Mayuka Sarukkai - Interview w/ Artists of 'Invoking the River'

Mayuka Sarukkai is a CDI Kathak Fellow and a dancer in CDI’s dance company Chitresh Das Dance. She currently lives in New York City and performed in the premiere of “Invoking the River” on October 14-16 at ODC Theater in San Francisco.

Shreya: What does Invoking the River mean to you?

Mayuka: One of the unexpected parts of how meaningful this whole process has been to me is that as dancers, we’re embodying rivers. So much of what we do as dancers is gat bhao and embodying various characters, but here, I’m embodying a natural element that human beings are so tied to, and at times, so abusive of. As part of telling my story, I feel the emotional aspect of all the messages of Invoking the River at a much more personal level. 

Shreya: Can you tell me more about the river you chose to portray and why?

Mayuka: In June, we were tasked with finding a river that meant something to us. Initially, I went home and tried to learn more about the rivers in India; I thought a lot about Kaveri, because it’s a river that goes through a lot of areas in South India where my family is from – like Mysore, and Bangalore. Growing up, when I used to visit those areas, Kaveri was on the edges of my perception, like all the stores would be called “Kaveri River Imports,” so it was always in the back of my mind.

I was also drawn to Kaveri because I grew up learning Carnatic singing and learned that the trinity of big Carnatic composers all lived in Srirangam near the delta of the Kaveri. It was a beautiful place where art was thriving and creation was inspired by the river. Where my story is headed was me trying to understand the origin story of the river – you read a lot of old Indian mythology, and as a modern woman, it’s often hard to resonate. Even when we try to portray women in traditional Kathak dance, there’s a lot of emphasis on portraying the feminine women, and it can sometimes feel like femininity is misconstrued as frailty, delicateness, and vulnerability. 

I was reading this story about Kaveri that centered around a girl who was sent off by her father to be married to an old sage, Agastya, who is worried she will leave him, since she has a desire to be among the people. Agastya then turns her into water and stores her in a pot which he carries around. One day, by some force – maybe the divine force, or maybe it’s her – the pot breaks and Kaveri is released in the form of water and becomes the river that nourishes the people. 

As I read those stories, I found that this was Kaveri’s great release, and that her freedom was bound to that act. But a few years ago, there was a huge conflict between Karnataka and Tamilnadu for her resources. When I see what’s happening, it’s difficult to think of these rivers as free, liberated women; although they’re highly sought after, no one is taking ownership over their wellbeing. Through my performance, I wanted to personify what that meant and tie Kaveri’s journey to the existence and trajectory of a woman over the course of her life, being traded around and having her body used as a resource without being cared for properly.    

Shreya: Your stories about Kaveri are so compelling – how did you think through transforming your research into a narrative, and a river into a performance?

Mayuka: I’ve never done anything like this before – it’s completely new to me! Our solos were their own, unique type of experience, but this felt like starting from scratch. On my flight back from San Francisco to New York, I started writing free-form words putting myself in the mind of this river, this trapped woman. The story went all over the place – I was thinking about abortion, or that when the pots breaks, it’s her water breaking, and this was around the time of Roe v Wade too, so I was feeling riled up. 

I also had a sense of which taal I wanted to use; I did a kathak yoga piece in 11 beat taal in my solo, and I really wanted to revisit that, because it was such a fun and unexpected taal. I started taking elements of the footwork I was using – the ta ki ta ta ki ta dhen na footwork – which includes three distinct foot sounds and gave me a lot to play and experiment with. I thought about how my feet were interacting with the earth, and how I could connect those sounds with the experience of being trapped in a pot, banging the walls and trying to get out. Everything started with the feeling of the story rather than giving myself a strong structure, and I tweaked the story as my feelings changed. 

It was also really cool to work with Utsav – he’s incredibly talented and a genius on the piano, and it was really incredible to iterate with him. I would send him the generic story that I was thinking about, and then he would follow up with a nagma in the raag, and I would send back my notes, like, “Can we make this a little happier? Or sadder?” The process was super iterative and not at all structured.

Shreya: How would you say you’ve collaborated with your Guru sisters throughout this process?

Mayuka: From the beginning, we realized that this show is going to look completely different than anything we’ve done before, and it became deeply personal, dark, and heavy almost instantly. Charlotte Didi will even watch our pieces and say, “Why are they all so sad? Make them a little happier!” We realized that we would have to really face ourselves through this artistic process, so from Day 1, we’ve been bouncing ideas off each other, like, “How would you portray being pulled from one side to the other?” or other experiences we haven’t captured before. We’re operating at the border of purely traditional Kathak dance, and adapting to the modern day. Charlotte Didi has given us a lot of autonomy with these pieces, which is really amazing, but can be really scary. I’ve found a lot of support in sharing this journey with my Guru sisters. 

Shreya: What are you most excited about in the lead up to the performance?

Mayuka: One of the most rewarding parts of Mantram, which was a completely different show, was talking to the audience afterwards and understanding how the different pieces resonated with them. This year, since I’m creating my own piece, there’s a huge question mark in my head – will this land with people? Will this register with people in the same way as I’m intending? Part of me thinks, yes, I hope so, but another part thinks, maybe people interpret things in a different way, which is the cool part about art. I’m excited to connect with people and have conversations with them on what the show means to them. 

Shreya: Any final thoughts?

Mayuka: It’s amazing to be at this new place in our Kathak journeys. In this performance, Charlotte Didi has treated us as true collaborators and put so much trust in us, which sometimes I question, “Do I deserve this?” But I think it’s cool to feel that trust and to put on this huge production without being full time dancers who are also geographically distributed. It feels like such a new thing, and it’s so exciting and special to me that it might actually work.

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Featuring choreography by Charlotte Moraga, music by Utsav Lal, multimedia & poetry by Alka Raghuram. Performances by Chitresh Das Dance Vanita Mundhra, Shruti Pai, Mayuka Sarukkai & Kritika Sharma and live music by Utsav Lal (piano) and Nilan Chaudhuri (tabla).

Shreya Khandewale is a Chitresh Das Youth Company alumni. She started studying Kathak at Pandit Chitresh Das’ institution as a child and continued to study for over a decade. She performed her graduating Youth Company Showcase in 2018 and is now a CDI Community Communications Contributor.