Indian classical dance - an understanding

Hi everyone! I am a new blogger. Not just a new blogger, a new writer too. This is my maiden attempt to write. I have of course chosen my favourite area to write about. I hope to give and get something substantial through this.

Since I am a dancer, I will be talking more about dance in the beginning and about music later. Dance means nothing but Indian Classical dance- Bharathanatyam in specific.

What is dance? If I start answering this question in the following way, ‘dance is the outcome of Lord Nataraja’s cosmic form and the philosophy behind this is…..’ Oh God! I am hearing a lot of voices shouting ‘No……., stop! Yes I will. Because I myself cannot understand such kind of complicated explanation until now. The simplest explanation will be ‘Stylized movements , made perfect through practice, giving a treat to the viewer’. That’s it. But, is it a complete Explanation? No. These movements do not convey any meaning to the viewer. So, these movements come under the name Nrtta or pure dance.

Then, what is missing? Oh, right! Emotion! Just like life itself, Dance is also lifeless without emotion. So, the part in which emotion is expressed is called Abhinaya or expression. Both Nrtta and Abhinaya put together become Nrthya or Natya, which means nothing but Dance. If you cannot remember names like Nrtta or Abhinaya, don’t worry! If you understand the content in English, enough! Great!

The entire Grammar of  Indian Classical Dance is elaborated under this pure dance and expressive dance. I am not going to get into the details of difficult Grammar , at least not now. My aim is to make this interesting and not boring.

How important is grammar to understand the art form? Let us take the example of learning our mother tongue. When we start saying a few words at the age of …. may be 2, do we know the grammar of our language? No. Definitely not. We learn to speak, read and write the practical side and later on, slowly, we learn the grammar through the teacher. So, let us put it this way, when a common man wants to appreciate the dance form, knowledge of the practical side is enough, provided he has some basic exposure to Hindu religious aspects and Indian classical music and dance.

Basic exposure? Explain. Yes. Little knowledge about Ragam, Talam, stories in Hindu Epics, Scriptures, history and Mythology is what I mean by basic exposure. I will talk about these things in detail with examples in my up coming blog posts.

See you all next week!