A Fine Gesture

This story on an American teaching the Indians the dance form which they had ruled for centuries happened when I was sitting at the National School of Drama and taking to Krithi Jain the then director in 1993. So after a lot of phone calls made to Justin I finally managed to tell him that the story which I was working on is trendy and dance related, since he was reluctant to speak to me at the onset.

Dance: US-born Justin McCarthy, who came to India to learn Bharatnatyam, is now teaching Indians nuances of the dance. S Shiv Kumar profiles the guru

A young Justin loved the sound of music and the melodious pounding sounds of the feet – dance, but his parents forced him to learn the piano, and told him that dance is only for girls. It was at the California University that McCarthy, then 15, tried his hands at various dance forms such as ballet – and even karate. He joined the San Francisco Ballet School as a pianist. It was in 1978 that he witnessed a performance of Bharatnatyam by two reputed teachers and also the pupils of he legendary T Balasaraswati, from ‘Under the way of The Dance School’.

He joined the school as a pupil of Lesandre Ayrey and Mimi Janislawaki. After learning the basics for a year, he decided to move to Madras to learn the form completely. Overcoming stiff opposition to the idea from his parents and relatives, he set foot in the land of Natyam, It was in 1979, and he was 23. no sooner did McCarthy reach Madras that he took ill with jaundice, malaria and diarrhea.
However, he soon overcame the setback, and with an artist’s discipline and determination, spent hours every day learning the dance from stage by stage. Like other dancers I did not want to try my luck on the at a early stage during my learning process, which may have result in some people becoming disinterested in your dance.
His cherished moments to date are two group shows performed in Delhi in January 1993, the staging of Madurai Kanchi and Maruduha Attam from Sangam literature, and then later in October the staging of Jalkson Pollock visits Tanjore with five others. He has performed in Germany, Belgium and England where the audience turnout was not upto expectation.
McCarthy refuses to say if he is happy with what he earns teaching Bharatnatyam. “I make some extra bread by giving private piano lessons,” is all he would add.
McCarthy has also learnt Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit. He has no plans of going home for now. “When I set off for India in 1979 I had planned to stay only for five years. People tell me to set up a Bharatnatyam school back home, but I don’t think that will be fruitful ,” he says.