Drawing from different theatrical and dance techniques, Sudarshan Belsare’s Fire to Ice was a powerful artistic creation that used the famous “Draupadi Vastraharan” episode to explore the boundaries and connections of how we value ourselves today. Fire to Ice, presented at the Tower Auditorium on April 9 and 10th was part of Belasare's Master's thesis presentation.

The event began with a video presentation. Said Belsare, “The first part of Fire to Ice is a celebration of the ritual of birth that the goddess is often depicted in. The birthing is perceived as a reflection of the creative phenomena in nature setting its rhythm of creation and destruction.”

The video was followed by a dance-drama presentation in which Belsare gave his interpretation of “Draupadi’s disrobing”. Belsare combined western theatrical techniques and Bharatanatyam to make his presentation. He was ably assisted in this effort by Lau Lapides and Abby Davis. The presentation used Greek Classical Theater technique as a scaffold. The scene essentially started with establishing Draupadi as the wife of the five brothers and coming to Hastinapura. Belsare played the role of Draupadi. He used the folk theater approach of using a mask and hiding behind a screen to establish the main character. He had created the beautiful mask himself. The piece then moved to the scene in the gambling room where Yudhistira stakes everything including his wife and loses.

The drama becomes intense when Draupadi is dragged into court unceremoniously and orders for her disrobing are issued. Her plea for help gets no response from the people present and these include her husbands. In the Mahabharata, it is said that she then surrendered to Lord Krishna who sent the never-ending roll of cloth thus preventing dishonor. But Belsare decided to eliminate that part and instead transformed Draupadi into a vengeful violent blood thirsty Goddess. “Draupadi typifies the metamorphosis of a benign pride to a fierce all-consuming energy. The blood acts an important and potent connecting factor. There are established linkages among the blood in both, the sustenance of life and growth. This blood is also the hallmark of the cult of the Goddess in different cultures,” said Belsare.

All the performers were technically superb. Every movement of Belsare’s was beautiful. The jathis were well executed. The fusion of different styles also happened rather seamlessly. The movements of Davies and Lapides were powerful, clean and well coordinated. But the narration by Davies Lapides was slightly jarring since they did not use a modulated voice to speak but used the shouting voice (perhaps drawn from a specific theatrical technique). Since everything else was classic and stylized it seemed out of place. Their costumes were also a little odd. They stood out in contrast to Belsare, who wore a costume that was simple yet stylized.

The musical accompaniment for the production was provided by David Bentley, Jude Heichelbech and Grant Smith who played non-Indian instruments like the Cello, Harp and African drum. The music for the piece was composed by Hari Krishnan. Belsare recited traditional Bharatanatyam jathis and verses from the Soundarya Lahiri. The music was beautiful. Belsare and the musicians are to be commended on doing such a fine job.

Belsare has embarked upon a challenging task to put so much into the play. It is clear that he is a very sincere and talented artist who tries to attain perfection in every aspect of the dance. To this reviewer however, the appeal was not universal. While the dance movements were beautiful, the underlying meaning of the play did not resonate with the theme. There seemed to be a sort of disconnect and eliminating Krishna from the episode was baffling.

Sudarshan explanations later, demystified the piece. He clarified that he was trying to convey the concept of “empowerment” of women. He also told the audience that his vision was not just to create an artistic presentation but that he wanted to do more work in this area to make a difference. As a symbolic representation of his idea, he invited a local women's support group to participate in the panel discussion.

Congratulations to Sudarshan Belsare for his sincere and well-executed Master's thesis artistic creation.

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