tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62400669051035487222024-02-07T08:47:30.006+05:30Antara Artists' Collective BlogAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12682625898475365139noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-32914621395545138122015-04-30T13:40:00.001+05:302015-04-30T13:40:22.148+05:30BHB Blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Bodystorming Hits Bangalore now has a blog of its own! All the posts and updates about the event will henceforth be available on the independent blog - <a href="https://bodystormingindia.wordpress.com/">here</a>. For more details about the event you can also check the Bodystorming <a href="http://bodystormingindia.com/">website</a>. </div>
Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-14162369888819533552015-04-29T12:49:00.002+05:302015-04-29T12:49:19.899+05:30Bodystorming Blog Post - Day 1.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>This blog post is by Anjali Vaidya, a grad student working with India Bioscience and a member of the documentation team for Bodystorming Hits Bangalore.</i></div>
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“If you're trying to give the big picture
of a big idea, to really capture its essence – the fewer words you use, the
better. In fact, the ideal may be to use no words at all.” This was how science
writer (and instigator of the <a href="http://gonzolabs.org/dance/">Dance Your
PhD</a> contest) <a href="http://www.johnbohannon.org/">John Bohannon</a>
introduced the idea of using dancers to explain and explore complicated
problems in his 2011 TED talk, “<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/john_bohannon_dance_vs_powerpoint_a_modest_proposal?language=en#t-147841">Dance
vs. powerpoint, a modest proposal</a>,” which doubled as a performance piece
with the <a href="http://blacklabelmovement.com/">Black Label Movement</a>. The
dance – and talk – came to the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Bangalore
on Sunday April 26<sup>th</sup>, with the role of John Bohannon reprised by
Joseph Crook of the Black Label Movement.</div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">As Crook told the audience at NGMA about
the “spooky” counter-intuitive properties of superfluids, such as their
capacity to slow down light, the ideas were mirrored in the movements of
dancers behind him. “This is the great pleasure of science: the defeat of our
intuition with experimentation,” said Crook. “But the experiment is not the end
of the story, because you still have to transmit that knowledge to other
people.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Can dance help transmit complex scientific
ideas to non-specialists? The spell-bound audience on Sunday suggested that it
could. However, the dancers of the Black Label Movement have gone much further
than just mirroring science in recent years, under the direction of
dancer/choreographer <a href="https://theatre.umn.edu/people/dance-faculty/profile?UID=flink003">Carl
Flink</a> (University of Minnesota). The dancers use movement to brainstorm
scientific problems, a method they call <a href="http://www.idc.ul.ie/anu/ExploringLimerick/Resources/Relevant_papers/Bodystorming_as_Embodied_Design.pdf">bodystorming</a>
– and draw artistic inspiration from science in turn. Carl Flink spoke on
Sunday of his collaboration with biomedical engineer <a href="http://oddelab.umn.edu/">David Odde</a> (also of the University of
Minnesota), all of whom are now in Bangalore for a week-long <a href="http://bodystormingindia.com/">Bodystorming workshop</a> at the National
Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS). Odde and Flink met through the Institute
for Advanced Studies at the University of Minnesota, through a shared interest
in catastrophe – one in cells, and the other in dance. They have worked together
ever since, exploring the dynamic environment within a cell through dance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">Dancers can only complement computer
simulations, Flink asserted on Sunday – they cannot replace computers. What
bodystorming can help with is intuition, narrowing down the potential avenues
for exploration. “There are three doors you could have gone through, and now
you know to go through door one,” explained Flink.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><a href="https://www.ncbs.res.in/mayor">Satyajit
Mayor</a> (NCBS), who has helped bring bodystorming to Bangalore, spoke of how
he gained a more visceral understanding of his research problems by seeing the
dynamics of cell membranes acted out on a macro scale by the Black Label
Movement at Woods Hole, Massachusetts last year. “We got a bird's eye view, and
started to see patterns emerging,” he explained. The exercise also “sharpened
one's own ability,” Mayor said, to break down a problem into a set of necessary
mechanical rules. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The dancers, in turn, are inspired by the
natural patterns that immerse them. Crystal Edwards, a dancer and choreographer
with the Black Label Movement, said that bodystorming had changed her own
creative process. “Instead of trying to make something happen, you set up rules
and let patterns emerge,” she said. Likewise, Joseph Crook found the process of
scientific collaboration stimulating, saying that it let him “think beyond the
world of art for inspiration.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHw02_g8Pfy4KaVYi15Dp6RQjTYdlQgjsSC1Bp4bAS8EmqaIEKYyLAgmkrbWkehj5W0_z5LqHI2IaWgDuPvQTsPKUHwUcL32SCq2r_GT_vtxxVN9-CqsrPE2aN6dj8V34s69Z6YuxbrEs/s1600/BHB+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHw02_g8Pfy4KaVYi15Dp6RQjTYdlQgjsSC1Bp4bAS8EmqaIEKYyLAgmkrbWkehj5W0_z5LqHI2IaWgDuPvQTsPKUHwUcL32SCq2r_GT_vtxxVN9-CqsrPE2aN6dj8V34s69Z6YuxbrEs/s1600/BHB+3.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-GB">Carl Flink, as well, looks to the world
around him and sees organizing principles that inspire. “Whenever you look out
the window you see so much motion,” he said. “I like to capture that in my
choreography.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">What does he see so far in Bangalore? Flink
admitted that he and the Black Label Movement dancers were mildly terrified by
the city's traffic, on their way to NGMA on Sunday. But the more that he
watched, the more order he saw in the interweaving vehicles. They were guided
by one rule: “If you see the space, you take the space.” Flink illustrated his
words with a weaving of body and hands, making even the chaos of Bangalore
traffic momentarily beautiful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-7286470629888934212015-04-21T22:36:00.003+05:302015-04-22T12:28:52.250+05:30BODYSTORMING: An event to discover the physicality in science and thinking in dance.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">Can body think and
brain act? Bodystorming, a play on the word “brain storming”, nudges us to
conceive “body” as a site for thinking, reflecting and communicating. The
concept materialized when Carl Flink (Dancer) and David Odde (Scientist) from
the University of Minnesota realized that they could get new insights into the
common idea that they were exploring by being open and receptive to each
other’s language of thinking. Bringing the two deceptively distant disciplines
together, bodystorming gained momentum and was hosted as an event in many places across US and Europe</span>.</div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">This April, NCBS
is bringing Bodystorming to Bangalore, where scientists will collaborate with
contemporary dancers from across India, in an effort to exchange and understand
the other’s world. Moving according to rules that govern movement of particles
within a cell, the dancers gain a ‘lived experience’ of microscopic- cellular
level processes. For Aparna Bannerji, an Odissi dancer who also heads the Science
and Society department at NCBS, “Such an engagement can help a scientist arrive
at new insights into processes that cannot easily be ‘visualised’. Bodystorming
helps to visibilise the invisible. For a
dancer, the source of inspiration comes from a life-process and a scale that
would not normally be explored, allowing for a new extension in their practice.” More importantly, this concept challenges the
conventional idea of science as being solely a logic and proof driven process,
and opens up the importance of intuitive and inspired insights that often lead
to the breakthroughs in science.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">Bodystorming,
draws attention to the “doing” or “practice” of science by moving it to the
realm of experience. The practice of science, often pigeon-holed under the
labels of thinking and theorizing, is distanced from it’s very physicality.
