On October 26, a dancer will take to a stage in Brisbane for an intimate showcase. She will be wearing an ivory coloured costume. Her movements will be slow, yet precisely measured. As she dances, she will explain.
“I need to get out and do this, before I can’t,” she tells Dance Informa; because Bindu Rajendren has been on a lifelong journey. From Kerala in south-west India, via her birthplace in Dubai, and her time in New Zealand, she now finds herself in Australia as a passionate practitioner and advocate of Mohiniattam. Of her upcoming dance soiree, she says simply, “I’m self-funding this whole thing, well, just because I’m mad.”
As one of several Indian classical dance forms, Mohiniattam is both ancient, regional and rooted in Hindu cosmology. Although not as popular as Bharatanatyam, it remains one of the sub-continent’s treasured cultural expressions, of which Rajendren is recognised as Australia’s premier exponent.
Although its precise origins are uncertain, Mohiniattam shares a common ancestry with its sister forms; namely, the Natya Shastra, a revered Sanskrit guidebook for performers. However, in the largely female-led Indian classical tradition, it is considered the most feminine. This is because, in the Hindu pantheon, Mohini is known as the enchantress, as either an avatar of Vishnu or as the Mother Goddess, from whom Vishnu subsequently “took birth.”
For Rajendren, this renders the dance in deeply metaphysical terms. “Dance is very much part of my spiritual practise,” she declares.
Like many Asian classical styles, Mohiniattam requires a nigh yogic focus and discipline. It is at once elaborately gestural and contorted, with an accent on breath control, facial expression and what Rajendren calls grace.
“Beauty is seen. It’s palpable. But grace is something that you perceive differently,” she explains. “Beauty can be seen quickly but you have to experience grace. So Mohiniattam is a dance that has restraint and release. People perceive it to be slow, but actually it’s filled with grace; and grace takes energy.”
However, Mohiniattam is not entirely esoteric. It is, Rajendren insists, a storytelling dance. It not only draws on the language of Kerela (Malayalam) but the gestural idiosyncrasies of its people. “I always say that Kerela is a land of head shakers,” she reveals, a note of warmth and lightness in her voice.
It is also profoundly environmental. “Mohiniattam has this intensive connection to the land. There is so much story telling about nature. We show trees, we show animals, we show plants. So every dance will have something about nature shown in it.”
Here, though, we find Rajendren’s personal connection. Although born in Dubai, her Kerala lineage informs her passion for its native choreography. Recalling her life in dance, she elaborates, “I can’t remember exactly how it started, but I was four and I was dancing on top of the table at home. I remember my mum telling my dad that ‘this girl got some rhythm and we need to put her in some kind of dance class.’ If she hadn’t, I’d probably still be dancing atop tables.”
From there, she trained for 17 years with her first guru, who schooled her in all the major Indian forms, attending classes deep into her initial pregnancy. Later, after a period living and working in New Zealand, she landed in Brisbane and decided to dedicate herself to Mohiniattam.
As she recalls, “I truly found myself with this style…I can’t explain how or why, but I just found authenticity.”
Fast forward to 2024, and Rajendren not only has an extensive international CV (performing in India, the UK, UAE, NZ, and at local events like BrisAsia and the Woodford Folk Festival), but an undiminished passion. Hence, her decision to self-fund a Mohiniattam showcase in late October.
“All of the choreographies will be ‘desi’, meaning they are from Kerala and they represent the cultural and storytelling aspect of Kerala,” she illustrates. “So, what I thought I could do was to become like a travel agent, because I will be leading people through dance. It’s the first time I am organising something like this, and although I’ve performed all over the world and go to India every year, with this I just want to ignite a kind of interest.”
Typically, we might expect such showcases to be underpinned by more mundane objectives, like promoting a school. However, Rajendren’s commitment to authenticity supersedes the business imperative. She laughs, saying that she only has six students. “I’d rather focus on creating, choreographing, researching and writing about dance than teaching people who are not even a quarter passionate, or who just want to lose weight.”
Yet, she is also realistic. “I understand that I need to share this artform, and to pass it on. But I need the right kind of students, otherwise it will just stop.”
In this, we hear once more her authenticity mantra. For Rajendren, Mohiniattam is more than an exotic costumed spectacle or an endless performative repetition of folk orthodoxy. “As a dancer, first I need to believe. Then, I need to become — become in the sense come to be. And then there’s the be part. Being what I am in the dance. So…believe, become, be. And somehow, maybe because I understand the indigenous music and gestures, and I love to tell stories, Mohiniattam allows that.”
By way of conclusion, she takes a moment before saying, “If Bharatanatyam is like A to B, Mohiniattam is the journey.”
For more information on Bindu Rajendren, visit www.bindurajendren.com.
By Paul Ransom of Dance Informa.
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