishna playing Rasaleela.

It is said that in his dream Lord Krishna was wearing a different unique costume. Inspired by this he taught his daughter dance. The costume was designed as he saw in his dream. This dance form later into he present day Manipuri dance.
Regarding theme, she said that Git Govind by Jayadeva. Separate pieces of Krishna solo, Radha solo, description of Brindavan etc are evolved form the solo pieces of Rasaleela. We have different costumes for different characters. As in Kathakali we have no performers manual. Manipuri dance is not codified to that level.

In Manipuri dance the artiste wear only hand made jewels. The colorful attire with intricate brocades is highly starched. She runs an institution Nandanik Manipuri Dance Academy. She has choreographed a number of dance dramas, like Krishna leela, Tagore’s Klamarigaya and Maharshi Bhagy Chandra.