Aparna also adds, “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thinking, investigating, creating, walking
the path of inspiration that leads to new insights are all 'physical activities.” For
her “There is no abstract notion of a mind that can 'think' if the body does
not exist - so bodystorming helps make this connection. If one can
'think' with mind and body aligned, then what happens to the type of knowledge
that we can produce? This is the real question I have for the process of
bodystorming; will the use of a different practice, produce a different kind of
knowledge?”</span><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">A scientist when
she engages with her work also engages with it bodily – as she does an
experiment or even as she cracks a formula. However, in Bodystorming, one is
practicing science or doing science in a much deeper sense than experimenting
or cracking a formula. This is because the material of bodystorming is the
experience of <i>being</i> the object of
study and not observing the object or experimenting on the object. Darius, a
dancer and a Research Fellow at NCBS, emphasizes on this aspect of bodystorming
“</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For
me, bodystorming is a way to bridge the gap between me as a scientist/ observer
and the object under study (a set of proteins, a cell, an organism) as you
become a part of the study object.”</span><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;"> The distance between the person and the work almost collapses as one
becomes the object to be theorized about, - making body the site of scientific
practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">Science is often
perceived as a body of knowledge which is separate from the scientist (the one
producing the knowledge) while dance necessitates the presence of the dancer.
The common epithet – of ‘Can you separate the dance from the dancer?’ can
perhaps be extended to the scientist as she engages in this process. Dance is not mere movement but reflects the
relationship of the dancer with the dance. Similarly, scientific work embodies
the nature of scientist’s engagement with her work. For example – we might have
a better insight into Einstein’s theory of relativity if we understand his
life, his reasons and the conditions in which he proposed the theory.
Bodystorming exemplifies this relationship between scientist and science by
addressing the process of the work. Looking at science as practice
automatically entails the presence of a practitioner. The work itself embodies
and is inclusive of the people involved in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN;">According to
Shabari Rao, a dancer and documenter of this project, “Non-scientists often tend
to think of science as product as they are ignorant of the processes that are
involved in the making of science. Similarly, non-artists tend to think of art
as product rather than practice.” The week long residency that is organized as
a part of bodystorming provides a context for dancers and scientists to
understand art and science not as disembodied entities but as a way of
understanding the world, as practice. Bodystorming in some sense goes beyond
drawing conclusions about the cellular activities. It is a space for dancers to
see science as a physical activity and for the scientist to see dance as a
thoughtful activity. It is about drawing a distant world closer, familiarizing
the unfamiliar and connecting the disconnected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-89769614895467203882015-03-22T16:10:00.001+05:302015-03-22T16:10:28.689+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_mHoEmqTKNtVc7JRZpzi_Sd_TEqqG-HmAVjsC1WbC6pzmjoTuoiumWr_6aATI2Fih8sJzgtqaoaQgmvR5QwDzGB8ojqguk0hVMyKpdb7-81aBbez4g1jrUT58dLa3B3ste9Tg63yNu0Iz/s1600/FB+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_mHoEmqTKNtVc7JRZpzi_Sd_TEqqG-HmAVjsC1WbC6pzmjoTuoiumWr_6aATI2Fih8sJzgtqaoaQgmvR5QwDzGB8ojqguk0hVMyKpdb7-81aBbez4g1jrUT58dLa3B3ste9Tg63yNu0Iz/s1600/FB+cover.jpg" height="312" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">This
Transformative Practice Residency is an Invitation to come SHIFT
WITHIN by Reconnecting to the Self & your Lived-Experience.
Through various Somatic exercises adapted within the conceptual model
of the ancient chakra system (sacred architecture of body and psyche)
we will explore our lived-body or soma as a site for Insight,
Integration, Knowing and Transformation; Our Performances will
inquire & research what’s most relevant to our Present Selves</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 11pt;">This
residency is a class designed as a part of the graduate thesis of the
facilitator, Pushpanjali Sharma, M.A. (Embodied Studies), Lesley
University, Cambridge, U.S.A. She is offering it in India for the
very first time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Day 1
(4</span><sup><span style="font-size: 11pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-size: 11pt;">April)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">(5</span><sup><span style="font-size: 11pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-size: 11pt;">April)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">(7</span><sup><span style="font-size: 11pt;">th</span></sup><span style="font-size: 11pt;">April)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Daily-</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Opening
Interaction</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Different
Somatic Exercises (Body-Mind Centering, Feldenkrais, Continuum and
Ideokinesis) utilizing visualization, sound and movement. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Chakra
Dhyana</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Followed
by Movement Improvisation- Play</span></div>
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<td width="18%"><div class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">12-12.30pm</span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="6" width="82%"><div align="CENTER" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Tea-break</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td width="18%"><div class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">12.30-2.00pm</span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="6" width="82%"><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Writing,
Sharing/Discussion, Generating content and material for
Performance</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td width="18%"><div class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">2.00-3.00pm</span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="6" width="82%"><div align="CENTER" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Lunch-break</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td width="18%"><div class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">3.00-5.00pm</span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="6" width="82%"><div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Lab
time- Each Individual will work on their own performance/creative
piece supported by the facilitator; Performances will inquire into
the subject matter that is spontaneously emerging during the day,
as well explore/interpret what it means to move beyond frames, and
peel off social-masks</span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Closing
Discussion</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><b>Take
Aways:</b></span></div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Explore
and Learn Somatic (mind-body) practices for self-healing,
self-knowing and self-expression; Come alive to a renewed sense of
embodiment; discover the joy in movement, dance and being.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Move
away from the typical way in which the body has always been treated
as a puppet, an instrument or a hired body, towards an epistemology
of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><i>lived-body
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">as
a site for insight, integration, knowing, wisdom and transformation.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Investigate
into the seven aspects of the self represented by the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><i>chakra</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">
system through </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><i>chakra
dhyana</i></span></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Let
go of end-gaining and goal driven approaches, in favor of process
oriented approaches</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Find
support in the self and in each other</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Adopt
approaches that promote a balance between work and rest, and
incorporate effortlessness and ease in our lived-experience</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Reclaim
your creative agency and your authentic voice. Learn to create a
performance piece, through your own organic somatic process, that
inquires into what is most relevant to you right now.</span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><b>Please
Bring:</b></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: #212121; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-IN">Bring
to our first class meeting </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">one
personal item- can be a poem, </span><span style="color: #212121; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-IN">an
object, picture, music, photograph, anything that is significant to
you which you could share with others. This could be something that
h</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-IN">as
heart and meaning for you in your relationship to the arts, embodied
practices and healing.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">A towel for supporting the body during somatic practice</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">A notebook/journal and pen</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Colour pencils/ crayons/ art items (If you like to express through
art, not cumpolsory), Individuals may chose to bring anything that
enhances/supports their medium of expression</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Wear comfortable clothing, in which you can breathe, express and move
freely. For those who like to improvise and move uninhibitedly on the
floor and are wary of your knees, bring yourself a pair of knee pads
for protection.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">For
those of you who are choosing to stay on at Antara, please carry your
own </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">bed sheet</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">, pillow cover and towel for personal use.</span></span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="western" lang="en-IN" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Pushpanjali
Sharma:</b></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Belonging
to the sea- shore of Goa and the Foothills of Jammu, Pushpanjali
Sharma a performing artist and research-scholar in Somatic Education
& Transformative Practice is currently on the last stage of her
Master’s Degree in Embodied Studies from Lesley University,
Cambridge (U.S.A). As such she is taking the opportunity to
explore and examine somatic practices and its application towards
internal inquiry, embodied writing as well as somatic-performative
research. The residency at Antara is an amalgamation of the same. </span></span></div>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjjy5xHwDBGeH91Iuzpq_Blk66d_-44tuUwKKoGgRnyG9K95-bRXU_4TKH7r-xf-EhAD7caROzVcbF61eh3iZmT5y0VJJK3tXABz5ZZN_WpjeABwtXjyfwXJ2T9WsiymbQvq8JE6rdFxje/s1600/P1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjjy5xHwDBGeH91Iuzpq_Blk66d_-44tuUwKKoGgRnyG9K95-bRXU_4TKH7r-xf-EhAD7caROzVcbF61eh3iZmT5y0VJJK3tXABz5ZZN_WpjeABwtXjyfwXJ2T9WsiymbQvq8JE6rdFxje/s1600/P1.jpg" height="238" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> During
Embodied Creative Practice:</span><br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span lang="en-US"><i>I
am free from time, effort is replaced with ease, limitations are
transformed into freedom, and mundane is elevated to a heightened
state of connectedness to the source of all things.”</i></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">As
a contemporary dancer she has trained both in India (TR Dance
company, Mumbai, Gati Dance Center, New Delhi) and for the last three
years she has lived in New York training in Ballet-Contemporary track
at Peridance Capezio Center and studying composition and choreography
at Dance New Amsterdam (Certificate course) and Movement Research
(Somatic-Performative Intensives).</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Alongside
being a trained pilates and yoga instructor, Pushpanjali has
researched several somatic practices- Feldenkrais, Body-Mind
Centering, Continuum and Ideokinesis, at Movement Research, NYC. She
has interned/menteed under second generation somatic leaders Dr.
