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Legacy Oral History Online Collection

Das Audio Clip and Transcript

Das Audio Clip

One important thing that has kept me going is practice, practice, practice.

There are four elements involved in kathak dance, which we believe according to our guruji’s [teaching]: tayari, laykari, kubsurti, nazakhut. Tayari-preparation, but here it means to have the skill of speed and power with clarity; laykari-tempo-to play with different tempos; and then kubsurti there is the beauty and the grace of the beauty—that you are [playing the role of] a very beautiful girl—what is the delicacy-nazakhut- of that beauty—how do you look at it? [how do you portray it?].

But that is [like a] mature wine and takes time. I stuck to those four [basic elements].

In the early period when I used to teach, I used to be very intense in getting the technique out, because if you don’t have the technique—whack!—you’re nobody.

 ©Museum of Performance + Design

Chitresh Das
Das Audio Clip and Transcript