Liya Abil- Week 15- Memory in Dance
Bharatanatyam, one of the oldest Indian classical dance forms, dates back to 300 BCE, and is continued in the present day. This art form incorporates multiple different elements, from the intricate footwork, hand gestures, and the various expressions. It amazes me that all the complexities and nuances of Bharatanatyam have been preserved through all these years, and are still performed with the same passion as when it was first created.
Last Sunday on April 21, 2024, I completed my Bharatanatyam arangetram. This is essentially a graduation for dancers once they have mastered the basics of the dance form. Being on stage was invigorating. The lights flashing on my face, having the whole stage to myself, and the nonstop claps from the audience. However, none of these external factors exceeded my internal thoughts.
While performing, I realized the sheer importance of Bharatanatyam. It holds so many memories, stories, and creative ideas. There are multiple stories that are depicted in Bharatanatyam, typically of the Hindu gods as it is a Hindu dance form. I am a Christian myself and before my arangetram, I had absolutely no knowledge of Hindu culture. However, by performing these stories, I learned so much about various Gods such as Krishna, Devi, Muruga, Shiva and so much more.
Bharatanatyam has played a huge part in making the stories of these Gods more known. One of the stories that stuck with me is that of Krishna. In a court, a queen was gambled away to an evil king by one of her husbands. She was humiliated in the court as she was pulled by her hair and undressed in front of hundreds of people. In this moment of despair, Krishna had come to save her, giving her an infinite amount of cloth to drape herself in. This was a very dark and disgusting story, which made it uneasy to depict that day, but ultimately, I was able to understand the characters on a deeper level and focus on the selflessness and humility that Krishna showed.
By performing various stories like this one, I understand and remember all of the kind acts of the Hindu gods, and I am able to teach people in the audience at the same time. Memories and stories are not only preserved in Bharatanatyam, but also spread, to teach other cultures about the sacred Hindu beliefs, which I find beautiful.
Hi Liya! I found your blog on dance to be very personal and relatable. When I did Bharatanatyam, I also experienced similar feelings. However, I never learned about as many complexities and nuances. During my dance, my class would just memorize the steps and work on performing it with the music. Now, I realize that Bharatanatyam is a very complex art form with many elements and stories that should be conveyed. When my teacher taught me about the expressions and stories, my class naively just memorized how to do it in a robotic way. Therefore, our performances were not as expressive or engaging. I found your revelations on Bharatanatyam to be inspiring because they demonstrate how thorough your performance was. I appreciate how you highlighted the importance of stories in Bharatanatyam because I felt like my dance teacher had not emphasized it as much when I was learning dance. Looking back, I would have preferred to be aware of how important expression is in dance. I almost believed that memorizing the steps is more important in learning a dance piece. However, I now realize that the expressions are one of the most important parts of a dance. Without the gestures and emotions, the dance is blank and dull. It is truly the dancer’s individual perspective of the dance and personal touch on the dance that makes it significant.
ReplyDeleteHi Liya. I’ve also been learning Bharatanatyam for a while now, and I agree that it’s a complex art form worth studying. Recently, I joined a new dance school, and my new teachers have been teaching us about aspects of dance that my former teachers neglected to explain. This dance form’s gestures, from facial expressions to foot positions, have been passed down orally through generations, and many pronunciations of gestures’ names at this new school are different from my previous dance school’s pronunciations. Also, I noticed that you talked about how Bharatanatyam can share stories from Hindu culture, but I actually heard of a dance piece about Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus Christ. Personally, I love seeing how this art form can be used to convey countless stories without a single word of dialogue, even ones that aren’t typically associated with the dance.
ReplyDeleteHi Liya, I always love reading your blogs, I always find them so interesting and relatable. I love how you described how you felt while on stage. I fins it fascinating on how much you were able to learn through dancing. People usually think you had to learn through, studying books, but you showed that you don't have to read some textbook to learn about a culture. I also had a similar experience with kung fu. Kung fu has taught me so much about the chinese culture. I was able to learn all the techniques they used in the olden days. I was able to learn how teachers there are different with the teachers here. I was also able to learn some chinese through kung fu too. I find it amazing that you can learn from so many different ways.
ReplyDeleteHi Liya,
ReplyDeleteI saw your arangetram and as someone who also does bharatanatyam I also have to memorize a lot of dance steps, but even so as I was watching your performance I couldn't help but marvel at the way you danced without faltering for even a second. I admired the hours and hours of practice it must have taken for the steps to be so ingrained into your muscle memory that you didn't have to stop or hesitate for a moment during your 3 hour long performance. My dance teacher always told us to always put 100% effort into our dance at all times even when we're tired because how wee practice is how we form our muscle memory and we practice the steps wrong then that's how we'll remember it. I don't know if there is actual science backing up what she said, but when I was younger I truly believed this and would try my hardest to make sure I always had the correct form and posture while dancing. P.S I'm so proud of you for your arangetram it was a really beautiful performance.