Martha Eddy (Body-Mind Centering), Mary Abrams (Continuum). Studied
Arts and Healing under Vivien Marcow Speiser (Expressive Arts
Therapy) and has also taken several workshops under Michel Casanovas
(Feldenkrais Teacher- Dance maker).</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><i>"
I am fascinated by ‘true potential’, finding fresh ways to
enhance the experience of life! The idea of internal transformation
of the individual revolutionizing the whole, and finally creating and
performing work that is palpable, resonant and shifts both the
performer and the audience, drives me moment by moment!"</i></span></span></div>
<div class="western" lang="en-IN" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" lang="en-IN" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><b>Kindly Note:</b></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="western" lang="en-IN" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">This residency is open to all interested in embodied practices and performance inquiry. Previous dance experience is not mandatory.</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Lunch can be provided on prior notice. </span></li>
<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Residential facilities are available.</span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><b>Workshop Venue:</b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Antara-Artists-Collective/128465980572850?ref=aymt_homepage_panel" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Antara Artists' Collective</span></a></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">12th main, Shubh Enclave,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Harlur Road, off Sarjapur Road,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Near Springfields Apts.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bangalore , India.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="450" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d31111.791076967686!2d77.666271!3d12.909399999999993!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x3bae136f468b7fb1%3A0x881d1a2257314ecc!2sAntara+Artists'+Collective!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sin!4v1427019723318" style="border: 0;" width="600"></iframe>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070247888487568582noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-17154054308789378412015-03-17T14:03:00.000+05:302015-04-23T21:13:43.831+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinHJBgAC21jVQ83CZFSKMUZsgO6cAPKwGRDTc0EXde64RB5UkJXdYiytZGaXfiQqEqXL8Uxcj1dT3ocgLHkPx0HZSYSF2RutDr4AkZgdZ_PzkzBS8pcSSn0Sw8AvtbqFcaxIjJ1gj6ZuE/s1600/BHB-+event1+fbcover2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinHJBgAC21jVQ83CZFSKMUZsgO6cAPKwGRDTc0EXde64RB5UkJXdYiytZGaXfiQqEqXL8Uxcj1dT3ocgLHkPx0HZSYSF2RutDr4AkZgdZ_PzkzBS8pcSSn0Sw8AvtbqFcaxIjJ1gj6ZuE/s1600/BHB-+event1+fbcover2.jpg" height="256" width="640" /></a></div>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Bodystorming Hits Bangalore</span></h2>
<div>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
A COLLABORATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND MOVEMENT</span></h3>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can we reflect, remember, react and talk through our bodies?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bodystorming is an initiative which explores this concept in action, giving people an experiential account of what it means to engage with the body as a medium of thought and communication. While we are quite familiar with brain storming- coming up with ideas rapidly in a group situation, we rarely think of doing the same with our bodies.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What happens when we collectively throw ideas together spontaneously using our bodies?</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Bodystorming</b> – which began as a way of physically committing to and testing ideas about biological processes at the cellular level, is very soon coming down to Bangalore, as a common initiative between the city's dance and the science community.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <a href="https://www.ncbs.res.in/">National Centre of Biological Sciences</a> (NCBS) supported by the Wellcome Trust is hosting the Black Label Movement </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">for a 10 day intensive engagement with the dance and science communities in Bangalore. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fundamental idea behind this initiative is to use simple interaction rules between dancers to simulate and understand biological processes, drawing from deeply inter-disciplinary roots.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://blacklabelmovement.com/">The Black Label Movement</a> is a dance company led by Professor Carl Flink and closely working with Professor David Odde (Department of Biomedical Engineering), both from the University of Minnesota.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A series of events are planned, including a bodystorming workshop for 25 selected dancers and a residency at NCBS where in 10 invited dancers will work with BLM intensely. They will be in constant touch with scientists and researchers to discuss and articulate their work. These sessions will seek to explore the ideas for bodystorming, its potentials and limitations. The programme will also include public interaction sessions with lead researchers Carl Flink and David Odde and a final performance by the Black Label Movement. The programme is being coordinated by the Antara Artists’ Collective.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are plans to continue this engagement beyond the duration of the workshop/residency series to offer dancers and scientists in Bangalore a way to keep the bodystorming practice alive in the city.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This program is an opportunity for dancers who wish to work with deeper awareness of body and its role in dance. At the same time it stretches the notion of what it means to experiment in science – playing with the idea that ‘to experience, is to know’.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The bodystorming workshop shall be held on <b>25th and 26th April 2015 from</b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b> 2 to 7 p.m</b>.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Register for this workshop by filling up this online form: Click here</b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kindly note:</span></div>
<div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Applicants need to share a link to their performance video in the form</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last date for registration is 31st of March 2015</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Applicants will be informed about selection for workshop on or before 1st of April 2015 through email/phone</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Selected participants are requested to arrive at the venue at 1.30 pm on 25th April 2015 for orientation</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Workshop Venue</b>:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.tlfcb.org/">The Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5th floor, Salma Bizhouse,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Manee Avenue Road,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Opp Lakeside hospital,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Above CCD, Near Ulsoor Lake,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bangalore- 560042.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<iframe frameborder="0" height="450" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d7775.480638963687!2d77.61761500000001!3d12.988454!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x3bae16bb3e813c61%3A0xd31691b641e011ea!2sThe+Lewis+Foundation+Of+Classical+Ballet!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sin!4v1426580490799" style="border: 0;" width="600"></iframe>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13750764600991328274noreply@blogger.com0Bengaluru, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.4764182 76.949115699999979 13.4667792 78.240009699999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-68516316196791444002015-01-12T14:55:00.001+05:302015-01-12T16:34:54.194+05:30Innovation in Choreography- Workshop by Jhelum Paranjpe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPx18dvxLGeLUvVOkhug1Ze5thl2tITnPySKoOMjYKxp5HsmHZS_mA0JTJ-7VYQ-pPeemMK5W-KLo2XAJbZhycOtT3FdWtK0RSMyv-cZswrkyUPkKf1_eCe8d9NefXB0ZxdXrz5Sv2Kw4/s1600/Antaradhi.maestro.Jan2015.Innovations+in+choreography.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPx18dvxLGeLUvVOkhug1Ze5thl2tITnPySKoOMjYKxp5HsmHZS_mA0JTJ-7VYQ-pPeemMK5W-KLo2XAJbZhycOtT3FdWtK0RSMyv-cZswrkyUPkKf1_eCe8d9NefXB0ZxdXrz5Sv2Kw4/s1600/Antaradhi.maestro.Jan2015.Innovations+in+choreography.jpg" height="384" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Innovation in choreography -</span></b><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> (For dancers from any discipline and with min. </span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">5yrs of learning experience)</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif;">As part of Antaradhi- workshop series, we bring the
maestro - Jhelum Paranjape from Mumbai </span>to share her choreographic process with young
dancers of Bangalore. We aim to bring together dancers from various disciplines
and help them learn, share and work with a seasoned master and explore
their own creative /choreographic selves. The participants will explore
diverse ideas, creative and critical thinking , breaking boundaries of their
own movement vocabulary and eventually fitting their work into their
respective forms. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Key take away for the participants - </span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">1. Know the choreographic process from a path
breaking choreographer of a classical dance tradition.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">2. Opportunity to innovate within your own movement vocabulary.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">3. Learn to assess when change/borrow/modify in the choreographic process.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">4. Challenge your creative self and explore the possibility of developing your choreographic skills </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> under Jhelum Paranjape's mentorship.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">About Guru Jhelum Paranjape – </span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jhelumtai, as she is fondly called, has consistently broken new ground
