A danseuse's tryst with India

PASSING BY

One hardly remembers what one witnessed at the age of three but this was not the case with Wendy Jehlen who saw her aunt perform Bharatanatyam and decided to become a dancer. It took her another four years to find a teacher.

Today, she is an accomplished contemporary choreographer in dance forms such as Capoeria and West African dance yet maintains, “Bharatanatyam is my first love.”

She blends this classical form with dances from across the globe in an attempt to weave together music, dance and story-telling. Something that she accomplished during her performance of  The Knocking Within at the recently concluded 14th Bharat Rang Mahotsav.

The times are different now than they were when she first visited the country. “The first time I came to India in 1995 when I was invited to do a project in folk and classical dance,” says Wendy who was a 21-year-old graduation student then. Following her heart Wendy came to India to learn and perform in the villages around Ranchi. “We were  performing in front of a completely different audience and the performances went on all night.” A US national, Wendy comes to the City on an off for different projects.

But it was not normal for her to perform for an audience that had a different perspective. “Women performers got treated very differently in Indian villages. The first time I was rendering Saraswati vandana, the audience kept whistling. This is inappropriate because I was performing a pooja but what they saw was a white woman on stage,” she recalls.

The incident shocked her because, “In the US, women dancers are not considered to be of low moral character. US used to be like this 50 years back but it has changed now while India is still in the process,” shares Wendy who didn't take it as a negative experience. “In US, it is very difficult to get the audience to see a performance but whenever we perform in India, we always get a full house. This shows that though there are more people here who respect performing art.” 

While in college, she met and married musician Nandlal Nayak and is now a proud mother of two daughters. Between her rehearsals, she gives priority to her kids who learn through making scrap books on their trips.  “My focus is my work and children and I spend a lot of time with both but keeps me engrossed is my translation work which I do for a living,” informs Wendy who translates books for hearing impaired in American sign language.”

She will soon leave India to visit other countries to learn other dance forms and return in November for a major production. “Right now, I am continuing my learning of Kalaripayattu and will be back here for two projects – one on human relationships by using Quantum Physics and the other on Rani of Jhansi. The latter is being composed by Sred Ho, the renowned contemporary composer who likes the subject of women warriors.”