These women, quite simply, are dancing their way through life, alongside managing their Indian contemporary dance company that offers varied forms of dance as its products. Only in doing so, the sister duo of Madhuri and Mayuri Upadhya and their team are navigating their way through uncharted territory. Exactly how is that?

Throwing caution to the winds

All successful business persons trust in their product as being the best. It is this innate belief that converts product or service views into buys. Now imagine trying to run an arty business believing that every heartfelt work of art produced (by you or otherwise) has its own uniqueness - and therefore, none may be deemed the best art ever created. Wouldn't it be a tad difficult to excel - in terms of profits - with such a magnanimous attitude?

Yet that is exactly what Madhuri and Mayuri believe, and hence maintain that as artists nourished by the community of artists, they are not competing with the rest but are working together as one community.

How then, you may well wonder, does profit and sustainability enter the picture?

Choosing an appropriate business model

Certainly, it was difficult to find a niche for a company that was not aimed to function traditionally, as a centre employing veteran artists to pass on their knowledge and art to junior artists to form a lineage to ensure the continuity of myriad art forms. While the group was certain of the abundance of wealth in art in India, it perceived a definite lack of its packaging and marketing, as well as solid market research and a structured business model for a company dedicated to arts and culture to fall back on.

As a result, much of the going was intuitive. Nevertheless, the duo started out right. Instead of functioning as a sole proprietorship, in the spirit of the collective dance forms that they sought to present, Mayuri established Nritarutya Arts Academy in 2000 as a partnership firm of five dancers each from a different dance and martial arts background. Madhuri functions as associate director - development, Mayuri as the artistic director, Sathyanarayan B G as associate director - creative, Geetha Ballal as administrator, and Umesh Naidu as associate - fitness.

Innovation and team-play as a USP

Today, Madhuri sees this format as a USP, as the entire troupe of 9 main, 10 part-time, 8 children's dancers, 35 freelance dancers and allied artists pull together as a team setting aside their artistic temperaments, working toward the development of Indian contemporary dance. Innovation is also the name of their game (or dance!). Not one but three choreographers simultaneously work on developing three different movement vocabularies. As a result, the company specializes in short, bold, original thematic contemporary dance presentations which are Indian in essence, yet based on a universal movement vocabulary so as to sustain a global interest.

A wide portfolio

Catering to universal tastes has ensured the Nritarutya Arts Academy of a wide dance (read product) portfolio encompassing fixed and touring performances at the national and international level, specially composed dances for the corporate sector like brand and product launches, creating special productions on Indian Mythology and Gods and Goddesses of India for foreign clients, collaborative programs with other artistes, choreography of dances for amateurs and non-dancers, creating new dance sequences, and teaching.

Interestingly, the team offers the corporate sector an array of workshops that use dance as a form of relaxation and to know staff better. For instance, a recent workshop conducted with new recruits was aimed at determining how long each mentally planned to stay with the company. Expert psychologists who watched the workshop proceedings on the side gauged the mindset of each recruit, as the group was put through a series of dance movements.

The partners adhere to a sound business methodology, working on annual and five-year plans and budgets. Business promotional activities include the sale of memorabilia such as calendars, bags and T-shirts; and the exhibition and sale of performance photographs.

Challenging social perceptions of dance

According to Mayuri, "The biggest challenge we face is people's mindset about dance. People harbour preconceived notions about artists, because of which society is very rigid in its ideas on dance." For instance, society has attached a stigma to dance as not being a respectable profession, nor being safe as it involves erratic timings. Parents and partners often forbid girls/women from dancing assuming it will involve physical intimacy with male dancers. On the other hand, young dancers do not take up dance as a career fearing financial instability, or the physical challenge of keeping up with the demands of strenuous dancing.

For the team at Nritarutya Arts Academy, these preconceived notions hamper the recruitment of the right dancers on a long-term basis. It therefore organizes public events to open peoples' minds to the opportunities the field offers.

More than a taste of success

Of course, Nritarutya Arts Academy's successes go a long way in helping to dispel these notions. From rehearsing in any available space for the sheer joy of dancing and creating dance compositions, the team has come a long way. Their popular home production Prayog, now into its third episode has almost become a brand in itself. Prayog is a veritable melting pot of artistes from varied disciplines speaking their heart out through original thematic dance presentations. Madhuri describes the "platform as an opportunity for artists to express themselves freely without having to worry about its commercial quotient or criticism." Even so, the team has managed to apply its experience to convert this free-thinking into a grand commercial success.

Other achievements include collaboration with a Swiss company called 18/0 waterproof, and Mayuri's current work with 80 dancers for a contemporary Bollywood production for the International Birmingham (UK) festival.

At the end of the day, it's pay back time for Madhuri, Mayuri and their team. This desire led to ‘Adhyaya' -a completely self-funded evening of art that has Nritarutya donning the role of an impresario, to take care of the logistics while artists from all over the world present work; the city of Bangalore has never witnessed before.

Not merely dancers, also women entrepreneurs

Interestingly, Madhuri and Mayuri perceive themselves not merely as dancers, but also as woman entrepreneurs. Inspired by stalwarts like Srimati Rukmini Devi who has contributed a lot to the field of dance, they see themselves as applying their talent not merely to propagate Indian culture, but also to identify and improve upon a structure to give their chosen field an impetus to thrive.

Yet doing what you love is not always a lark. Especially when you are a woman performing an act that is synonymous with grace and beauty, the chances of being taken as ‘weak' are higher. So - has being a woman made the going tougher or easier?

Mayuri opines that she now feels ‘very asexual'! "Late nights, meetings, travelling alone nationally and internationally, quick decision-making etc. were all considered very masculine earlier. Today a woman does all these things and much more," she opines. According to Madhuri, being a woman has certainly made the going easier as she feels that women have the shoals of patience, persistence and emotional quotient required to be an entrepreneur.

If such is the case, here's to many more Madhuri's and Mayuri's spinning their way to success!

Charu Bahri is an author, freelance writer, columnist and [part-time] manager - projects and information systems at J Watumull Global Hospital & Research Centre. More about her at http:/ charubahri. googlepages.com

Issue BG86 May 08

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