in the traditional odissi dance form through her innovative choreography and
teachings. In a career spanning over three decades, her body of work
includes vast repertoire of productions like Leelavati, Narmada, Uma to name a
few.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">While maintaining the core and spirit of Odissi
dance, she has effortlessly moved beyond the boundaries placed by any
traditional art form. An explorer at heart, she has helped hundreds of students
explore a world of limitless possibilities in movement converting them to fit
in the traditional/classical vocabulary of Odissi. Using Vivaldi's music from
Four seasons to show swarm of bees moving across the stage tracing beautiful
patterns or to show a herd of elephants moving rhythmically in a playful mood
or a flock of birds gliding gracefully in the evening sky.... and all this
unveiling into solving mathematical problems in her production Leelavati based
on the 12th century mathematical treatise by the same name.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Maths was never so beautiful before!</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/2001/02/24/stories/0424403j.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.thehindu.com/2001/<wbr></wbr>02/24/stories/0424403j.htm</span></span></a><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In another production
-Narmada, she imagines the river as a woman. Nurturing, purifying, life giving, yet, standing strong and fighting man-made disasters. In showcasing the many faces of the river, she uses fluid movements of Odissi and juxtaposes it with Gymnastics to showcase the might of the man-made dam. She intersperses this with folk movements to show life along the river. </span><a href="http://smitalay.com/Narmada.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://smitalay.com/Narmada.<wbr></wbr>html</span></a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Besides these, she has created several productions / pieces voicing social, environmental, ecological,
political, feminist, educational and feminist themes each scaling new heights. She also brought "Bollywood hangama - Odissi Istyle" taking popular classic and new age bollywood music and weaving it into Odissi vocabulary, taking Odissi to those who generally stay away from "Classical dances". She has performed and taught in many countries received many awards like Kumar Gandharva award, Mahari award, Vidya Bhushan award, Women Achiever's award to name a few.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Dates: </span></b></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-term="goog_1594433087" style="z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aqj"><span style="z-index: -1;"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">22nd - 26th Jan 2015</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><b>Time: </b><span class="aqj"><span data-term="goog_1594433088" style="z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span style="z-index: -1;">10.30 am - 1.30 pm</span></span>
</span><b>Fees: </b>Rs. 5000 For
registration - click <a href="http://goo.gl/forms/txnASGFjqF" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">here</span></a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Note:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Participants may bring a piece of music
/poetry that they wish to work on. we will then select a few out of those and
work on them during the workshop.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i></i></span><br />
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i><br /></i></span></i></span></div>
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i>
Jhelum paranjape will also conduct a
Lecture-demonstration - <b>"Counting, Cooperating and Creating: how does
dance help?" </b>on<b> </b>26th evening<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aqj"><span style="z-index: -1;"><span data-term="goog_1594433089" style="z-index: 0;" tabindex="0">4.30 pm</span></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>at Antara which will be free and open
for all.</i> </span></div>
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Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-59293577624544080742015-01-08T21:04:00.002+05:302015-01-08T21:04:41.652+05:30How Do I Engage With Art? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I was whiling away time on internet, I
stumbled across an idea –treat art as if it is a human being. The idea was an
image representation- of art and onlooker embracing each other in a kiss. The
image spoke to me, telling me something I was struggling to articulate for a
long time – how to engage with art? The answer given was simple - engage with
art like it is a human being. But can we treat art like a human being- we can’t
give art food to eat, water to drink, put it to sleep or actually kiss it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I remember having left art galleries and
auditorium feeling very inadequate for not having understood the painting hung
on the wall or made sense of dance performed in an auditorium. Being a student
of history and philosophy of art, believing that I was passionate about art, it
was disappointing to realize that when it came to understanding specific art
work, it was a totally different ball game. This summer, joining Antara as a Research
Affiliate, I spent my time observing dance in the dance class and eventually
also dancing. I listened to the staccato of the wooden <i>taala</i>, sometimes watching people move to it and eventually moving
to it myself. As I started being in this space, how I tried to connect with art
in general and dance in specific shifted fundamentally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What was so different about how I looked at dance
in an auditorium and how I looked at it here, at Antara? Settings like art
galleries and auditorium do not allow us to explore art, play with it. Often my
engagement with art in these places is limited by distance and regulation.
Antara was a free space, it let me do what was not allowed in auditorium and
galleries, it allowed me to play with it. It let me engage with dance by
including me in the environment rather than excluding me from it. In an
auditorium, the stage excludes the audience. At Antara, even as an observer I
was inside of the environment and felt physically and psychologically close to
dance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When dance is performed in an auditorium, when a
painting is kept in a gallery it is decontextualized, we do not know where it
comes from, which world it was made. In contrast to this when we see a writers
room full of books, a scientists room with equipments we don’t just see
objects. Such environments express the relationship of the writer with her
books and scientist with her equipments. “Relationship” is the word of focus
here. I might buy a book and keep it without reading it. Then I am not really
owning the book or have a relationship with it except in economic terms. Only
when I read it, engage with it, listen to it and speak with it, can I take the
text from the author and make it my own. The environment at Antara allowed me
this kind of engagement- allowed me to bring dance closer to myself and
establish my own spiritual, emotional, physical and intellectual relationship
with it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some audience can be really moved by a
performance in an auditorium so this is not to imply that one cannot engage
with dance in an auditorium at all. This is to say that community spaces like
Antara facilitates one to listen to art for more closely and deeply when
compared to an auditorium. What the image meant when it suggested that art is
human was that it is beyond just any other physical object. What makes it more
than a mere object is our relationship with it. So it is not about making art
human but letting art make you more human, to let art be the stimuli that
evokes your emotion, intellect, body and spirit- all the qualities that make a
one a human being.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-47835414471682057382014-12-26T21:08:00.001+05:302014-12-28T14:32:27.023+05:30Learning Differently With Traditional Art Practices<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Our performing arts
institution is located in a rapidly urbanizing area, south east of
Bangalore. The area has transformed from
rural to semi-urban in less than ten years.
Semi-urban, because the civic infrastructure is poor and cultural and
community commons are virtually non-existent.
I moved into this neighborhood five years ago and Antara began</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> in an</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> effort to
bring artists to a community that had no access to any formal spaces for
artistic practices. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> For most urban middle-class children dance
and music learning is accessed through out-of-school learning. Majority of them do not pursue this learning
beyond school age and these classes are generally the only formal
arts-education they receive in their lifetime. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We began with a
commitment to traditional South Asian art practices (Odissi, Kathak,
Bharatanatyam, Hindustani and Karnatic Music). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What do these art
practices bring us that conventional learning does not?<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZA0MRExf2_ZzDnFBeK5MzEkeyCj9YF8u3LJpIKxB4x8bDeglDwI9hqOfdrUd2nz__l0oqUK3Ws8yTQpM6DV-RG9rDZL7XlJeqc6uq27q-ZBXSnETyAHhxRnFJSoJEtahAfhGt1xvowK8/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZA0MRExf2_ZzDnFBeK5MzEkeyCj9YF8u3LJpIKxB4x8bDeglDwI9hqOfdrUd2nz__l0oqUK3Ws8yTQpM6DV-RG9rDZL7XlJeqc6uq27q-ZBXSnETyAHhxRnFJSoJEtahAfhGt1xvowK8/s1600/1.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We believe that
traditional artistic practices offer a range of benefits, helping one to form
connections between:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">concept and movement (or sound)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 5pt 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the physical and the ideal<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">reality and imagination<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">action and thought<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">most importantly, body and mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many young students
who come to learn from us experience for the first time the connection between
the <i>living body</i> and the <i>lived body</i>. That is, they experience that the BODY not
just the mind, is a SITE OF LEARNING.
