| Nala Najan - Art and the Artist |
| The objective of this paper is to bring to light Nala Najan, a lesser known American practioner, choreographer and performer of Indian classical dance. Travelling to India in 1950 he trained in several Indian classical art forms from the grand masters of the art at a time when the abolition act of 1929 had shaken the foundations and practice and performing structures of Indian classical dance in India. The paper focuses on his learning the art form as well as imbibing with a great passion the culture and tradition that went with the art. The paper details his teaching methodology and his philosophy behind creating new choreographies basing them on a strong foundation of his learnings India. The paper also looks into the various dimensions Nala invented for documenting an oral tradition. It included the documentation of the dance itself, not excluding the documentation of the thought process before and after composition of a piece. At a time when non-Indian practioners of the art were presenting Indian classical dance as “Exoticâ€, Asian dance, here was an ardent disciple of Indian classical dance who propagated it in its most pristine form and also elevated it though his deep understanding of the Hindu thought and philosophy. The methodology for this research is qualitative. Phenomenological and participative methods of observation were involved. The phenomenological study involved systematic study and documentation of facts from a seven -volume publication by Nala’s disciple Padma Chittampalli, without any manipulation. The participative method was enabled by Nala Najan’s prime disciple Smt. Padma Chittampalli from New York, USA. She had learned Nala’s choreography directly from him for over 23 years. She did not travel or perform in India or elsewhere, thus preserving Nala’s choreographies in their most pristine form. The researcher’s interaction and learning from Ms. Chittampalli, enabled the participative methodology. Nala Najan is one of the pioneers in establishing what the diaspora and American’s understand as authentic Indian classical dance today. His documentation is a precise and exhaustive approach to the documentation of a purely oral tradition of dance. |
| Author: Mrs. Poornima Kaivar Gururaja
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Submitted on : 16-Sep-2025
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Arts : /Classical Dance/Bharatanatyam |
| Journal ID : 5350-601-7146
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