If you have a passion, pursue it with perseverance and persistence — this was the advice from a panel of experts for those seeking to chart a career in the performing arts.
The virtual session Performing Arts: Your Passion as Your Profession was a part of CampusToCareer 2020, a webinar series presented by ABP Education.
On the panel were Prof. Urmimala Sarkar Munsi, faculty, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Tanusree Shankar, principal teacher, Tanusree Shankar Dance Academy; Prof. Manoshi Roy Chowdhury, co-chairperson, Techno India Group; and actress Saayoni Ghosh.
The virtual discussion was moderated by Piya Chakraborty, secretary, HEDS (Health and Ecodefence Society).
Catch the session here.
Here's what the speakers had to say:
Prof. Urmimala Sarkar Munsi, faculty, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University
More than being a performer, dance, for me, was about becoming a good citizen. Dance holds value for bringing a community together and asserting a group’s identity. Students often find themselves torn between the two worlds of study and dance.
I held my ground in both and did a doctorate in social anthropology, focusing on dance as an identity-assertion tool and solidarity-building exercise. I teach students how to document performances in a certain manner with the life stories of performers in focus.
Today, students have a lot of options. Many new universities have come up in the country and in West Bengal with great performing art curriculums at the undergraduate level. Presidency University is among them. Ambedkar University, Rabindra Bharati University, Visva-Bharati, Hyderabad University, Ashoka University and Shiv Nadar University have interesting performing arts courses.
Performing with passion makes your art form more than just entertainment. If you want to give your art a voice, your performance has to align with your reality. It is about feeling and celebrating together, and not about practicing and becoming a good, independent dancer. We are groups, not individuals, and we have always learned to live together.
People who want to understand the history of the art form and bring practice and research together are always welcome to the field.
If you want to practice a dance form like Kathak, you will need an undergraduate degree in it. However, if you do fit this criterion and don’t want to practice, you can opt for a postgraduate degree in dance studies where you will learn about the history, philosophy, ethnography and analysis of dance, along with a focus on dance for cinema. This involves the filming of dances, the interaction of the camera, body and space, and workshops on the body to help you slowly ease into space where your practice and research speak to each other.
Art is about ideas and creativity. There is nothing you can’t do if you want to do it.
Tanusree Shankar, principal teacher, Tanusree Shankar Dance Academy
There are a lot of opportunities today to pursue dance or any other art form, which we didn’t have in our time.
To pursue any art, you need your family’s support. Middle-class families usually have a preference for salaried jobs as they are more secure. But if you have the talent, pursue it till the end as there is no shortcut to success.
The key to pursuing any performing art is the desire to learn from a comprehensive and dedicated source. You can’t learn acting from films or YouTube. You have to be completely in love with the art form because there are hardships here like in any other job, and the opportunity is for you to grab.
Earlier, there were organisations that would patronise art and culture. The revival of this tradition is essential today. The performing arts may not seem economically viable but you have to take the risk. Be patient and persistent.
It is important to not feel claustrophobic by the current situation. We have started online classes and students are participating from the smallest of spaces. Enroll in whichever class you can do online as it will refresh you for the whole week.
Prof. Manoshi Roy Chowdhury, co-chairperson, Techno India Group
The passion for music and dance keeps you connected throughout your life. Multidisciplinary activities such as music and dance not only help students do things they are passionate about but also build their confidence. Skills acquired in these subjects also help students to work in a team, enhance creativity, and give them a platform to be innovative and put forth their original ideas.
People are spending more hours in front of their screens and with the advent of OTT platforms, there are many more opportunities and spaces for performing arts students to explore. Moreover, people in this field can also build their own start-ups or academies as many musicians and dancers. Take the chance.
Parents should understand the importance of their children’s passion and let them listen to their hearts. It is our duty as educationists to convince parents that degrees and marks aren’t the only important things. You have to understand the child’s talent and interest, because only when they love what they do can they give their best.
Saayoni Ghosh, actress
Passion is the power you feel when you focus on something that excites you. I became an actor because the lights, camera, people on the set and hours of creative discussion to create magic on the screen gave me a lot of joy.
Education is definitely important but when you hit an obstacle, you have to make a choice. I was 18 when I had to choose between a film and my books. I took a risk and chose the former, which is why I am on this panel today. Choices are very important and determine your future. Self-analysis is also crucial.
Skill development is also very important, and you need to know the techniques of the trade. For this, you can either do a course from an institute or learn on the field.
The film industry needs professionals — be it in the technical department, makeup, hairstyling, editing, or camerawork. This is not a parallel profession anymore but a very solid industry and a world of its own. If you are talented and know who you want to be, you can make it in entertainment.
If you want to technically or academically pursue filmmaking, graduation is important, and government-registered institutes like FTII Pune are extremely good in imparting quality knowledge. You should write scripts, read books, explore the technical aspects of the camera and observe the little details of life around you to sharpen your skills and prepare.
Watch good films. Do not restrict yourself to a genre, devour cinema of all regions and styles. You have to find out what kind of cinema appeals to you. Originality is very important. But if you find the style and mannerisms of an actor resonating with you, study him or her. Be natural in your performance.
The beauty of this art form is that there is no age cap on an acting career. If your parents don’t want you to act now, keep it as your Plan A and work on it independently while focusing on Plan B.
The web has been a huge revolution in providing everyone with a broadcasting platform like YouTube and Netflix to showcase their talent and monetise it. Apart from artistic knowledge, you also need to have a business perspective today as it isn’t just filmmaking, but project-making. You need to bring the right project to the right platform to monetise it.
Piya Chakraborty, secretary, Health and Ecodefence Society (Moderator)
We live in a competitive world where being able to afford a specific lifestyle has governed our career choices. Reality often makes the pursuit of a passion a privilege and reduces it to a hobby, only meant to be pursued on weekends and vacations.
We also live in a world of increasing opportunities and shifting ideas of profession and vocation. Performing arts is a field that is often considered to be peripheral to mainstream opportunities, but it is not.
There is a very important role that entrepreneurship plays in this field as modern-day entrepreneurs are incorporating more people with a performing arts background into their setups. Universities and colleges are also providing specialised training programmes to prepare students to step into this world.
Last updated on 17 Sep 2020
