Imagine executing intricate footwork of Indian classical dances on roller skates! This feat was achieved by Dr Kanchan Musmade and her team who performed Odissi on skates last week. The endeavour was to support artistic skating and was organised by Meghana Juvekar, an artistic technical committee member of Roller Skating Federation of India.
Artistic skating is one form that beautifully blends with dance. It is practised worldwide and has speed, strength combined with poise, elegance, grace and agility. It is equally important to understand certain technicalities that every sport comes with and to understand the technical aspects of artistic skating, the event titled ‘Skate Art’ was organised.
Juvekar, an international judge for roller skating, said, “Not many know that the technical skating can be combined with performance on stage. My students within the age group of nine to 26 performed classical, Western and semi- classical dance on skates and showcased technical aspects of artistic skating like precision, quartet, compulsory and free dance.”
Shiv Chhatrapati Krida Puraskar winner, Dr Kanchan Musmade, has been training under Juvekar for more than two decades now. Musmade is one of the very few people, who perform Odissi on skates. “Artistic skating has a Western dance touch to it. During the 2004 National Championship at Kolkata, there was a girl who performed Odissi and I decided to do the same. When I returned to Pune, I started learning Odissi and then later I combined it with skating,” said Musmade, who participated in the 2007 World Championship for Artistic Roller Skating. At the event, she presented two semi-classical, one classical and seven Western dances.
Adding how most people were unaware of the sport, she says, “When I received Shiv Chhatrapati award, people would tell me that they knew what skating is, but had no idea about artistic skating. Imagine I had won an award for it! I realised I had to do something to widen its reach. With this intention, we took a few camps and spoke to the civic authorities but none of it worked. So we came up with this show to promote it and incorporated different dance styles to reach more people.”
However, when it comes to choreographing such pieces, it is not an easy task. One has to use a different format. Tejas Garbhe, who choreographed Western dance styles on skates, said, “There was good energy amongst students to learn dancing on skates. I knew what difficulties they would face with skates and keeping those in mind, I suggested the steps.”
Another choreographer, Anuradha Gandhi, who has been teaching Odissi dance for over three decades, choreographed one Odissi dance performance for Musmade. Gandhi said that she was aware of Musmade’s strengths and that made things easy during the process of choreography. She said, “I gave her spinning steps when the music was slow and for fast tempo, I suggested footwork. It was a very enjoyable experience as I knew the students’ capabilities.”
Sai Natu Ogale choreographed fusion dance, Western and Kathak styles for Juvekar’s students. She says, “I noticed that students looked great when they spun on skates, so I incorporated more spins in the dance piece along with hand movements and expressions.”
