Dancing with the Gods

This piece has got to do with a lecture I attended – “Dancing With Gods” by writer, Anita Nair. It happened over six months ago but it has left a lasting impression on me. She was not good at capturing the audience’s attention for most part of it because she was droning in a monotone, reading out from a script. Yet, the theme caught my attention.

Let me give you the whole picture. I have been learning dance for the past thirteen – fourteen years going through a whole array of stages. There are two people I revere as gurus – one, my elder brother and the other, my dance teacher. Dancing is not easy – it requires discipline, and large amounts of it. I joined, or rather; my mother put me into the dance class at the age of five. I don’t exactly remember. At that age, it didn’t matter to me at all. I just went there and whiled away my time paying no attention to what my teacher would say and just doing things mechanically. It was difficult to understand why we were dancing in the first place. But it didn’t bother me too much because it was just another thing to do!

The next phase was anger and complete indignation. As I grew a few years older, my teacher started getting strict. She used to shout at us, make us do long and demanding steps unrelenting to our pleas. She first wanted to build our stamina before correcting us and teaching us about the more intricate part of the dance. I used to curse my mother every time I went to class and even more, on my way back. Yet, somehow I was so used to going to dance class and seeing the teacher’s face that I never dreamt of stopped going to class by throwing a tantrum. I was successful in doing that with my music classes though. I began accepting it as my fate. And she succeeded in instilling basic discipline. And, she began telling us short stories, giving us bits of cultural background. I simply absorbed the whole thing without being aware of it!

The next phase was the Salangai Pooja. It is the first time a teacher presents the student with salangai, which is the first prerequisite that an aspiring dancer must fulfil. But, she wouldn’t let anybody and everybody do the pooja. “You must have a certain standard”, she would say. Mine happened in the sixth grade. That was when she taught us about the intricacies of the dance. We were taught about body posture, the way to walk, the way to look, etc. We were still too young to emote so she let that aspect go. We had to perform without error, she would say. A small mistake on the stage would result in a firing the next class in front of everybody. With the encouragement I received from my parent’s quarters and the patience that my teacher had, it went smoothly without a hitch. Great! After that, all my cursing stopped. My confidence built up and I began admiring my teacher as she used to tell us more and more things, small things that we picked up along the way.

The next milestone to be reached was the Arangetram. That is done when the student learns all the forms of the dance and can emote considerably on stage. It means that the student has learnt everything and that further there is only improvisation. It is a grand event and requires at least two months of devoted practice. Thereafter, a student is qualified to perform on stage. That happened in the ninth grade. And I gave a few public performances. So, she kept correcting us, improvising, etc.

By this time, we were all grown up to understand the dance and to enjoy it; the science behind it. To help us understand, she would make us teach our junior students. It is a very refreshing experience. You really get to see the mistakes and the right postures, expressions, etc. Then, I entered into my eleventh grade. And had to discontinue my classes because I joined coaching classes for JEE and the timings clashed. Then, I cleared the exam and joined the hostel at IIT. Being too lazy to travel home during weekends, I did not resume my dancing.

And then, the revelation happened at Saarang 2006. There was a western music workshop that I just attended. You might find it totally unrelated. The lecture was on some of the advanced techniques of drumming. It was then that I realized that rhythm was a part of me just like blood. And every drumbeat urged me to stand up and dance. I made up my mind then and there. That come what may, as long as I am in Chennai, I would attend dance classes during weekends. So I resumed going to classes. In the beginning, it was quite rusty and I was nervous too. And slowly I got adjusted. And dancing is an eternal experience. From the stage that I had left, the science of it, our teacher introduces us to the world of creativity and choreography. It is not at all easy. A single minute of song may take hours to choreograph. The music, the rhythm, the expression, the context should all blend in.

Coming back to the lecture, its title was dancing with the gods. I found that peculiar. Most of the songs that we dance for, praise the virtues of God or we depict instances or situations from the everyday world. The lecture began with her experiences as a Kathakali student, a course she did spanning a few months. The way her teacher taught her, about the nuances of the dance form; those little details that give it the grace that one can learn only from a guru, things that can’t be learned visually by being part of the audience. And after the course, Anita Nair never got around to dancing. She never became a professional dancer. Yet, it was a worthy experience that she had had – the relationship she shared with her teacher. The whole process of learning is a step-by-step process and each stage is a revelation. There is no point hurrying the whole process at all. It may take a whole lifetime and it is worth every moment of it. And also that, to learn an art does not mean that one has to become an exponent, a performer, a genius; but to enjoy every moment of it, to respect it, to understand it. Whether or not you DANCE FOR THE GODS, with all the bhakti, devotion and dedication, you must always be elevated by it, like the way you feel admiring nature, when you feel you are in unison with the world around, and gives you the feeling of DANCING WITH THE GODS!!