By Our Correspondent
NEW ELHI: Did you know that tawaifs, the highly skilled courtesans of 18th and 19th-century Awadh, were the trendsetters of their time? They merged Persian and Indian influences, giving us the timeless Kathak dance and soulful dadra and thumri music, setting the standards for elegance and refinement. They were not just artists par excellence, but also esteemed mentors of etiquette and conversation.
A modern day Classical dancer, seeking recognition for the dancers and singers of yesteryears. “Main Tawaif” questions the role of the people, the society and in the way history sees the women performers who perform on stage.
Main Tawaif is a presentation by Manjari Chaturvedi, under The Courtesan Project Series. 14 years into existence the series is founded and conceptualized by Classical Dancer, Creator of Sufi Kathak, and Restorer of the Dance of Tawaifs, Manjari Chaturvedi. The performance is a profound exploration of the gender dynamics within the arts, unveiling the pivotal influence of women performers – the enigmatic Tawaifs and Baijis – of North India from the 16th to the 20th century. The performance is set as an intimate mehfil performance of how the Tawaifs would perform in yesteryears. Their music, their stories, their dance enacted by a single performer.
This is a bold statement by a Classical Dancer to title her concert as Main Tawaif, and only a powerful performer like Manjari can go beyond the available narrative and create a new narrative from the perspective of women. This is needed to finally accord respect for the performance art of the Tawaif, to go beyond the drawing room sniggers and laughter associated with the word Tawaif, and to finally acknowledge their role in perfoemance art history. It personally took Manjari ten long years to finally use the term Tawaif for a classical concert, without being ridiculed for it. A modern day Classical dancer, finally seeking recognition for the dancers and singers of yesteryears.
Through a mesmerizing blend of evocative monologue, dance, music, and stories, the audio-visual spectacle will delve deep into the heart of history and societal perceptions. It questions the roles of individuals, society, and history in defining the place of women performers, challenging preconceived notions, and striving to honor their invaluable contribution to the world of art and culture. Main Tawaif is an endeavor by a modern-day dancer, Manjari, seeking recognition for the dancers and singers of yesteryears, dedicated to preserving and promoting the intangible cultural heritage of the tawaifs while removing social stigmas associated with courtesans, ultimately recognizing them as artists of unparalleled caliber.
These extraordinary women transitioned from the confines of the kotha to grace the Parsi theatre stages and subsequently became the pioneers of the burgeoning Hindi Film Industry. Their stories have regrettably been relegated to the shadows of history. This concert and the larger Courtesan Project aim to illuminate their art and narratives, bringing to these unsung heroines much-deserved attention, status, and respect. Manjari Chaturvedi shares stories of women who were integral to Hindi cinema.
Do not miss this unique performance infused with the nostalgia of yesteryears and yet a progressively modern thought of asserting the rights of women performers.
THE COURTESAN PROJECT Inception in year 2009
Conceptualised, Created and Directed by Manjari Chaturvedi
Manjari is the founder of concept The Courtesan Project, which has become one of the most successful dance revival movement in today’s time. Giving a voice to the women and 100s of years of creative contribution to theatre, cinema and performing arts. The Courtesan Project is recognised, loved and appreciated globally for its unique story-telling and the highlights the forgotten legends of music and dance.
This project is a medium to draw the attention of the society towards our erstwhile courtesans and how discriminatory practices impacted NOT only their life but also of their families. Thus, advocating and creating much required space for them as an ‘artist” in the society through cultural activism and social change. This is an exhaustive research of last 14 years as it brings alive dance and stories of women who were stigmatised by the society for being performers of both music and dance and in an unfortunate society ridden by gender discrimination were not even part of the documentation history of the performing arts.
Hence it becomes imminent we tell their brilliant stories to the world and show their art, their music, their dance. This is a part of the gender in arts, and how the gender of performer shapes the art for future. Those forgotten dancers called tawaif & nachnewali who do not find space in the documentation of performing arts history, whereas their counterpart men performers are referred to as “Ustads” and the incredible women merely as “Nautch Girls”. These were the women who moved from the Kotha and formed the part of the Parsi theatre and then subsequently were the first women performers for the big Hindi Film Industry. The stories of women who sang for India’s freedom are lost in history, we trace these stories and their contribution to art largely remains un acknowledged. This project brings their art to the foreground.
Manjari Chaturvedi has taken her obsession with classical dance and turned it into more than expression: in her hands, it is cultural renaissance and syncretism; narrative form and dialogue. Nothing is more evocative of this than “The Courtesan Project”, a unique research and documentation exercise via which Manjari seeks to chronicle the historically remarkable role of the ‘tawaif’ in artistic life: as muse to poets and painters, writers and kings, musicians and leaders. And in so doing, she seeks to claim for these maligned women the reverence due them for their learning and their performance art; their intelligence and wit; their talent and raw sensual power. And at the same time she introduces to the youth an alternative narrative about the brilliant women performers, about whom till now they have only heard derogatory words which perhaps are largely Bollywood driven.
Under The Courtesan Project series there have been 4 major seminars, 3 Tedx talks amongst many other talks and lectures and hundreds of concerts on the performance art of the Tawaifs by Manjari Chaturvedi. In last decade, this project has inspired people in multipronged aspects, such as many writers to author books on this subject and many filmmakers to finally make mainstream cinema on the Tawaifs. Many history walks have started based on the Tawaifs and most dancers and singers are now performing using the art of Tawaifs. There are innumerable Insta reels on the Tawaifs, they are in fashion. This is the direct result of a cultural renaissance brought about by this project in last 14 years. Manjari is on her way to rewrite history from the perspective of women, history that till now was written by men, ironically even women histories were written by men.
