Germantown resident Madhusmita Bora, 38, who has covered real estate, technology, crime and immigration for publications such as St. Petersburg Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Indianapolis Star, is trying to save the ancient art form of Sattriya.

by Len Lear 

Germantown resident Madhusmita (“Maddie”) Bora, 38, says the best advice she ever received was: “To be a good artist, you have to be first a good person, daughter, wife, mother and friend.”

Bora is definitely all of that. Regarding the artist part, the freelance writer and adjunct professor of English at Lincoln University is on a mission to save the ancient art form of Sattriya.

In 15th century Assam, a state in northeastern India, there lived a social and religious reformer, Srimonto Sankardev, who challenged the ruling priest class of Brahmins by advocating for an equal and just society and against the caste system; preaching the adoption of monotheism through worship of Vishnu alone.

To promote his teachings, he developed one-act plays that told stories based mostly on Vishnu. The dance form of Sattriya accompanied these plays and evolved into its own separate art form, still telling the same stories. Bora has visited the island of Majuli in northeastern India several times, which is located in the Brahmaputra River in Assam, and a visitor needs to take a ferry to get there. Each time Bora reluctantly boards it.

The first time she rode on it, she remembers, the 75-person capacity boat had 375 people on board and was riding very low in the water. Three steps led down to an overcrowded cabin with the windows boarded over. She spent the entire trip standing on one leg. Above deck were squeezed two cars and a bunch of goats, cows and other animals. There were no life jackets, and the river was deep.

While the trips are dangerous, Bora’s end goal is always worth the risk to her because Sattriya is under attack from geographical, social and political changes. Sattriya is Maddy's heritage. Born and raised in Assam, she grew up to the rhythms of this incredible art form practiced routinely at her village prayer house. Growing up in Madhabgaon, an Indian village named after Sattriya creator Sankardev's foremost disciple, she grew up watching her uncles, aunts and neighbors perform in the local festivals and made her debut as a dancer before she turned 4.

Her father's political leanings made the family assassination targets, and she eventually had to leave her hometown and the state. But Sattriya tugged at her heartstrings wherever she went. Describing her early connections to this tradition, Maddy has written, "At an age when young girls are fascinated with dolls and make-up, I began flirting with the rhythms of the drum and cymbals. I grew up watching my uncles, aunts and neighbors perform in the local festivals.”

Maddy has dedicated much of her life to building awareness in Philadelphia and elsewhere about the Sattriya dance and the threats it faces. Other goals are to inspire more women to embrace the dance and sustain the traditional forms of this art.

Maddy has trained under Guru Ram Krishna Talukdar, one of the foremost exponents of Sattriya in India and Kathak Guru Janaki Patrik of New York. She has performed widely at venues in India and the U.S. such as the ISKCON temple in Mt. Airy and the Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in New York City. She and her sister-in-law, Prerona Bhuyan, are co-directors of Sattriya Dance Company, the only professional Sattriya company in the U.S.

For example, in the past year she has performed in New York, Boston, several venues in Philadelphia and Indianapolis. She also performed in India on Nov. 20, where she received an award for her efforts to preserve Sattriya.

The Indianapolis performance on Oct. 10 was a collaboration with Philadelphia artist Annielille Gavino Kollman.

“Annie and I presented at the same space last year,” said Maddy, “and we bonded over our immigrant experience, our children and passion for the arts. This year, we created ‘When The River Meets The Sea.’

“The work in progress explores gender, creation and identity issues and experiments with the intersection of Western modern movement and Indian classical movement. We are presenting it again twice next month.”

Despite the odds against her, Maddy has become more optimistic about the survival of Sattriya. “We have been able to make a mark in Philadelphia and elsewhere,” she said.

“Sattriya is an acrobatic, exciting form of dance. You have to do headstands and backbends and all sorts of difficult moves. There are 72 exercises you do to make your body more flexible; they are the grammar of Sattriya.”

Maddie is much more than a talented dancer. She came to the U.S. in 1999, when she joined Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism as a master's student. As a newsroom reporter, Maddie has covered real estate, retail, technology, crime and immigration. She has written for publications such as the St. Petersburg Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Indianapolis Star.

For more information, visit www.sattriyadancecompany.com. To see several of the dances, search for Madhusmita Bora on www.youtube.com