Through their bodies they not only learn movement but also music,
rhythm, history and myth. Through
reflective exercises of writing and other forms of expression that the students
engage in as part of their dance training, we began to realize the depth of
student’s experiences.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Traditional
art practices taught at Antara serve as tools for <i>embodied</i> learning which are not normally offered in conventional
education systems:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Conventional
methods approach learning as:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Embodied
practice at Antara, approach learning as:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid #000001 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid #000001 .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid #000001 .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 233.95pt;" valign="top" width="312"><div class="Standard" style="margin: 5pt 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">teacher-centered,
focused on external goals or student-centred and skill focused<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid #000001 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #000001 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid #000001 .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid #000001 .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid #000001 .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 239.45pt;" valign="top" width="319"><div class="Standard" style="margin: 5pt 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">developmental
progression that happens with the beginning of inner awareness and moving
towards an interaction with the outside world<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid #000001 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid #000001 .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid #000001 .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 233.95pt;" valign="top" width="312"><div class="Standard" style="margin: 5pt 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">mind
focused and teach how to be outwardly organized<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid #000001 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid #000001 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid #000001 .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid #000001 .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid #000001 .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 239.45pt;" valign="top" width="319"><div class="Standard" style="margin: 5pt 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">body-focused
and teach how to be inwardly organized<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">An example of
embodied learning practice at Antara:<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Poornima Dahale,
Odissi instructor at Antara is holding a 10-day intensive workshop for beginners. Her classes include reflective exercises of
the mind and deep relaxation practices.
In the open garden space at Antara, students are experiencing their
bodies in a wholly different way. The
pictures say more than words can.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWvqx3kBR0llU-6Od0Eplt2b879z87Cr3SNhtojt81FdvQ1vXSuANRS23zBugIXpXuAWAxc1SeqMTmXsnJq-2F9M7qsz-riK8BHFdD5qttxwYYYpYkDuGULBKy4Ypfw7mMUc_wGSlT-Q/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaWvqx3kBR0llU-6Od0Eplt2b879z87Cr3SNhtojt81FdvQ1vXSuANRS23zBugIXpXuAWAxc1SeqMTmXsnJq-2F9M7qsz-riK8BHFdD5qttxwYYYpYkDuGULBKy4Ypfw7mMUc_wGSlT-Q/s1600/5.jpg" height="132" width="200" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Poornima says<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I believe letting go of all stress,
relaxing and enjoying works wonders vs. forcing, controlling and torturing your
body.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEC2uLjRisfcCzo0Qfls2fBOiH-cSzW_JaOmnLPvBorjuXY9hyphenhyphenX3h6OjBcoORxENXYkbI5OYBqdJmD8Tca6py_SXCz5tTOHM_hyIc-qeYGKaCJ-49tHNwprLP7Ll3govYfhtBHcudpe8g/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEC2uLjRisfcCzo0Qfls2fBOiH-cSzW_JaOmnLPvBorjuXY9hyphenhyphenX3h6OjBcoORxENXYkbI5OYBqdJmD8Tca6py_SXCz5tTOHM_hyIc-qeYGKaCJ-49tHNwprLP7Ll3govYfhtBHcudpe8g/s1600/7.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I do not believe in mind over body
theory. Body and mind work hand in hand. Both influence each other and guide each
other. Body has its own wisdom and it is
constantly guiding us ,only if we could listen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">My journey is to find ways to share
my love and passion for Odissi but with a more holistic and joyful approach. I
try to learn from various forms of bodily practices and bring the most suitable
lessons I learn into my own practice and sharing.”</span></div>
<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-58810250283265238042014-12-15T22:24:00.004+05:302014-12-18T19:27:08.873+05:30Demystifying Devadasis, Demystifying Dance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today almost three
generations down from the nationalist movement, Devadasis are thought of as
extinct and are recalled as people from the past. They are remembered either as
auspicious women who were victimized by the society or as overly sexualized
people who with their excessive sexual instincts were propagating a lifestyle
which was regressive to the ideals and the growth of Indian society.
Stigmatized as a community with regressive ideals, they were alienated from
their own art. These are not imaginings
and ideas that are founded on material history of the Devadasi community but
are certain tropes that were created as a result of the political agenda and
interests of various people during the nationalist movement. Sadly, these
tropes become the reference points of their history, to which they trace their
present identities. These tropes are so dominant in the imagination of the
people and the Devadasis themselves that, to uproot it, one has to delve
historically into the complexities of their lives. One has to trace, not only
linearly but dialectically to get some insight into the trajectory of events
that unfolded in the history of Devadasis – the people and the practice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Devadasis of the
present day themselves have to invoke ‘artificial’ memories of their pasts that
are constructed politically in order to make sense of their identity. Since
Devadasis are portrayed in such opposing images of sexual exploitation on one
hand and glorious artists on the other, they pose a problem of category. The
Marxists interpret them as exploited labourers with no agency while some
nationalists consider them as the keepers of the culture and the tradition of
the country through their art and practice of dance. It is required, for us to
articulate the past of the Devadasis differently to render their present
identity, a historical reference and not vulgarly reductive and politically
motivated stereotype. In order to open up multiple yet not skewed imagination
of Devadasis, it is needed that we explore the social reality of the Devadasis
in the previous centuries in India. To recount and account for historiographies
exploring the subjectivities of the Devadasis who were common place is the need
of the day and not just that of the few iconic and exceptional ones. A larger
number of Devadasis are the ones whose voices were drowned in the loud
commotion of the Nationalist movement with the grand agenda of reformation of
the whole country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Historically, the
many roles played by devadasis are ambiguous in their definition and are amorphous
in popular memory. The term “Devadasi” itself is a problematic term which is
loaded with one, singular imagination. Various regional practices collapse
under the weight of this one term and the meaning it entails. Leslie Orr in her
book “Donors, Devotees and daughters of god” discusses how the term “Devadasi”
is barely encountered in the regional inscriptions and the scripts of the 18th
and 19th century. This implies that the word is a much modern creation that
reduces and consolidates various practices into one category. Books like Davesh
Soneji’s “Unfinished gestures” and autobiographies of devadasis such as “Rukmini
Devi- A Life” by Leela Samson and “Balasaraswathi- Her Art and Life” by Douglas
Knight demystify this term “Devadasi” for us. They reawaken the eclectic lives
and practices in the 19th and the 20th century that are eclipsed by this
singular dominant term. “Devadasi” as a terminology, is crudely understood to
mean “slave of god” or “hand-maiden of god”. Stereotypically, we tend to
associate the term with the temple women who were dedicated or symbolically
married to the presiding deity of the temple. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Devadasis in temple
have been the perpetual and persisting stereotypical image of the Devadasis in
Indian cultural imagination. Apart from being in temples they were also
courtesans and street dancers. Their roles were diverse and they were not
restricted to dancing and singing. The modern idea of Devadasis is largely that
of dancing women in temple. It is necessary to break this one image into the
variety of experiences these women went through within and outside of temple.
Leslie Orr in her work traces the beginnings of the Devadasi practice in the
temples to the Chola period in the 6th to 9th century. She develops and
constructs this history through inscriptional and iconographical evidences on
the temple walls. She also claims that in the Chola dynasty, the temple women
were the patrons of the temple as well which is clearly reversed by the
medieval time. Though we frequently encounter the idea that the raison d’etre
of the devadasis in the temple was singing and dancing, Leslie Orr says that
their roles in the society were holistic and diverse, and their lives were
relevant to the on-goings of the stately affairs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Saskia Kerseboom,
author of <i>Nitya Sumangali</i>, recently
in a talk mentioned that dance was not just formal movement. It was a yagna
which had a veda. A good dance performance was important for the well-being of
the state, crops, king and his subjects. Dance in today’s society seems to have
lost this relevance to our lives and is perceived as something apart from the
everydayness of the world. This calls us to engage with the nature of the art
practice and explore the lives of the artists, to see what made them so
relevant and probably what should make artists relevant to our lives and world
today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">References<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-indent: -18pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;">Soneji Davesh, Unfinished Gestures:
Devadasis, Memory and Modernity in South India. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2012.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;">Orr, Leslie C., and Leslie Orrey.
