Dance Studio

Dance Studio: "Devmudra - a movement school for encouraging and propogating Classical dances and Indian Culture was started in Aurangaabd in September 2007 by an eminent Bh..."

Dance and Art of Being


A famous painter Paul Klee once said “Drawing for me is taking a line for a walk”.What do we feel when we look at the great sculptures carved deep in mountain facades all over our country. When we visit Ellora, it is a great revelation. The bodies in the stone become so lyrical and live and living as if they will break into a resplendent ensemble. They have just stopped because people around are staring at them. The moment they go, they will continue with the sublime joy.Our body is in its constant movement, even while we are sleeping, we are in this process of constructing poses of dance. The way we walk, everybody’s gait is unique and beautiful.
Even if it is not for any audience, a woman bringing water in earthen pots one on her head other clinging to her waist, her walking is much more graceful than any catwalk.
Many a times in literature, in cinema or in a painting we’ll find it so attractive. What attracts us is the body. What attracts us is the body in motion. It reminds us of the thought coined by the great aesthecian Kant “Beauty is autonomous” about autonomy and beauty.These beautiful movements are scattered everywhere. We don’t call them dance; we generally don’t notice the moving train, waving heads of the trees, flowers moving on the light breeze, grass. We generally talk about music, but we see things first and then hear according to science. The movement is prior to sound and movement is dance, so what attract us is the movement and then the sound.In nature, we see the dancing of thundering before we actually hear it. The visual impact of any art form is the quintessential part of its beauty. When we consider the sound the dancing of the notes makes it more attractive and has greater impact on the listener. Every atom has electrons dancing around incessantly. This eternal dance of life is beyond time and space.We don’t need to take our body for a walk because it is constantly in the state of dancing in all possible bodily endeavours. When we are not dancing for the world, we are dancing for ourselves and when we neither dance for ourselves nor for the world then our dance is one with the universal being. It sounds bit spiritual but have you ever imagined a sportsperson in terrible pain yet giving his or her best that is the time his performance becomes celestial.
It is a dance of life. An infant’s gestures so very meaningless yet so charming and bewitching because the performer is unaware of what he or she is performing.In our lives, we are constantly performing these movements. It is believed with little training, interest and enthusiasm one can add so much grace and beauty to our daily life. We should never forget our face is seen before we speak. Your hands tell the world before you actually give or take anything. Let’s try adding a touch of grace to all these movements.Any of Indian Classical dance forms have rich repertoire of these movements for young as well as the old. This treasure handed over to us by our age old rich heritage and culture can add great amount of dexterity to our daily life. We don’t need to pretend once it goes into the body, body starts obeying the commands. These are well researched scientific and body friendly movements. They help our body to use the movements with economy and put them to optimum use. One can start any day, sooner the better. It adds value to our being.
By V Soumyasri (The writer is a Bharata Natyam & Kuchipudi danseuse, choreographer and teacher. She has her Institute Devmudra – a movement school in Aurangabad, She is also visiting faculty in Drama Dept., Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathawada University. She is a research scholar and writes articles for newspapers, dance journals and dance portals regularly, can be contacted at devmudra2007@gmail.com)

1 role of dance

  “Dance is the most immediate and accessible of the arts because it involves

your own body. When you learn to move your body on a note of music, it's

exciting. You have taken control over your body, and by learning to do that,

you discover that you can take charge of your own life." An expression by

Jacques D' Amboise that is so poignant, that it sets you thinking. 

How true the above passage depicts the expression – dance.

When one rejoices a happy moment or mourns some loss, the body shows it all. The body of

any moving objects, whether a human being, an animal, a bird or even man made machines

looks beautiful in movement because it has a sense of rhythm. The way we breathe, walk,

everything we do unconsciously is set to rhythm.

Our culture is rich and unique and what other than dance to understand it. There is a saying

That goes, to understand Indian Culture, study dance.

It holds testimony to our culture because when you study Indian dance, you have to study

everything from music to drama to sculpture to traditions to spirituality, nowhere will you

get such a subject which covers such a vast geography of knowledge. To top it all, you get a

healthy body and alert mind because dance is yoga, a complete health and mind retreat.

Science is curiosity about life, Art is wonder at life, Philosophy is an attitude towards life

and Religion is reverence for life. These four aspects reflect true culture and one has to

acquire little of each one of them to enrich their lives apart from just slogging at work for food

and other material requirements. A Chinese proverb says: "If you have two loaves of bread,

sell one and buy a lily," implying that attention should not be paid only on acquisition of food,

drink and wealth, but also on the development of your aesthetic nature.

 

Therefore it is only obvious that education in aesthetics is as essential if not more as mere

intellectual or physical education.  How can we forget something so important from our

education system?  The real object of education is to develop human personality in all its

aspects. And man has his intellect, physical as well as emotional requirements.  Indian classical dance has

been unanimously considered as one of the most complete and comprehensive forms of dance

in the world. Indian dance is an in-depth experience - physically, mentally and emotionally.

Classical dance has been understood to stimulate several technical and non-technical skills that

include the abilities to observe acutely, think spatially, to identify the essential components of

a complex whole and to synthesize and communicate the results of one's thinking - visually,

verbally and mathematically.

But the question is how the classical dance with it traditional values, vigorous and austere

technique can take place in today’s times with so much modernization and westernization in

our so called fast-paced lives? How is Indian classical dance helpful in today’s education

and its curriculum? Tradition is always changing and flowing, so one has to take the best

from it and implement in our modern world, the right mix of the old with the new.

Dance education in schools and colleges is important because it develops kinesthetic

intelligence. When students receive dance education, they accumulate information and

learn ways of thinking that complement other subjects. Some students with exposure to

dance in their schools, go on to obtain pre-professional training needed to become successful

dancers or to have dance related careers which is very happening in today’s times with lot of

opportunities pouring in the form of many avenues - choreography, performing, teaching etc.,

Dance education can be offered in a variety of methods. Students can get a brief taste of the

dance forms by way of lecture-demonstrations or small, simple workshops.

In the curricular context, classical dance may be a subject on its own or a component within

other subjects like Music, History, Literature or Language. It would be interesting to see

how we could interweave dance into Science and Mathematics too. Creating and performing

dances is one critical component but a majority of students on to dance as a career. Therefore,

a broad approach to dance instruction in schools allows students to absorb information

according to their capabilities and levels of interest. This helps in generating a complete

awareness about the dance forms and culture at the school level itself and when they

represent our country at Universities abroad, an informed and intelligent representative

is the ambassador of our country. 

To end my article which I hope will inspire some atleast to take up dance or study dance,

I would like to quote a phrase from the Natya Shastra, a treatise on Indian dance, music

and drama that dates back to nearly two thousand years. The author Bharatha says: 

Na Tath Gnaanam, Na Tath Shilpam,  Na Saa Vidyaa, Na Saa Kalaa, 

Na Sow Yogo, Na Tath Karma, Natyesmin Yannadrushyathe 

There is no wisdom or knowledge, no art, no craft, no device or action that is not

found in Natya. 

 

By

V Soumyasri (Bharata Natyam /Kuchipudi danseuse)

Devmudra – a movement school,

Email: devmudra2007@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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