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7/23/2019 Honing The Creative Process
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Dance postures drawn by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra
HONING THE CREATIVE PROCESS DR. ROHINI DANDAVATE
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He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”
St. Francis of Assisi (Italian religious leader).
Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra (Guruji) was a choreographer par
excellence. He had the skillfulness of a laborer, the mastery of a
craftsman and the passion of an artist. A creative genius, he
choreographed approximately two hundred solo dance numbers and
fifty dance dramas in his lifetime and Odissi dancers all over the world
continue to present his works to this day.
Honing the creative process was his way of life. Born in a family of
palm leaf painters and percussionists he had wide exposure to the
world of colors, textures and sound. His home in Raghurajpur (Odisha)
was located near the Hindu temple and the ongoing singing of kirtans
(spiritual songs) and verses from Hindu scriptures in the temple
triggered unconscious learning. Amidst the milieu of these art forms itwas natural that he was attracted to the dance of the Gotipuas, the
boy dancers of Raghurajpur. The immersion and practical experience
in dance, music, theatre and painting from a very early age was the
foundation of his power of imagination, reflection and expressiveness.
His artistic quality was noticeable in the most mundane
activities of life. Describing his paan making, Ranjana Gauhar,a leading Odissi dancer writes,
The way he opened his paan box, the selection andtrimming of the betel leaf, the choice of ingredients and
their application- it was as though his fingers were
performing some pure dance item during each
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meticulous stage of preparation. The finale was whenhe would wrap up the betel leaf in the most delicate
manner…
Photo 1. Guruji making paan.
Creativity encompassed his every action. Besides
choreographing brilliant dance numbers, he spent every
moment of his life in lending beauty to anything he touched.
During dance tours, he was often seen organizing our bags
according to size, shape and color. Though his primary motive
was to secure the luggage, in the process of stacking he was
exploring shapes, forms and levels, which he would later
translate in the dances he created. His observant eye was
constantly searching and absorbing ideas.
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Photo 2. Playful moments with Guruji on Marina beach,
Chennai.
For years, during our performances Guruji spent hours
applying face make up for all the dancers. He made us all
look like Apsaras (celestial maidens). Immaculate designs on
our forehead and precisely lined eyes and eyebrows brought
out the natural beauty of each dancer. In times when tailored
and easy to wear costumes were not available, he woulddrape the sari for each performer. Every fold and pleat was
uniform in size, length and well pinned, ensuring that it would
not open while dancing. He even tied the ghungroos (bells) on
the anklets, each bind perfectly aligned, knotted and secured.
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Particular about every detail in the overall costume he would
inspect each one of us before we entered the stage.
Photo 3. Guruji tendering the tulsi plant in the porch of his
home in Cuttack.
At home he was often seen tendering the plants in the front
porch or sweeping the pathway during leisure. These
activities were not chores for him, it was his quiet time to
contemplate and observe the environment, understand the
flow in the swaying of the leaves and branches of the plants
and notice the movements of the small creatures. Often we
had to stand and watch and then replicate the same
movements. His open mind was always engaged in idea
generation.
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Photo 4. Guruji etching patterns on his dance floor, in Cuttack
He created the beautiful bamboo ceiling of his dance studio
and etched meticulous designs on the floor in the dance room
in his Cuttack house with the same passion and precision as
he did in his dance choreography.
The engineer in him craved to explore new technologies.
Cameras, tape recorders, video players, spools, audiotapes
were his toys. Every time there was an addition in his
collection of gadgets, he spent days learning to operate it.
When recording studios with sophisticated editing machines
were not accessible, he edited music at home accurately.
Exploring video cameras and its functions was his favorite
leisure time activity. Though not formally trained in an
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educational institution, his curiosity and quest to know more
led him to using different ways of learning.
My objective in sharing these moments of Guruji’s life was to highlight
the ways of his incessant exploration, discovery, learning and
adapting. Developing creative capacity in individuals is about finding
fresh and innovative solutions to problems, and identifying
opportunities to improve the way in which we do things. Constant
engagement and the urge to learn more were the hallmark
characteristics that nurtured his creativity and creative thinking.