Donors, devotees, and daughters of God: temple women in medieval Tamilnadu. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2000.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;">Samson, Leela. Rukmini Devi: A Life.
Penguin Books India, 2010.</span><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;">Knight, Douglas M. Balasaraswati: Her
Art and Life. Wesleyan University Press, 2010. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;">Kerseboom, Saskia “An East-West
Perspective on Abhinaya”, Conference “Abhinaya in Classical Dance”, Bangalore,
November 15, 2014</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-38554172422447463692014-12-11T11:01:00.000+05:302014-12-11T11:17:43.179+05:30Javalis- Abhinaya in the 21st Century<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As part of Antara’s effort to situate South Asian
dancing from an aesthetic, historical and social perspective, we carry reviews
and analysis of some of these embodied practices.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This week’s blogpost is by Ajay Cadambi, a </span></i></b><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">graduate
student at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore who studies biophysics.
His interests include the history of science, temple architecture and dance
history. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Javali, Raga Atana, Roopaka Tala</span></i></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 1920, the dedication of women to temple service
was banned. This was directly in response to a nation-wide agitation that
viewed women associated with temples as prostitutes. In Andhra, strangely
enough, the art form of hereditary female performers survived well into the
1950s, in what are referred to as salon performances or mezuvani (from the urdu
word mezban which means host). Contrary to popular belief, the devadasi did not
perform excluslively within the precincts of the temple. Nationalists seem to
want to skew over this fact, in their reconstruction of the history of art
forms like Bharatanatyam which they describe as temple-centric.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Consequently, a large number of hereditary female
perfomers or sanis were disenfranchised and their art form would have
altogether disappeared into oblivion if not for the efforts of a wonderful
woman named Vakkalanka Swapnasundari. With the support of her Kuchipudi guru,
Pasumarthy Sitaramayya, she convinced various illustrious sanis from all the
three major regions of Andhra, viz. Telangana, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra
to teach her their art. Important amongst them were Late Maddula
Lakshminarayana, Late Chirutanipuram Pottigari Ranganayaki, Late Saride Anasuya
and Late Golconda Bharathamma. Swapnasundari single handedly resurrected this
art form and brought it to the proscenium stage.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt;">A javali from this
repertoire is presented by one of her students in the link I have pasted
below. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEAp-Fmh6nQ" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEAp-Fmh6nQ</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Unabashedly erotic, javalis are
the quintessential marker of salon performances by courtesans. Soneji
notes that “javalis are also signs of the volatile, sexually charged space of
the salon, one that was diametrically opposed to the contained, private sexuality
of the conjugal home." Like their predecessor, the padam, javalis are also
tripartite and contain a pallavi (refrain), anupallavi (a sub-refrain) and
charanams(stanzas). Like the padam, the narrative content of the javali is
subject to multiple interpretations. The unravelling of this layered meaning
through the medium of abhinaya (mime) via the use of hastas(hands) and facial
movements that depict objects and ideas in multiple ways, in accordance with
classical imagery associated with shringara (erotic love) is what would be
expected from a good dancer.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt;">A sani would also be
expected to sing the javali in addition to performing abhinaya to it. The
raga(melody) that the song is set to, the poetic devices used in the lyrics of
the javali , and the tala(rhythm) </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">enable narrative and aesthetic
movement through the text. The narrator of the
javali is almost always a woman and she is mostly in conversation
with a patron, even if the lyrics themselves are directed towards a local
representation of Krishna. The javali is always about the sexual subjectivity
of the individual female performer and it is for this reason that sanis also
talk of the proximities of their own lives to the narrative of the javali.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is indeed, a rare opportunity to be able to
witness elaborate abhinaya and to witness such a rare composition that is
mostly unknown outside of the sani repertoire. Most of these javalis have not
been documented in textual formats. There is an element of spontaneity in the
performance as well which would be expected of a sani, because abhinaya was
never “choregraphed” per se. The distinctive feature of javali renditions
in coastal Andhra is the gaptu-varusa, or improvised dance sequence, at the
end, which apart from being exquisite in this particular rendition, undeniably
marks the technical and aesthetic continuity of javali renditions in the
courtesan community.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A brief description of the Javali is as follows:</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The nayika is married and is trying to ward off the
sexual advances of the hero. She might be doing so because she does not think
highly him. He may not be a refined man for example. Or she may not want to
engage with him because he has approached her at an inopportune moment and she
does not wish to be caught by her husband. The dancer, Pujita Krishna Jyoti
very skilfully portrays both these ideas.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Expect nothing from me. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If my husband were to know, he
will think me a cheat. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am not like that lotus-eyed
whore of yours, so these antics won't work.<br />
I know you are only after my jewels, but I am not flattered by how handsome you
are. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I can only tell smooth talkers
like you to get lost.<br />
Don't ask for things you can't have (like the moon). <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am appalled that you aren't
even the least bit coy at approaching someone as exquisite as I. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Go away!”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b> Reference:</b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">- Soneji
Davesh, Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory and Modernity in South India.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
</span></div>
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Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-7500038118941418762014-11-24T18:34:00.000+05:302014-12-05T13:22:49.385+05:30Odissi Intensive Workshop for Beginners at Antara (21st December to 30th December)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinJHsuhe77kJ-KLMvMB4_YCsEm15jkmxkTp1BBJCy8ZmFbOK_hf0XgHVRvLmmTIbOpu0sHal9G19417eqhXd4CasiVsMswGEjyrGXBsE0OO1c46PCbIl4FdoC6FOA3uIu2dyGg_k3d6L4/s1600/Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinJHsuhe77kJ-KLMvMB4_YCsEm15jkmxkTp1BBJCy8ZmFbOK_hf0XgHVRvLmmTIbOpu0sHal9G19417eqhXd4CasiVsMswGEjyrGXBsE0OO1c46PCbIl4FdoC6FOA3uIu2dyGg_k3d6L4/s1600/Poster.jpg" height="282" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Syllabus for Odissi Intensive workshop for
beginners</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-</span><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Prayers/Shloka</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Bhumi Pranam<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">- Exercises/warm ups for Odissi dance<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Odissi stances <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Basic steps - 10 nos. ( 5 in each chowka and
Tribhangi stance)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Odissi walk<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Turns in odissi 2 nos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Hasta bheda or hand gestures<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Paad bheda or feet positions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Ektaal in odissi writing and reciting<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Stretches and cool downs / relaxations<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Watch some videos together<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">- Short introduction on history of odissi dance<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">-Discuss/ share your experiences, doubts and
difficulties with other participants and
instructor</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Key
takeaways<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">- A good understanding of basics in odissi<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Learn to appreciate Odissi<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Explore the possibilities of your body <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Get video recordings for self practice<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">- Sweat a lot and shed a few pounds :D<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Facilitator
/Instructor - Poornima<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Is a disciple of guru Jhelum Paranjape (Mumbai)
for over 20 years and is blessed to have some training from the legendary guru
Padmavibhushan Kelucharan Mohapatra. Trained at Nrityagram for a year, she has
performed extensively with Guru Jhelum Paranjape all over country. She has also
been faculty at Smitalay for 2 yrs. She likes to focus on clarity in
understanding and physical practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Poornima-From
a students’ perspective<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Learning dance under Poornima is a rare
experience in the world of classical dances today. Despite the work out that
the classes involve, it has an after effect of peace and agility. One feels
relaxed and active more than tired and inadequate after the classes and is
often left with a desire to come back to the practice space in the following
week. By sharing with us what she learns from other forms of practice into
Odissi space, she cultivates a healthy attitude towards bodily activities in
general and encourages an open-mindedness to learn from all forms. My time in
the dance class is the loveliest time I have spent with myself and my body. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Timings<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Batch 1: 10.00 A.M.
