Dance Like A Man at Sky City Theatre

Dance Like A Man combines an ancient dance form with a modern story

Auckland's Diwali Festival offers a great opportunity to taste some of the flavours of India's rich and varied performance traditions. Dance Like a Man is a contemporary Indian play that takes us into the world of Bharatanatyam - an ancient dance form that combines the sacred and the erotic.

The play shows the Bharatanatyam tradition in conflict with a society that is concerned with status, moral propriety and enforcement of rigid gender roles.

Playwright Mahesh Dattani has created a multilayered family saga that deftly switches between time periods as two elderly dancers look back on their life while organising the debut performance of their daughter, also devoted to the Bharatanatyam tradition.

The complexity of the storyline is matched with well-rounded characters and a fluid approach to theatrical forms.

Comedy and tragedy are synthesised in a production that slips between the witty repartee of a Noel Coward-style, drawing-room drama and moments of tragic intensity that are conveyed through stylised gestures drawn from ancient performance traditions.

The explosive intergenerational conflict is a springboard for a critical examination of a number of political issues. The family patriarch is a renowned figure from India's independence struggle but his progressive politics give way to a hypocritical moralism that is exposed by his reaction to the erotic aspects of Bharatanatyam.

Vijay Chishna plays both the manipulative patriarch who sabotages his son's ambitions and the elderly dancer reflecting on his thwarted career.

His wonderfully subtle performance presents a gruff exterior that masks deeply felt emotion. His performance is neatly balanced by the impish energy of Joy Sengupta, who shows great skill in handling the sharply contrasting roles of the passionate young Bharatanatyam dancer and the glibly materialistic son-in-law.

Suchitra Pillai shows great poise and confidence as a young Bharatanatyam dancer and her steely ambition confounds all expectations about gender roles in Indian society.

Lillete Dubey, who starred in Monsoon Wedding, is a compelling presence as the family matriarch whose maternal enthusiasm slowly transforms into jealousy as she realises that her daughter will eclipse her own triumphs.

At a time when Bollywood is shaping the way we look all things Indian, Dance Like a Man offers a refreshing alternative - opening a window on the complexities and contradictions of the Indian experience.