Elizabeth Sanders and Pieter Jan Stappers in their book Convivial
Toolbox (2012) have defined creativity as “the ability to produce novel
and appropriate works”. They developed a framework for everyday
creativity in which four levels have been identified: doing, adapting,
making and creating. According to Sanders and Stappers, the basic
level in human creative activities is doing, the next level being
adapting, which is explained as “to make something one’s own bychanging it in some way”. The third level of creativity is making,
which is “the motivation to use one’s hands and mind to make or build
something that did not exist before”. The forth and the most advanced
level according to them is creating, in which the “creative efforts are
fueled by passion and guided by a high level of experience”. Creating
involves innovation. Sanders and Stappers have developed the
following diagram to illustrate that “individual creativity is not only inthe head but in the heart as well: it involves emotion. And creativity
takes place in the body. It is evoked through activity and motion”.
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Source: Convivial Toolbox, Pg 41
Applying this framework helps in understanding Guruji’s process of
thinking. He was constantly looking for opportunities to submerge in,
allowing new ideas to come his way. The experience he gained through
participation facilitated his meaning making process. The insights he
gained from the different experiences were applied in the dances he
choreographed.
He observed shapes, sizes, colors, and textures, flow of things in
nature and the ways in which people conducted their selves. His
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curious and attentive nature was constantly searching for models that
could be transformed into stylized dance movements. His ability to
recognize and note details helped him translate human moods,
movements, and feelings in his dance making. The visuals he created
in his mind reflected clearly in his dance choreography, both in his
expressive numbers, while emoting a story or enacting characters and
in the pure dance numbers. The songs he based his dances on were
stylized acts from the everyday life of commoners. In his pure dance
numbers, the geometrical patterns, shapes and forms were drawn
using the traditional dance steps, gaits, twirls and jumps. Without
deviating from the traditional form, he continuously experimented the
form, use of time, balance, space, and levels.
Graham McFee, in his book ”Understanding Dance” writes:
Dance is aestheticized movement, but aestheticization involves a
transformation”(pg 51, Understanding Dance by Graham McFee)
Mcfee explains this point by giving an example of the everyday act of
sweeping. According to McFee “first I see a person, broom in hand,sweeping the floor in a graceful, elegant fluid way and so I concentrate
on the grace, line and so on of the sweeping movement”. When this
same action is used as a motif in dance, it becomes “aestheticized”
movement. This kind of transformation in movement is used in making
dance. This transformation or aestheticization which Mcfee discusses in
his book is visible in the dances and dance dramas Guruji
choreographed. For example, in the dance drama based on the storyof the Konark temple, he strung together postures, steps and
movements in a manner which brought to life the architecture of the
Konark temple. He used platforms on the stage to create different
levels and placed tableaux of dancers on each, similar to the stone
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statues carved on various levels in the temple. In dance dramas on
episodes from Ramayana, Bhagvad Geeta and other Hindu scriptures
the complex human emotions and moods of the characters were
evoked through apt movements.
As young students in his Gurukul often we had to assist him in the
various tasks that he was involved in. It was cumbersome and felt
meaningless. Little did we understand then that allowing oneself to
engage in different activities with an open mind was as essential as
lessons in dance. Living in his Gurukul (Guru’s home) and learning
dance from Guruji initiated the process of fostering creative thinking.
References
Pradakshina (2001): Tribute to Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra on the 75th
Birthday Celebrations, New Delhi
Sanders, Elizabeth. & Stappers, Pieter Jan. (2012) Convivial Toolbox:
Generative Research For the Front End of Design, BIS Publisher,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Mcfee, Graham. (1992) Understanding Dance, Routledge, London and
New York.
About the Author
Rohini Doshi Dandavate holds a doctoral degree in Cultural Policy andArts Administration from the Ohio State University. As an artist in the
Arts in Education Program of the Ohio Arts Council, she has conductedworkshops and lecture demonstrations in schools and colleges in Ohio
on Odissi dance since 1994. She has offered courses in Odissi dance asa Visiting Faculty. She received her graduate degree in Odissi dance
from Kala Vikas Kendra, College of Indian Dance and Music, Cuttack,
India. Her gurus are Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, Guru Raghunath
Dutta, Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena, and Dr. Menaka Thakkar
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