to 12.30 P.M<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Batch 2: 5.00 P.M.
to 7.00 P.M.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">(Limited Seats Available).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0Bengaluru, Karnataka, India12.9715987 77.59456269999998312.4764182 76.949115699999979 13.4667792 78.240009699999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-67516872386924545962014-11-23T17:51:00.001+05:302014-11-23T17:51:46.438+05:30"On the State of Puppet Theatre in India"- A Talk by Anurupa Roy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(This
talk was organized by Antara Artists Collective Trust along with Abstract Art
Gallery in Bangalore.)</span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdwXeBP-UFxpdl7vmIlu3QFEY-jOhWWwyB1hJ0UovgVpGyqbJ0OnjC58gJKeFR-q3-iHrL_y8_BuGuVryn2MZiWIg4R94DxF001UHbpZu0K_Mvm_yuoaWy5bcFU_0jolZMNfiIf1E9vdw/s1600/IMG_7830.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdwXeBP-UFxpdl7vmIlu3QFEY-jOhWWwyB1hJ0UovgVpGyqbJ0OnjC58gJKeFR-q3-iHrL_y8_BuGuVryn2MZiWIg4R94DxF001UHbpZu0K_Mvm_yuoaWy5bcFU_0jolZMNfiIf1E9vdw/s1600/IMG_7830.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As traffic hummed
with a post-lunch drowsiness on this Monday afternoon, a few people in the city,
were making enthusiastic entries into Abstract Art Gallery to participate in a talk on the state of puppet
theatre in India. Anurupa Roy, animated the silent afternoon with her
passionate and critical perspective on the pervading imagination of puppetry in
Indian society. Puppetry, she said, is fundamentally an art of bringing life to
that which is inanimate. It is this
nature of puppeteer’s work that makes it a distinguished performing art, (she
quickly demonstrated by making a couple of shoes speak). A theatre director brings
characters and stories to life through human beings but a puppeteer labours to
bring characters and stories to life through the medium of silent objects. Their
art is to make silent objects speak through the literary devices of suggestions
and metaphors. Movement (or stillness) is one of the basic phenomenon that
“animating” depends on. Therefore, to make movements meaningful and suggestive
one has to understand them. It becomes important for a puppeteer to observe and
understand how her own body movements emote in order to emote correctly through
the bodies of the puppets. This art of bringing silent objects to life is done
in a way such that, <i>the willing
suspension of disbelief</i> occurs as a double layered process in the mind of a
puppetry audience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;"> 1. The audience has to suspend the
belief that puppets are not real characters (which also happens in regular </span><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; text-indent: -18pt;">theater</span><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;">. </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;"> 2.</span><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-indent: -18pt;">The audience has to suspend the
belief that puppets are dead objects (which is specific to puppetry)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKOKSndzoB5xTNw8YFq0KbPQYkAej4zlzSupanpE6FfJmRNyOMpQ12vXbDd5E1WsZQxLLETDfMkXMWwY-zdI29AS4LpIaRlssiS2p807t1ZckVJ76v8kIpTFChJlyaa1cX-AQ54X8JcxE/s1600/IMG_7850.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKOKSndzoB5xTNw8YFq0KbPQYkAej4zlzSupanpE6FfJmRNyOMpQ12vXbDd5E1WsZQxLLETDfMkXMWwY-zdI29AS4LpIaRlssiS2p807t1ZckVJ76v8kIpTFChJlyaa1cX-AQ54X8JcxE/s1600/IMG_7850.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Thus, by offering a twice alienated perspective
of reality to the audience, a puppeteer actually brings them that much closer
to reality. Ironically this art that gives life to the lifeless is framed as a
dying art. Anurupa insisted that we locate where this idiom of “dying art” is
being generated. Largely, we can attribute it to be a state created phenomenon
where with the advent of modernism, something monumental called the <i>Indian
culture</i> was perceived to be disappearing and endangered. Jammed
between those whole held that Indian culture has to be revived and those who
held that it has to be refined, Indian culture was definitely not to be left
alone. Puppetry being a part of the Indian culture, like other art forms, came
to bear the impact of India’s great nation building project. But what happened
in the name of state’s divine intervention to save the arts is tragic.
Especially in the case of Odissi shadow puppetry, state intervention actually
endangered puppetry art by trying to refine it. In a lot of other cases,
puppets from being objects of performance, withdrew into glass cases to become
objects of preservation</span><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb8jkDsZsC7IXRoO6sSFzWLlP032C-N2Y807fc6dBgXaGwRqLOMkTUcv_NBeRbDtMWiOrHRZZf2Ut3JQD31vnhBHkm6-dtBopK5RH07lOuH35wNRu_6CcuN_O8OwH94jD5RxGHZhLhvmo/s1600/IMG_7829.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb8jkDsZsC7IXRoO6sSFzWLlP032C-N2Y807fc6dBgXaGwRqLOMkTUcv_NBeRbDtMWiOrHRZZf2Ut3JQD31vnhBHkm6-dtBopK5RH07lOuH35wNRu_6CcuN_O8OwH94jD5RxGHZhLhvmo/s1600/IMG_7829.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">However, apart from
the Odissi context, puppetry as an art practice is not endangered. What is
endangered are the narratives that were performed. In a span of two generations
the stories that a puppeteer would know has shrunk from 30,000 to 3,000. One
can even compare and contrast the trajectory of puppetry with the trajectory of
dance where “refinement” of certain dance forms lead to loss of variety in
practices. Anurupa drew attention to the fact that there has been no census of
puppet theatre in India for 30 years reflecting the hollowness of the claim
that puppetry is a dying art. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the contemporary
context this “save the art”, idiom has taken the form of not just state
intervention but also the form of well wishing corporates. A lot of capitalist
firms bring art onto the stage in urban spaces under the tag of “folk art”.
Dislocated from their contexts these art forms do not fit properly within the
fabric of an urban society. Due to this
mismatch and lack of being able to make sense of this art in a relevant way,
people are prompted to reaffirm it as “folk”. According to Annapurna Garimella
(one of the participants and an art historian), any kind of engagement with
puppetry (and other arts) within the system of capitalism gets framed either as
paternalistic (saving the art form) or as developmental (bringing this art into
urban spaces is good for the development of society). In either of the
instances the relationship between the artist and the state/organization is
unequal. It creates an illusionary relationship where one is doing a favour for
another. Having problematized bringing puppetry into urban spaces does not
imply that one has to necessarily visit the rural spaces or villages to
experience and appreciate the art form in its “true” context. These art forms
must be taught and practiced in urban spaces as well but not in a way that
simply mimics and dislocates the art but in a way that is well contextualized
to the changing needs and ways of the society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The solution to
salvage puppetry from all these pervading stereotypes and imagination is to
bring criticality to the practice of puppetry. It is in this context that
Anurupa situated her vision to start a school of puppet theatre where she
intends to build a troupe of puppeteers who can critically engage with the
practice of this art form. It is required for such schools to be built in our
society because an individual, who does not belong to a puppeteer family, who
is interested in doing puppetry has no organization to associate
herself/himself with. Such people have to either be self-taught or join a
school abroad where puppetry is taught systematically. Largely a self-taught puppeteer, Anurupa had
to travel a lot to different places to watch and learn the craft of puppetry. These
experiences and perceptions will be the mud and bricks of the school she wishes
to build. </span><span style="font-family: 'Baskerville Old Face', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-align: left;">Contextualizing her dream she
gave people more clarity to perceive it as a rising vision amidst all the
stereotypes, policies, politics and the ideologies surrounding the art of
puppetry.</span></div>
</div>
Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-63357231853823134142014-11-23T16:19:00.003+05:302014-11-23T16:19:59.558+05:30Summary of Talks at Antara <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Baskerville Old Face, serif;"><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><i>(This talk was organized as an initiation of critical dialogue on arts at Antara)</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thursday morning at
Antara saw a dozen of people warming themselves and each other up with chai and
conversations, slowly tuning the air into a talk mode. Aparna Banerji was soon
giving the introduction, kick-starting the monthly series of talk for critical
engagement in performance and other arts at Antara. She located the event in
the larger context of Antara’s objective to be a forum which is not limited
within the academic circles, encouraging the participation of the academicians,
practitioners and the general population alike. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The first speaker,
Sammitha, a research affiliate at Antara, engaged with those nodes where the
philosophical and the cultural in her research intersect. Drawing on the
age-old aesthetic debate between form and expression, she articulated the
limitations of perceiving dance as a purely formalistic art form. Dance,
according to her, cannot exist but in its practice and performance. While as a
theory, formalism has been tackled and exposed, a large part of dance-teaching
in contemporary India treats dance formalistically as it has become very
prescriptive and text book dependent. This formalistic understanding of dance
flourished in post-independent India when dance became institutionalized. For
correcting this over-formalistic perception of dance, she proposed that we
explore that culture of India which was deeply oral and performative. The
absence of the “written word”, encouraging criticality in practice. Hence,
apart from practicing dance she is engaging with aesthetic concepts from Indian
tradition of thought such as Nrtta, Bandha and Anibandha as potential
substitutes of Western formalism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Vivek Vijayakumaran,
the second speaker, journeyed us through his intellectual and an emotional life
as an actor. His story embodied his philosophy, slowly revealing to us the
continuous interiority of an acting-self despite taking on different roles. The
modern - urban “self” became the locus of his story as he recounted his
experiences of learning traditional <i>Kudiyattam</i>
in Kerala (near Trissur) and taking acting classes from Kanhaiyalalji in Manipur.
