5 Questions with Mallika Sarabhai
We talked to Mallika Sarabhai, a storyteller, activist, and one of the most vital figures in Indian dance today.
Mallika Sarabhai is visiting Melbourne for AsiaTOPA, to perform SVA Kranti: The Revolution Within. In this performance, she employs multimedia, theatre, music and dance to conjure an imagined conversation with Mahatma Gandhi through the prism of a 21st century woman. The work explores the lives of women who have struggled non-violently with truth, and challenges the relevance of Gandhi’s teachings to the contemporary female experience.
Mallika Sarabhai / Darpana Archives
No.1
What first inspired your work SVA Kranti—The Revolution within? And how has your own relationship to Gandhi's ideology of Satyagraha or non-violence shifted through the years?
In 2002, there was a genocide in Gujarat, India against the Muslims. The administration, the ministers and the police were complicit in these Godhra riots. With two colleagues, I filed a case against the government and the state in the Supreme Court of India. And over the next many years (continuing into the present) I faced every kind of official and unofficial response. I had multiple false cases filed against me. I could not trust that my children would be safe crossing the road without protection. I was attacked and my institution was attacked. I had my passport taken away. Financial fraud and human trafficking were charges I had to fight in the courts. And through this journey, I had many a conversation with Gandhiji. That was the birth of this performance work.
I still believe in non-cooperation and satyagraha as the only policies to follow in dissent. The recent student lead protests across my country against the Indian government laws to make us into a Hindutva nation have been the first signs of hope in many bleak years, and I believe this is our way forward.
No.2
You have said before that the medium is less important to you than the message in your creative practice. What then compels you to dance?
I did not mean the medium is less important per se, otherwise my work would be reduced to agit prop. It is crucial that the work is intrinsically watchable even to those who disagree. But I refrain from creating totally abstract work. For me, the arts have always been a language. If one has nothing to say, one does not need a language!
No.3
I try to live my life by your words, we have treated the arts as the cherry on the cake. It needs to be the yeast. What do you believe is the responsibility of the artist in the world today?
We live in dangerous times where dialogue and scission have been reduced to empty and hate filled rhetoric. In these times, more than ever, the arts can bring in nuanced meaning to debate issues, fight prejudice and evolve closed minds.
No.4
What was it like to shoulder the pressure of living up to a family name like The Sarabhais? How did you navigate growing up as the daughter of legendary dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai?
My family name or fame were never a burden really because none of the famous people in my lineage held their fame on their shoulders. It was the excitement of what they were doing, what they were trying to achieve on behalf of society or unheard voices or science that they and thus we concentrated on. Neither of my parents wanted me to be a dancer or a scientist - they were so fulfilled in what they did that they did not need the vicarious pleasure of living unloved lives through their children. The only time I distinctly remember feeling pressure was on my first solo dance tour that took me to many venues where Amma had danced - will I ruin her reputation? Thankfully, I didn’t, but tense I certainly was.
No.5
What does a day in the life of Mallika Sarabhai look like?
Wake up at 5AM to let the dogs out. Meditate. Read the papers (now increasingly quickly as they are dominated by the propaganda machine). Listen to music. Good South Indian coffee. Yoga with the Darpana family at 8.30AM. Rehearsals from 9.30AM on till I have achieved what we set out to do for the day as a company, including regular rehearsal or creating new work. Shower and breakfast and to the office for the rest of the day with a family lunch break at 1.30PM. I am lucky that the family home is on the same campus. Days can vary greatly if I am working on a film, a new production, a new exhibition for the gallery or if I am on an extended speaking tour. Dinner is usually around 8.30PM or 9PM. Then I read a book or watch a film while playing with my dogs before bed around 11PM. That’s as typical as it gets.
Book tickets to SVA Kranti: The Revolution Within, as part of AsiaTOPA 2020, from 28-29 February.
Find out more
mallikasarabhai.com
ted.com/talks