Step by step: Dance performances banned

Lahore Arts Council (LAC) has banned dance performances in stage plays, terming them vulgar and obscene.

LAHORE: Choreography, you say the word and the first few images that come to your mind are of film and live stage performances. The rule, however, doesn’t work when it comes to choreographers in Pakistan who are often taken for granted or are rarely trusted to do their job independently.

Recently the Lahore Arts Council (LAC) banned dance performances in stage plays, terming them vulgar and obscene and the stage producers and directors hastened to condemn the decision. However, the major stakeholders, choreographers, were approached by neither the LAC nor the producers to work out a middle way and find solutions to the problem.

With very few films being made in Pakistan, choreographers already have very limited choices left and many are shifting either towards fashion shows to do choreography or giving their expertise for different advertisement commercials. The critics believe that the trend will result in lowering the dance standards in stage productions rather than improving their quality.

Choreographers, on the other hand, say that they are not given the chance to show off their talent and quite often, the music that they are asked to dance on is not appropriate.

Pappu Samrat, one of the most prominent celebrated choreographers in Lollywood, believes that choreographers are not employed the right way by the directors in stage production and films. Samrat has spent 26 years in the field of choreography and hails from Samrat family which has a history of dance. He says that if the lyrics of a song are not proper, a choreographer can do nothing. “Do you think banning dances in stage productions is a solution to the problem? Why do we want to ban everything instead of correcting it? If dances are vulgar in stage productions, make a committee that can talk to the choreographers and directors. Give the choreographer a decent song and music and he will give you a proper dance performance. Directors want item numbers in every play and there is hardly any dance in the performances. It’s more like showing yourself off. Correct its flaws and you will have no need to ban it,” he said.

Samrat said that many choreographers were either doing choreography for commercials or for fashion shows, adding that nothing could match a live performance featured in the stage productions.

Sonu Dangerous, a young choreographer who is working for several television shows, said he loved doing choreography for stage plays but directors never entrusted him to do what he actually wanted to do.

“Normally, a girl dances and the male singers follow her in the background. Dance is considered something very inferior and directors give it no attention or importance,” he said.

“There are strange codes of conduct for dance performances in stage plays. A girl cannot wear jeans and a shirt even if she is covered from head to foot. But the policymakers don’t consider that, many times shalwar kameez’s are more revealing than western attire. They need to make rules which make sense and directors must trust the choreographers judgement,” he added.

Sonu said that he loved doing choreography for stage plays, adding that many choreographers were shifting to Karachi from Lahore to work for private television production. “There aren’t many films being made in Lollywood and in stage plays you have to face many limitations. Many private television channels are doing dance competitions and programmes in which young choreographers are working. The dances are not vulgar, which means that choreographers can do good work,” he said.

Jabbar Ahmad, another Lahore-based choreographer, said that vulgarity from stage dances cannot be removed until the choreographers are given good music.

“When English plays are staged at the LAC, nobody complains about vulgarity in dances. Why? It’s because choreographers are trusted to their job and they do it well. I don’t say that all Punjabi songs have objectionable lyrics but the majority of them have. Banning dances will not work but trusting the choreographer to properly choreograph will make a difference,” he maintained.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2011.