Ranchi
A tribal woman from Jharkhand, whose religious faith is Christianity, after having proved her point in the area of Kathak and Ravindra Nritya dance forms across the world, is now busy teaching its nuances and intricacies to hundreds of tribal children in the Jharkhand capital.
She is also known as the first tribal Guru of these great dance forms where a performer’s body language and expressions rule the roost.
Born in an ordinary middle class Oraon family, Chandra Shalini Kujur’s parents worked at the Accountant General’s office in Ranchi. Noted dance maestro Late Vipul Das was one of his colleagues. Das spotted Shalini when she was barely 4 years old and asked her parents to send her to him for learning classical dance forms. And, thus, began the little tribal girl’s onward journey.
The Guru nourished her dancing skills and groomed her to beat the challenges of Kathak and Ravindra Nritya dance forms, especially on bigger stages across the world.
“My Guru always had full faith in my dancing abilities. While staging Ravindra Nath Tagore’s famous dance drama ‘Bhanusingher Padawali’ he gave me ‘Kotal’s’ role – a male character and the main villain’. I was extremely perplexed. But, when the play was finally staged, audience appreciated my performance more than the main character. One of my dances in this play too was highly appreciated,” she reminisces during an interaction with The Indian Tribal.
Das was also actively associated with the YMCA and several other social and cultural outfits. This, in turn, fetched opportunities for Shalini and her troupe to display their dancing skills in different cities of Bangladesh in 1998 and the USA in 2000.
The Bangiya Sanskritik Parishad felicitated her with a gold medal in 2017 for her exemplary performances in the area of Kathak dance.
BULLYING AND STIGMA
Initially, Shalini was decried a ‘nachni’ (dancing girl). The self-proclaimed custodians of society also strongly objected to her performing Guru Vandana, Vishnu Vandana, Radha Krishna and the likes – basic essentials of Kathak dance form, because she was a Christian. It was very difficult for her and poor parents to convince them that God is One and Thumri – Dadra sans mention of God is meaningless. However, she gradually became acceptable in her own totality.
But she was never discriminated in her dance classes. Despite her dark skin, she was never kept in the rear row and also given lead roles. The Guru always treated all children alike and judged the individual performers on the basis of their real merits.
MISSION AHEAD
At the age of 40, Shalini is now running a dance school, where around 100 tribal girls learn Kathak every Sunday. She also regularly ‘visits’ several other dance and music learning centres across Ranchi on the week days. She teaches Performing Arts at Bethesda Teachers Training College in Ranchi.
Besides her dance classes, she has also cleared UGC–NET exam and has enrolled herself in the Ph.D programme at Ranchi University. She is a Post Graduate in Economics and Dance. Her Ph.D research would involve classical dances.
Her husband, Prashant Minz, is a senior officer with the BSF. The couple is blessed with three children. But, only the youngest child, 7 years old Praneet is keen about learning dance and music.
“But this makes no difference to me. Scores of ladies from well to do families approach me every day to teach their babies – barely 2-3 years old. I advice them to first let the toddlers learn to speak properly. I am always available to teach them dance forms,” Shalini says.
