Exit Gracefully Contd..

In continuation of my previous post 'Exit Gracefully', I suddenly remembered something to contribute constructively rather than stopping with a criticism of the stalwarts.

Ever wondered you can learn Bharatanatyam at the age of 60+? Read on…

The Art of Living organization had conducted its Silver Jubilee celebrations in 2007 at Bangalore with a musical fete of about thousand Veena artisits, about thousand mridanga/ tabla artisits, about thousand flute artisits etc., - totally about 5000 artists. The vibrations and the joy of the event cannot be contained in words. In continuation of that ArtOfLiving had conducted several programs at various places like Kerala, Delhi, Mumbai etc., with several hundreds of artists performing their state’s traditional art. In the same way, a program was conducted at Chennai also with hundreds of Bharathanatya dancers. I was a volunteer for the program and I happened to know some interesting things that took place there.

The Kalakshetra foundation is the main Bharathanatya dance school functioning at Chennai and it is unfortunately being led by a Christian lady. This Sonia’s Congress Govt could not find any Hindu dancer to lead the organization for Hindu ancient art. She thought Sri Sri Ravishankar’s Chennai program was religious and so refused to send her students to the program. Sri Sri was firm in his views – yes, this is a religious program – how can you separate Bharatanatyam and Hindu religion? – how can an art born out of India be separated from Hindu religion? the whole of bharatanatyam is based on Hindu Gods, how can you separate both of them? Unfortunately a Christian lady had invented that the Bharatanatyam dance performance is Hindu religious specific and firmly said ‘No’ to send her students to the program. The students though eager to perform, feared about their academic results being tampered by this idiot lady. Then Guruji made a personal call and said NO HUMAN CAN DECIDE THE FATE OF ANOTHER HUMAN and the students came formed and performed against the wish of their institutional head, brave isitn't?. There were about 400 performers from different parts of Chennai and the majority of the performers were below 25 years of age right from 5-6 years. What a performance it was, It had to be seen to feel the vibrations and the divine presence on that day.

Guruji might have kept this in mind and should have said to himself - NO HUMAN CAN DESTROY THE HINDUISM AND ITS ARTS. He very recently founded a 6 days course called Natya Yoga and successfully completed 2 courses in India and 3 at Dubai and Sharja. Right now one is going on in Kerala. I give below the details as I received from Art of Living organisation:

Natya Yoga

Ever wondered why it is called the änanda tandava (blissful dance)?! Attend Natya yoga!

Explore Natya through bhajans

Natya Yoga is a six day dance workshop designed for the benefit of all, irrespective of age, gender or prior training in Dance. This workshop aims at teaching classical Bharatanatyam with Bhajans as its foundation. The word classical in no way implies that it is complicated. The very idea of this workshop is to help one and all appreciate classical art forms, and to help everyone explore the spirit of dance and music, which is bliss. Hence the name “NATYA YOGA” (Literally union in dance). The participants will be able to dance to a Bhajan at the end of the workshop.

All living beings have a natural tendency to express joy via movements, it is especially the case with human beings, dance being as expression of joy. The precise purpose behind Natya Yoga is to enable one and all to experience the joy of movement, or dance; and the healing effects of music.
Natya Yoga enables one to enjoy the language of Indian classical art forms. This workshop is meant to help one leave behind day to day life, and enter a world that is surreal.






Experiences of the participants:

Thirty of us, a mixture of young and old with absolutely no idea of bharatanatyam grabbed the opportunity to do the very first course of NATYA YOGA .Some people wondered ‘Of what use is it to learn dance at this age? We are never going to be stage performers. The answer came immediately. Ganga(the teacher) gave us a visual treat. As I was watching, I became aware that there is a difference in my viewing the dance now after Natya yoga. I was watching intently then I thought ‘Why I didn’t know to pray like this…..then slowly as the dance progressed my eyes were filled with tears and it became my prayer. Suddenly the ‘I” dropped and the ‘prayer’ remained. Finally the ‘Prayer’ too dropped and only the ‘Prayerfulness’, the ‘Bhav’ lingered. The philosophy behind the dance, the spirit behind the dancer dominated over the rest and I found my purpose of doing the ‘Natya Yoga’.

- Veda Chakrapani, Journalist.

According to Islam Dance is considered Haram (that which is prohibited). I too was of the opinion that only jobless people got together to do these kinds of things. After 6 days of Natya Yoga, my perspective has totally changed. Everyday was a new experience, and I eagerly awaited the beginning of every class. It is believed that dance is tiring, but I experienced quite the opposite – an extreme flow of energy! This is a priceless course that has helped me immensely. I will personally bring as many people to attend it as possible.

- Jahir Hussain, Bussinessman

Isn’t the way our Bharathanatyam stalwarts should think?

Imagine what an effect it could have been if our stalwarts do these kind of workshops at the College level?