April 10, 2007

• Sometimes The Dancer's Feet Are The Drums - Percussive Footwork and Indian Classical Dance

   

                            

                                                           

  Shiva Nataraja           

  Lord Shiva engaged in a cosmic dance, one of several ways he is represented in Hindu iconography.  Devotees believe that the energy from this dance sustains the cosmos, and when Shiva is finished with this dance, this universe will end and a new one will begin.  In another lifetime I could tell you about Hindu iconography (Shiva's creative energy can also be represented as a lingum or phallus, worshiped by being bathed in clarified butter, but that really will have to wait.).

  Tonight I am chasing the sounds of the drums and the dance.  Having written in "Women Drummers" about the vocalized syllables that make up the bol for the table (see below)  I went seeking videos of Indian classical dance where the dancer's feet are themselves a percussion instrument, not just keeping a beat with the bands of bells on the ankles, but answering the bol (bol = "to speak" - dha dhin dhin dha, e.g. ) of the tabla player or singer.  The dances I've linked to all  have passages where the performer dances the bol directly, or, in the case of the first Bharat Natyam piece, about Lord Shiva, synchronize their footwork with the tabla.

  This elaborates on this concept -

  "In kathak, each syllable is designed not merely to represent the sounds of feet and bells but also to be in harmony with the strokes of the accompanying percussion instruments. During a performance pieces of abstract dance may be recited before their execution, and the dancer may employ variation in intonation in order to sketch out in sound the approximate contours of the movements s/he will use. This parhant, or recitation, is also a medium of communication with the percussionist(s) who must match, stroke for syllable, what the dancer recites. Furthermore, the parhant enables the audience to visualize and appreciate the rhythmic patterns before they are revealed in dance movements". (http://www.pathcom.com/~ericp/kathak.html)

  Indian classical dance is narrative.  All gestures have a specific meaning and are linked to tell a story. 

  This one (Click here to watch) is in the style of Bharat Natyam and celebrates Siva Nataraja, he who creates and sustains the world with dance.  Although the sound quality is lousy, it begins with a demonstration of the meanings of the individual gestures and proceeds to a well-composed dance with lots of tabla - footwork response passages.

  This one is in the North Indian style of Khatak and subtitles the narrative gestures.  Click here and hope that youtube is up and running.  (FYI, the lyrics open with the word "akeyli" = alone  and "chele akeyli" - "go alone")   

  More Kathak - danced on a rooftop in Benares/Varanasi.  (an aside -Pragmatic about multiuse of space, people in the subcontinent use rooftops as rooms, sleeping there at night when it is hot and spending time there during the day when it is cold to take advantage of all available sun.  In the rainy season there is a little sheltered room where one can stay out of the rain...  I grew to love rooftops, one of the west's largest areas of wasted space.....end of aside).  The footwork is very good in this one  Click here to join the dancers and musicians on a rooftop in India's most sacred city.

   

  You will find more terrific footwork here in this fascinating meld of the Khatak and Bharat Natyam traditions.

   

  More about the individual dance traditions - I've not got a clip of Odissi, Manipuri, e.g. - will have to wait for another time.  

   

  One last piece of candy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk53z5U7dqI&mode=related&search= a young Khatak dancer working on her footwork,  Since she is dancing alone on the resonant wooden studio floor, one hears this exceptionally well.

   

  Oh, I can't stop.  Here's two more links.  http://youtube.com/watch?v=SZuClWRxsWEt  and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk0xaIedlNU&mode=related&search=

   

  I'm dealing with some health problems that leave me with little energy to spare at the moment, so I am particularly appreciative of those of you who manage to stop by and comment, even though I don't make it around to see you.  It's all I can manage to post occasionally.  I think of you all, and miss you, and, most of all, hope you are well and reasonably happy.. 

   

   

   

  pearlbamboo

   

   

  • 6:33 am
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