S heema Kermani visited Lahore in May, soon after the elections, when things were feeling incredibly grim and stagnant. I had recently revived my practice after many years of hiatus and was fully experiencing the joy of remembering forgotten things and the sadness of skills and strings rusted over and stultified for years of disuse. Sheema was conducting workshops and giving talks during her visit.
I had her over for dinner at my house and attended her two-day Orissi workshop at The Colony, and was infused with motivation and inspired by her resilience. I asked her how she had managed to remain hopeful and persistent in bleak times, both as an activist and classical dancer (although she doesn’t see a difference between the two). She squeezed my shoulders and said, “People like us can never lose hope.
” Kirmani started the workshop by explaining to the students and The Colony dancers what a classical art is: “It’s an art perfected over generations — over hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years. There are times in history when it expands and branches out. Once in a while there is a bringing together.
The branches of Indian classical dance and music are like roots of the same tree. This is true of the classical arts all over the world: every generation adds their contributions and over time it becomes a classical art form.” It all came alive in my mind, the links in the chains, many lost and forgotten, many still in the process of erosion, leading back to the same s.