Dance Trance by Sandip Soparrkar

We have often seen people who follow Hindu religion taking up various forms of Indian classical dances. Later after many years of training and learning they also perform various stories from the great Indian mythological tales. It is rather unusual to find a person from Christian background drawn to a dance form that is mostly practiced and performed by people of Hindu faith.

Today I am talking about a very special person who only follows the religion of Dance. Raul Felix D'souza is one dynamic dancer who has been into Indian classical dance Bharatnatyam for over 4 decades and performs the character of Lord Krishan like no one does. It is even more unusual to know that he received his initial training from catholic priest Dr Francis Barboza and then advanced learning from Guru Dr. Deepak Mazumdar. To top it all he is married to Mitali who is an accomplished Odissi dancer trained under the guidance of Guru Jhelum Paranjape, Padma Vibhushan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and Ratikant Mohapatra and their two lovely teenage daughters too follow the footsteps of their dancing parents, this is indeed a rare dancing family that India should be proud of.                 

While I caught up with Raul and Mitali and their pretty daughters Diya and Risa, all I could see was passion and love for the art of dance.

How did Bharatanatyam become a part of your life?

Raul – I was a typical Christian boy, who was very fond of Jive, Cha Cha Cha and Waltz. Then one day I met my Guru Dr Francis Bardoza who was a priest at the church I used to visit in Bandra and my life totally changed. He introduced me to Bharatnatyam and soon I was performing with him in India and abroad. Switzerland was the first country I performed in and then I travelled to Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Italy and Austria for shows and that drew me further into the world of dance. After Dr Bardoza left India, I joined Guru Dr. Deepak Mazumdar and that is when my advance training happened in Bharatnatyam. What I learnt from Deepak sir was totally magical as he is a box of knowledge. It was only later when I married Mitali that we started to perform using two different dance forms Bharatnatyam and Odissi.   

How was it to break Christian mindsets of people around you to learn a non-Christian Dance?

Raul – I personally never wanted to break or change any mindset. My only prayer was that when I dance, people are touched by it and do not think of it as a dance of a particular religion as a hurdle. When I am on stage, I am not Raul – A Catholic. One has to be immersed in character, enriching the audience from whatever background race, religion or opinion they may have. When I perform Krishna with Smt Hema Maliniji in her ballet Radhakrishna, as an artist I need to play the character of Krishna and not Raul.

How difficult or easy is it to be together and yet practice two different dance forms?

Mitali - Dance is Universal – it is a language of love and expressing our feelings & emotions. In these challenging times it has given us, our family of artiste an opportunity to share our experience and reach out in unique ways to audiences irrespective of age, religion, gender and culture; where all can come together.

Raul - We initially thought it may be a challenge but it was Deepak sir who pushed us and choreographed some interesting pieces for us and with time it became an opportunity for us to reach out. Differences are man-made and the more we started performing together, we realised the beauty of how our styles complimented each other.

While setting up a choreography what kind of difference do you both have?

Mitali - The fact that we are male & female – lead to a beautiful combination and complement each other. We can depict -Shiv Parvati, Radha Krishna and so many other jodis maintaining our own respective, distinct dance styles. My Odissi, a graceful dance with sculptural poses, torso movements and Raul’s Bharatanatyam with its straight geometrical lines blended the differences into a picture-perfect presentation. My guru Smt. Jhelum Paranjape has been instrumental in guiding us through this journey along with Deepak ji.

Raul - The blend of music helped us to adapt to innovative items, which contained Hindustani, Carnatic and other temporary music.

Sometimes our conflicting views may have been an obstacle in our presentation, however this gives us an opportunity to be open, respectful and yet come together keeping our differences aside.

What forms are your daughters learning?

Mitali - Our daughters Diya, 19 and Risa 15 years have been learning under my guidance. Raul does not teach dance and I have my own dance school so they learn under me. Both the girls used to accompany us for all our shows and soon I started teaching them Odissi and they have continued to enjoy performing the Odissi Style. I feel thrilled that they want to learn Odissi with me and wait to perform with Raul.

As a family of all dancers, how you plan to bring the change?

Mitali – For us Dance is a prayer, a sadhana, a spiritual experience. Dance consists of 3 E’s – a medium to Educate, Entertain and Enlighten the audience. Our aim has always been to embrace each other’s differences and reach out to everyone. One of our dance pieces ‘Ekla Chalo’ communicates the message, not to be fearful to carve your own path or English song, to cover the world with love.

Raul - Mitali has been facilitating dance to all age groups. She has class for senior citizens ‘Graceful Legends’ where her youngest student is 85 years, ‘Inspiring Moms’ which has only moms and then she has her ‘Enthusiastic Teens & Odissi Champs’ where her youngest batch with students are as tiny as 5 years.

D'souza family proves that dance indeed has no religion and no language. Dance belongs to only those who surrender their lives to master the art and what flows out is excellence. With the blessing of their gurus when this dancing family steps on stage they are truly enchanting and mesmerising.