Kalāsangama- The Untold Story of the Silk Road

Over the course of the past 2 years I have been developing this multi-interdisciplinary dance production titled -Kalāsangama translated as Union by Art.

What inspired me to develop this idea?

To start this topic one should first understand my background. I was born in a middle class family in the city of Beijing, China. My father worked at Xinhua news agency (a government run news agency), my mother worked as nurse at a hotel. My parents are both educated, my dad completed 4 years college while my mom I think completed 2 years (I am not quite sure). Considering the time period they were born into, this is a high status. Both side of my family were members of the communist party. I was brought up to be studious, do well in school and get a good job. As a child, I was always an individualist thinker, I never immediately agreed to abide to any rules. I always questioned why and always did things that I like even though it was against the rules most times. I was never afraid to challenge other people, but I faced a lot of physical and verbal abuse and public humiliation in elementary school, and in boarding school (I went to boarding school when I was pre school age, maybe 4 or 5, my parents worked 6 days a week and were unable to take care of me). I suffered mental and physical abuse in boarding school. In elementary school, I was publicly shamed and humiliated by my math teacher all the time, I was made to stand up in front of the whole class while the teacher claimed I was so stupid, and my brain was nothing but a mush of noodles. Those humiliation and shaming scared me for life, at home my mom also compared me to other kids who did academically better than me and she constantly complained about my skin being too dark, my nose too small and my legs too chubby. Those primitive years in a child's life was built around criticism, humiliations and constant comparison, and it dug a hole in me psychologically.

In school I was extremely hardworking with my studies even though some subject matters I could not do well like Math, Chemistry or Physics. I tried my very best in most the subject matters and I only managed to excel in English with the support of my English teacher in Middle school who truly believed in me. I could never forget him, he saw potentials in me while I didn't. He pulled me out from back of the class to the front, so I could see better and focus better, he made me pronounce the words correctly and corrected me when I did it wrong, I think part of the reason my English is very good with minimal accents is because of him.

Long story short, in 2004 I came to the US for further studies and never looked back to where I came from as I could not come to terms with the culture and country that scarred me for life. I turned everything against my own culture, stopped speaking the language and built a resentment and hatred around it because I could after coming here. I have finally gotten away from the shackles and I am finally free.

I went to college and was working successfully in tech then in 2008 was my first encounter and dance class. I was tagging along for a martial arts class and heard loud middle eastern music next door and was very intrigued. I decided to take bellydance, and I did bellydance for 12 years. When I was doing bellydance, I also co-trained other styles including Ballet, contemporary, Bhangra, Bollywood. When I was doing semi-classical Bollywood is when I discovered Indian classical dance like Bharatanatyam and Kathak, I fell in love with the music immediately and decided to take Bharatanatyam classes, and it has been unstoppable 11 years of journey so far.

The early years of training was not a straight road, I first went to a local school here and trained there for 6 months, but I didn't like the quality of training, I left and found a new teacher who one of my friends recommended, I stayed with her for 5.5 years until my appetite became too big that she wasn't able to feed what I was looking for, again I found myself looking for another teacher, that's when I met Smt. Roja Kannan akka during the pandemic when I was taking online workshops with her. Our relationship had deepened as akka saw my thirst and dedication for learning. In 2023 I started training Karanas under the guidance of Dr. Padma Subramanyam. In 2024, I visited Beijing after a 5 years gap, that's when I discovered Dunhuang dance. I saw many connections and similarities between the 2 dance styles which got me curious about the connections and history of where Dunhuang dance came from.

Being an non indian self-made Bharatanatyam dancer, I saw many connections between the two cultures, however most people who are in these 2 cultures are only able to see within their own culture and unable to see or maybe lack interest of fundamental understanding of the other culture. There should be a bridge and no one can be that voice besides me since I learned Bharatanatyam, been to India many times and was brought up in China. The idea of Kalāsangama was born, the idea evolved a bit over the course of 6 months, but I started doing research and compiled my findings and research into interesting findings and further strengthened my idea. I started writing the script, as time moved on, it turned into a 40 pages dance script. At the time I had no funding for this project and I knew this project would take money, I started a fundraising page and I casually applied for a few grants, luck has it, I won both grants in the amount of $1000 and $5000 along with some donations. I had enough money to get music composed. My search for lyrics translator and music composer began. I first contacted a few musicians and music composers, either the fees were too high or the timeline was not working for me. I asked Roja akka if she knew anyone and she recommended Sukanya, I contacted Sukanya, and she showed so much enthusiasm in the beginning, without hesitation I knew she was the one for this project. Roja akka suggested one of her disciples - Shruthi Buvaneshwari to translate the lyrics into Sanskrit. From there on the project took off.

Let's come back to what is Kalāsangama. Kalāsangama was born out of the idea of connecting the two great ancient civilizations: India and China and how one civilization has ultimately influenced another through the spread of Buddhism from India to China. Monks from China traveled via the silk road through western part of China to Central Asia then to current day Kashmir then through Mathura, Shravasti, Lumbini, Vaishali, Kaushambi, Bodh Gaya, then Rajgir where Nalanda University was. There are primarily 3 monks who contributed to the spread of Buddhism, the first one who traveled there was Fa Xian during the Jin dynasty, followed by Xuang Zang and Yijing during the Tang Dynasty.

Now the production is about Buddhist Jataka tales, how do the Jataka tales has anything to do with the monks? The monks who studied at Nalanda university eventually returned to China via the silkroad except for Yijing he traveled back via southeast Asia. On the way back from India, they stopped in Duhuang on the western part of China, if you know about Dunhuang, you know about the famous Buddhist Cave in Dunhuang. Now what do the cave has to do with the monks? Research has proven that the monks stopped and rested in Dunhuang and left some of their manuscripts there. Over a period of time, the paintings were painted by monks, scholars, locals and perhaps other contributors and there are many parallel stories of the Buddhist Jataka tales you can find in Ajanta caves as well as Dunhuang caves. This is where Dunhuang dance came from, it was re-created from cave paintings. Similarly, Karana was also re-constructed from temple sculptures. I could see striking similarities in terms of hasta mudras and some leg and foot placement.

After years of traveling between India and China, I've observed that both countries share common motifs, mystical creatures, traditional values, societal structures, and family values. Despite these similarities, there are still gaps and misunderstandings. Few people truly grasp the historical connections between the two. This realization inspired the idea of creating something to bridge these gaps by exploring their shared history and origins.

Kalāsangama serves not just as a dance production but as a cultural dialogue and a bridge between two ancient civilizations. Its purpose is to convey history and educate people about their shared heritage. Kalāsangama represents a union through art, and I believe it is the first production created solely to foster unity and understanding through the perspective of Buddhism.