The Artiste and the Wishing Tree

Dance Education is a series of articles that will focus on various aspects of the teaching-learning environment, methodology, practice and more. Bringing together varied perspectives from across regions, ideologies and styles, we hope to encourage an active dialogue about what one might consider to be one of the most significant links between the performing arts and the world at large - the teacher and the taught. ''Perfection is an illusion, we tell ourselves. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, we say. For each one of us, notions of beauty and perfection are defined. Whether we acknowledge it or not, these terms not just get defined but also redefined in our minds and psyche with time. 'Beauty' and 'perfection' seem at first to be words with positive connotations. And that they may be in an objective paradigm. Not so in the real world where definitions of beauty look for examples. These examples become standards of beauty. Having set a standard, the entire ...

  Dance Education is a series of articles that will focus on various aspects of the teaching-learning environment, methodology, practice and more. Bringing together varied perspectives from across regions, ideologies and styles, we hope to encourage an active dialogue about what one might consider to be one of the most significant links between the performing arts and the world at large - the teacher and the taught. The most visible upheaval that the pandemic brought on in the world of performing arts was 'performance'. With a pause forced on live performances, some did move to digital platforms to perform and share their art with audiences. However one soon realised that dance for the screen was very different from dance for a live in-person audience.  Also, for many performers who depended on live performance for sustenance, the angst of an unpredictable future is something that brought them and their families into deep crises. That the arts community and the community ...

"Ini enna pechu irukkidhu po po, ellorukkum nagai paichudu"  What more is there to say- please go. I am the laughing stock of the entire town A woman spurned by her lover and embarrassed by the town gossiping about her being stood up. She is rather upset. "Yaarukkagilum Bhayamaa? Summa sollatum. Idil enna ragasiyamaa - summa sollatum"  Am I to be afraid of anyone? Let them talk. I have no secret to hide - let them talk. A woman out to meet her lover; cares a damn about what the town folk are gossiping.  Two women, rather different from each other. Two songs that are commonly placed in the Bharatanatyam repertoire.  As students of an art form such as Bharatanatyam, we spend several years learning and executing learnt movement and grammar. Exactitude is a virtue only to a certain extent though. A performer comes of age and is accepted as an exponent only when he/she/they can graduate from mere execution of movement and mimicking of character to a space of embodiment. ...

Dance Education is a series of articles that will focus on various aspects of the teaching-learning environment, methodology, practice and more. Bringing together varied perspectives from across regions, ideologies and styles, we hope to encourage an active dialogue about what one might consider to be one of the most significant links between the performing arts and the world at large - the teacher and the taught. Children and adults arrive at the doors of a dance class for multiple reasons. Some children have been fascinated by a performance they watched and want to perform 'just as they saw'. Some walk in to a dance class because their parents see reason to learn and hope that their wards will cultivate interest. Some adults join because it has been an unfulfilled dream or one they let go off. Reasons are of course not limited to these. While the earnest need to learn brings a smile instantly, it is worthwhile to look at what follows this grand entry to dance. What constitute...

Thilagavathi has been away from home helping those stranded by the recent cyclone Nivar. When I am able to get through to her, she has just returned home to have a quick lunch and is heading out again to carry food packets to those who might need it. But she does chat about her journey in a world rather different from this! Thilagavathi's father and uncles were Katti Koothu artistes, carrying their art with them to places near and far. Thilagavathi grew up absorbing the art as it tempered most conversations at home. But her own tryst with the art form as a performer began when she was a mere 11 years old. P. Rajagopal had just opened an Institution to teach and nurture the art form and asked Thilagavathi's father to send her as a student. A few cousins and friends from her native village of Mulawadi in Ranipet district were enrolled to learn the art form at Rajagopal's residential Institute. For someone who grew up with Kattai koothu, Thilagavathi by her own admission was r...

  Dance Education is a series of articles that will focus on various aspects of the teaching-learning environment, methodology, practice and more. Bringing together varied perspectives from across regions,  ideologies and styles, we hope to encourage an active dialogue about what one might consider to be one of the most significant links between the performing arts and the world at large - the teacher and the taught. The classification of dance and music into 'classical' and 'folk' has often come under scrutiny. The basis of such a distinction is sometimes beneficial and sometimes not. The purpose here is of course not to debate the need or not for this distinction but to blur the boundaries so that we may be able to borrow from one pedagogy into the other. It is commonly assumed that classical arts are marked by a disciplined technique that requires structured teaching methodology. On the other hand, one is quick to assume that folk arts are imbibed in a familial or co...

Dance Education is a series of articles that will focus on various aspects of the teaching-learning environment, methodology, practice and more. Bringing together varied perspectives from across regions, ideologies and styles, we hope to encourage an active dialogue about what one might consider to be one of the most significant links between the performing arts and the world at large - the teacher and the taught. The indigenous systems of knowledge transfer or education have gone through several phases of popularity, evolving with every passing generation and eventually paling in significance in many parts of the world thanks to colonial oppression. The world at large then continued to operate in colonial methods of education and work for several decades- even centuries. Today though, more and more people are realising that these are not optimal methods to learn and live by. In a world that is slowly trying to de-colonise itself (not just in India , but in several parts of Asia an...

Dance Education is a series of articles that will focus on various aspects of the teaching-learning environment, methodology, practice and more. Bringing together varied perspectives from across regions,  ideologies and styles, we hope to encourage an active dialogue about what one might consider to be one of the most significant links between the performing arts and the world at large - the teacher and the taught. In recent times, 'change being the only constant' has taken on an added dimension- that of change continually happening at a rapid pace. Every passing decade becomes all the more dynamic. Today, we acknowledge that social media is here to stay. With instant gratification and wide reach, social media is changing the face of who is 'seen' and is redefining virtual presence. We are aware that the digital medium of instruction is not rare anymore- from mainstream education to art, music and dance. Simultaneously, socio-political structures in many parts of the wo...