The concept of creativity fermenting into original perfection over time first resonated with this writer on reading an essay. It was from the book, This I Believe, and was called An Athlete of God. In her discourse, Martha Graham — who we know for adding contraction and release in percussive ballet techniques — communicated how learning to dance by practising dancing or learning to live by ‘living’ follows the same value-based rule — practice. We perform a set of acts towards an endeavour and from that “comes a sense of one’s being”.

We were pulled back to this unifying rule, when Bharatnatyam exponent Malavika Sarukkai explained that her response to life in a dispirited stretch found words in dance itself. She seemed to have paved a way back into the world by being a student of dance, again. As Sarukkai completes 50 glorious years in dance, her new solo performance, Anubandh – Connectedness, is a call for hope. The artiste implores her audiences to navigate sorrow and solace through their primordial ties with nature.