He says all his work is political. The fact that he is a Sikh, gay and male Bharatanatyam dancer is political. That every time he goes on the stage, lets the world look at him, is a political act. The body, he says, is political too.
As dancer, choreographer and yoga practitioner Navtej Johar gets to set to stage his latest product 'Tanashah', a solo performance based on Bhagat Singh's jail diaries in Chandigarh on Saturday, he tells IANS, "Art is an expression and intervention, how can it be apolitical? The artist always takes a position, even if it is that of a conformist. When you go on stage, you are sharing what you see all around, and within. No matter how much you dismantle everything, touch on the surface, or reach the depths, there is always a shake-up," says this Sangeet Natak Akademi award-winning artist.
'Tanashah', focussing on Bhagat Singh's essay, 'Why I am an Atheist' examines the resolve of a young man to walk to the gallows with searing clarity, un-sublimated by religious doctrine or idealist philosophy. The dancer had paused his Bharatanatyam performances around 2013-2014 as the performer in him was looking for something 'more', and that is when he started reading Bhagat Singh's diaries.
"I could identify with him in multiple ways -- he came from my part of the world, a Sikh from a religious family, a believer as a child, and slowly turned into an atheist. It resonated with my own personal journey, my politics, sentiments. Our stories intertwined at many points. Also, in the last few years, he has been proclaimed by the Hindu right. But he was a communist and I wanted to set the record straight. For me, he's a poet, the way he writes and thinks, and then a revolutionary. I needed theatre as a medium for this, thus this solo performance," says Johar, who trained at Kalashetra and later studied at the Department of Performance Studies, New York University.
He adds that over the past few years, most classical arts have become nationalist and conformist, and seem to be contributing to making a particular image of India.
"And that is not art to me as it robs the purpose of the same. Art must be immersive. If you are holding that cross of the idea of India, then you need to drop it before making art."
In fact, Johar started out with theatre during his college days but moved away from it as he found it to be too verbose. However, he wanted a medium that was appropriate to convey what he wanted to, thus theatre.
