Culture

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 endeavors. 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. 

V Soumyasri 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

30-Aug-2008

More by :  V. Soumyasri

Top | Culture

Views: 3485      Comments: 0





Name *

Email ID

Comment *
 
 Characters
Verification Code*

Can't read? Reload

Please fill the above code for verification.