Re-stating Breath, Body, and Being: The Transformative Syncretic of dance and Yoga in Chandralekha's Prana

Prana choreographed in 1990 was a work that brought to the fore the inherent potency of breath and movement through a synergy of adavus and asanas. It was Chandralekha’s second major work that worked on extending the body language closely connecting the seams between various physical forms like Bharatanatyam, Kalarippayattu and yoga. This study has interpreted Prana’s body dynamics by positioning the work in tandem with the immediate and larger context. It has studied the elements that create a transformative synergy using yoga and dance. By drawing from an interpretive approach, this research has used critical analysis of the specific dance work by placing it against her writings, dance reviews, research works in this area and theoretical standpoints. The paper reveals how the choreographer’s ideas of portraying the body’s inherent power for exerting its presence as a source of self-renewal is made through abstract visualization of her concepts like ‘‘spine,’ ‘bindu,’ ‘mandala,’ and others which were formed and internalized in an effective continuum in her dances. In Prana, this was correlated to the characteristics of each graha shown through yoga and dance. It illustrates how Chandralekha used these ideas and elements in Prana to depict the role of breath, asanas, and the Bharatanatyam technique as a communication link for revitalizing the body. The study tells us how Prana brought an empirical focus to what dance and body gained from the corporeal practice of physical arts like yoga and kalarippayattu, with which she primarily meant to strengthen the form and power in them. Considering the recent efforts at the reconstruction of Chandralekha’s works as part of a project that plans to help relive her thoughts amongst the present generation of dancers starting with Prana, this research is pertinent in locating the movement ideology and the concepts of body language that she created in the realm of Indian contemporary dance, to relook at her idea of renewing and revitalizing the body in today’s times