Dance

 Recently was celebrated the dance day. Hence this blog. Actually it is the dance of democracy going on currently, and in full form. I did think of writing on the political mahaul. Then I thought through it, and felt frank opinions deserve YouTube videos and those kind of channels as the opinion would reach a larger public, right?

As for dance as a form of art, it is indeed unusual. Why? Well, unlike a full-fledged play, it can be a solo performance, and yet the "abhinaya" in dance is as powerful as in a play. It has the poetry both of words (though typically traditional, though at least modern themes are making inroads in this field),  and of movements. Like music, it has the sur, tal and 'laya'. In other words, in its own way, it is a confluence of arts, whether as a solo or as a troupe performance. 

True, mastery in dance, like in any other creative area, requires proper, thorough training, and lots of constant practice. Well, given the huge obsession with reel (if not, video) making, these days, anybody and everybody is a dancer.

Supporting this trend is the Bollywood dance phenomenon. People watch the video repeatedly, and manage the steps, whether solo or troupe which, given the three minutes run of the (mostly) dream sequence in a film, cannot anyways be tough.

The Ganapati festival street dance is a curious mix of the western pop and the ugly movements in the Bollywood dance. Well, the dancers are anyways high on liquor, and know not what they do.

In other words, dance is not throwing all parts of the body in whichever direction possible. There is a science and an art and a tradition to it.  Unfortunately, most people think of dance as a cheesy 'come hither' gesture popularised by Bollywood bimbos in extremely revealing clothes. The French cabaret, unlike such vulgarity, is artistic. 

Well, the worst part of the dance dilemma currently is the dance competitions on the television. It is hideous to see kids gyrating to ugly songs. Much worse than the masks worne delirium of 'vote de do, tab tak many a crazy creepy renditions of dance drama dekho'!

Pratima@Beautiful are the folk forms such as 'Yakshgana', while 'kalariypattu' is more a mode of self control gained through self reflexion.