The revival of DWANDWA (Conflict), a musical dance drama based on the predicament of two characters from Mahabharata, is a perfect tribute to late director Chetan Datar's belief in the Rang-Nritya idiom. DWANDVA was among Datar's first efforts to pool creative resources with dancers Vaibhav Arekar and Rajashree Shirke. It was an effort to arrive at a style of expression in which a director took conscious refuge in mythology with the help of Bharatanatyama and Kathak exponents. Together they replaced a conventional verbose narrative with visually appealing dance sequences. The dancers discovered a performance space that was otherwise alien to them.

DWANDVA rests on two eternal conflicts in the Mahabharata - Amba's rebellion against a patriarchal system that disallows her to marry a man of her choice; Shikhandi's uprising against his own parents who played with his sexuality. On the surface, it is a known chapter from an epic. But Datar, Shirke and Arekar have raised several contemporary concerns by using Amba and Shikhandi as metaphors. Just as Amba could be any woman who demands her personal space, Shikhandi could be any man breaking male-stereotypes; a man unable to accept the warped ideal of manhood. With minimal props and a supporting cast of dancers, DWANDVA moves forward as a chat between the nati and sutradhar. Three actors alternate themselves as several characters in the epic, thereby creating the mythological aura by way of dance, music and dialogues.

DWANDVA was first mounted in 2000 under the aegis of Awishkar and Lasya Dance Academy. The creative synergy between a contemporary theatre director and two classical dancers was striking. This collaborative spirit manifested itself in other experiments like MATA HIDIMBA and PRATIBIMB. To a certain extent, Datar's last play GIRIBALA (characterised by Arekar's footwork), was also part of the same journey that the trio had embarked on.

On March 7, 2009, eight months after Datar's death, Arekar and Shirke performed DWANDVA with the same creative synergy that reminded the audience of earlier experiments. The two dancers also seemed to relive moments of their unfinished work. ''Yes it was an emotional juncture. At every step, we were reminded of the ways in which we rehearsed and recognized each other's inputs. There were times when we substituted a bunch of paras with a terrific dance sequence, whereas there were times when Chetan convinced us of interspersing dance with theatrical action,'' recalls Arekar. He says a periodical restoration of plays like PRATIBIMB, DWANDVA and MATA HIDMBA is needed - not just as a tribute to a particular director who died young, but because these performances underline the creative possibilities in the performing arts. ''Collaboration paves the way for optimum artistic expression - an expression that is intelligible to the common man, a voice that talks reason, sense and peace.'' Arekar and Shirke intend to carry forward this legacy of collaboration. They are likely to mount GANDHARI/KUNTI VILAP and Kafka's 'Metamorphosis', two projects that had been spelt out by Datar in his last days.

Of course it is not easy for Arekar and Shirke to sustain their experiments in these financially unstable days. It is obvious that their belief in experimentation and their search for a new idiom motivates them to mount newer plays. Theatre groups like Awishkar form a core support team that encourages and often co-produces these experiments. But the rising production costs, auditorium costs and advertisement demands are daunting prospects. ''These experiments spring from our personal passion, they are funded by the money we generate as dancers. But no complaint since every passion has a price...'' explains Arekar.

*The writer is a Media Assistant with the Public affairs Section of the American Centre, Mumbai. A keen observer of theatre and other Performing Arts, she is a freelance writer and a journalism teacher at the Xavier's Institute of Communications (XIC). She also writes a fortnightly column on Marathi theatre trends for Time Out Mumbai.