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Dances of India
Dance and Art of
Being
by V. Soumyasri
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.
By 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
August 30,
2008
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