Through these experiences he explored
his body as a repository of memory as he gave us vivid descriptions of the
changes he underwent psychologically while he learnt and practiced various
bodily exercises. While speaking about extrapolating the criticality built in
these traditional art forms into contemporary theatre practices, he held the
ritual of surrender of “self” in these art forms as a critical practice for
himself. The talk ended with discussions and sharing experiences of the ritual
of surrender in different dance practices and in other performing arts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Aparna, the final
speaker, tied up the event by pulling strands from both the previous talks.
While she insightfully articulated the
history of dance in general and Odissi in specific, she also spoke of body as a
site of knowledge, memory and heritage. Dance is not simply moving bodies but
is a “culturally structured moving system”. For Aparna, the weight of history
that a dancer’s body silently bears is one of the many aspects embodied in a
dancing subject. She spoke of the dancer’s body as a many-layered subject which
is simultaneously a recording, transmitting, reflecting, performing and a
miming body. Drawing the historical and
the practicing aspects of dance together she focused on the need to develop
pedagogical techniques that nurtures a reflexive attitude towards understanding
one’s history and also one’s own body as a multi-faceted system. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-IN; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">These talks triggered
varied responses in the audience as they honestly expressed their opinions that
were shaped through their mode of interaction with performing arts. As the
gathering dispersed, everyone carried a piece of the event as a potential
beginning of meaningful dialogues on critical practice and theory in performing
arts. As far as Antara is concerned, this event is the beginning of what will
soon culminate to be a monthly event of critical dialogue and discussion. </span></div>
Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-63659665582255845982014-11-22T23:34:00.002+05:302014-11-23T13:22:16.700+05:30Antara - Redefining a Dance Space<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Tucked away in the
corner of the city, Antara is a world of its own. Antara Artists’ Collective
Trust, is a dance community, made up of teachers, students and is open for
anyone who is passionate about dance. Kathak, Odissi, Bharathanatyam, Violin,
Tabla, Sitar, Hindustani vocal and Carnatic vocal are traditional art forms
taught in Antara. In this urban-Indian society, where becoming a classical
dancer is so formulaic, Antara gives us a unique perspective on dance and what
it is to be a dancer. To become a classical dance artist, in today’s society is
a matter of learning the syllabus and passing the junior, senior and vidvat
exams. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“<i>Syllabusizing</i>” dance and having huge
productions and performances in enormous auditorium is not a thing here. At
Antara, performances take the form of sunset <i>baithaks</i> in the glow of oil lamps. During performances, the
audience and the artists share an intimate time and space so that appreciation
happens at a deeper, face-to-face level. Without making a display of dance by
evoking the idiom of “preservation of Indian culture”, Antara nurtures
dance-form as a vital bodily practice. This keeps the art functional, alive and
relevant without deadening it into a historical artefact. For people of this
community, dance is fundamentally a practice and the objective is to
internalize it as a bodily and reflexive activity into their day-to-day lives. Aparna
Uppaluri Banerjee, who is the founder of Antara and an Odissi dance teacher
says, “What matters is the depth of experience. Lot of people who come here
need not wish to become long-term artists but in whatever time they spend here,
it is important that they find a new relationship with themselves through
dance.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsnt3cvMLXMyjNIHf9e7knfKDBCWzQ1fn2rWGNMkNFx2UXNZz2aAmBrnz-IMP5N-COSoYdpYfVEikYCKXhbTu0_WahoUHDfRSTHA6cu_RPGtx88KFCpRmAL8pUiuRPfpbDXMtXMOrhb94/s1600/IMG_3478.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsnt3cvMLXMyjNIHf9e7knfKDBCWzQ1fn2rWGNMkNFx2UXNZz2aAmBrnz-IMP5N-COSoYdpYfVEikYCKXhbTu0_WahoUHDfRSTHA6cu_RPGtx88KFCpRmAL8pUiuRPfpbDXMtXMOrhb94/s1600/IMG_3478.JPG" height="320" width="213" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Young children use
their mind and body alike in the learning sessions reflecting the coexistence
of practice and theory. While they learn to gain control over their bodily
movements, they are also encouraged to articulate it. It is heart-warming to read their small yet
tremendously thoughtful essays about how they feel and think about dance
practice. An eleven year old student, Sakshi writes to her Aparna <i>aunty</i>, “You might usually feel that your
mind is the master and can make your body do whatever it wants to. But that
isn’t true. If your body would not exist your mind would not exist. Your mind
is the one who makes you stressed out, angry, unhappy etc., but your body does
nothing it’s just there. It teaches us to be. So, when your mind gives
instructions to your body, give your body the freedom to think and explain to
the mind too.” Apart from the dialogues and discussions, Antara houses a
library with handpicked books on traditional arts in order to facilitate
serious theoretical pursuits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">However,</span> <span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">by
simultaneously being a classical dance school and a radical space for
kinesthetic exploration, Antara faces its share of struggles. Teaching the
classical arts, having small traditional crafts exhibitions are some of its main
livelihood sources. This is precisely the cause that Antara is motivated by -
to create a forum for teachers, students and enthusiasts alike by bringing them
together and offering a space to support meaningful learning. To stay true to
its cause and to keep away from corporate overheads and banners involves
commitment from all its members. The people working here to keep the place
alive, reflect the emotional and intellectual bonding that they have with each
other and the space. Subverting the dominant
employer-employee relationship, Antara is a family set-up where the spirit is
that of give and take. Moreover, it is through daily activities like having
lunch together and serving each other that Antara thrives like a family. Due to
their sustained efforts Antara is growing now. Nevertheless, they make sure
that they flow with their own definition of growth, constantly struggling
against the tide of profit and display. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6240066905103548722.post-64973865966875276402014-11-22T23:12:00.001+05:302014-11-22T23:36:27.246+05:30Hello Folks!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Antara Blog is a
space dedicated to the arts and culture of South Asia. We encourage
perspectives on arts and culture from
the world of practitioners, artists, researchers, lay people and initiate
dialogue between them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Enjoy your first
post!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Sammithahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17244832464525625428noreply@blogger.com0