Preface

 

“The awareness is expressed through creation.

This world we live in is a dance of the creator.

The dancers appear and disappear

at a glance

but the dance is still living.

On many occasions when I’m dancing,

I am touched by something sacred.

In these moments I feel my spirit is raised and

become one with all there is.

I become the winner and the subjugated,

I become the master and slave,

I become the singer and song,

I become the expert and the known.

Still dancing and then this is

the eternal dance of creation.

The creator and creation merge

in one of joy.

Still dancing …and dancing …and dancing,

… until there is only the dance. ”

-Michael Jackson

  Every artistic endeavour of man is a symbol to communicate the deep feelings and emotions that are beyond ordinary speech. Thus, art is purely communication at the deepest and most lasting level.  Expressing oneself through art is revealing a secret that cannot be expressed through words. People mostly use only 10% of their brain. And communicating through art engages that part of the brain which is usually not being used.

  Ultimately it is Divine love that is being expressed, and the art leads the viewer to connect directly with that ultimate reality. Bhakti-yoga (devotion) is  essentially the yoga of emotion, and transcendental art is a panacea for this age, in which few people can read and few of those who do read can understand. But the art will communicate even with the illiterate, and once seen, these images become fixed in the brain.

  Art leads us to universal in physical materials. Ksemaraja in his Sivasutra Vimarsini says kalayati swaswarupaveshena tadtad vastu parichhinatti iti kalavyapara. “The artist at the place of an object creates a manifestation of the form of his own soul”.  Isadora Duncan expressed the same idea: "The dancer's body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul."In the Kausitaki Brahmana, kala (art) is defined as kam nama sukham lati iti kala. (Kau. Br. 29.5), that which gives happiness - Ananda.

  For me dance is a spiritual search. Search for something or someone I lost once. As Sa’adi, a 13^th century Sufi philosopher and poet said: “The dance opens a door in the soul to divine influence…. The dance is good when it arises from the rememberance of the Beloved. Then each waving sleeve has a soul in it”.   

  Art is a powerful tool to realize divine presence. Truth is beauty and beauty is truth. And “That which is not beautiful in its effect cannot be real beauty” (Hazrat inayat khan). And this is exactly what Bharata Natyam is. Pure beauty and hence pure truth. It is not pretencious. It is purified to such extend that there is nothing else to take away and that makes it very readable. In pure dance of Bharata Natyam we always use the shortcut. When hand has to go from one point to another we make it in the shortest way. No unnecessary movements are made. Being in contemporary dance company the most important thing  I learnt from my choreographer is to do less for “less is more”. She always says to us “don’t hide behind the movements”. Stillness is something that many dancers fear to embrace. I like what Antoine de Saint-Exupery said in this regard:

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Bharata Natyam is not about high legs or 1 million movements in 1 minute. It is about reaching out to the spectator, touching his heart. Like VP Dhananjayan said: "All display of talents do not become an object of art; the talent that touches the hearts of onlookers and listeners only can be called an art, be it music, painting, sculpture or dance". All the tricks what we can see nowadays in the dance world can excite you but when you come home after the show you will be left with nothing. Because in the west dance is entertainment. In ancient India it was first of all ritual and meditation. It is search for inner harmony. Bharata Natyam is an entertainment that doesn’t excite you, on the other hand, that brings you peace of mind. It has as its goal to elevate a spectator, to awaken the Divine emotions in him. Pina Bausch reflected this idea really good: "I’m not interested in how people move; I’m interested in what makes them move." 

  The spiritual approach to the art means just to be in tune with it. Just to make art state of your being. Therefore spiritual man doesn’t bother a lot about the mastery level of his art. Because besides art that we create there is also influence of prana, psychical force, which is put into art by the artist. So it is not so much about what you do, it is about who you are. And practice makes it perfect anyways. Of course, the better art is whether it is music, dance etc., the more wholesome it is for the spiritual man. But at the same time let’s not forget that in Tibet there are Lamas, who spend their meditations accompanied by sort of rattle and it has not very melodic sound. Or dance of whirling Dervishes is nothing sophisticated but at the same time very deep- with the right palm raised up they receive light from heaven and with left palm pour it down to earth. In Christianity Saint Augustin confessed to the Lord for he more enjoyed singing in the temple than the content of the singing. I am not trying to preach not to strive for perfection but just to make a point that it is not the thing that makes your art true.

Majority of materials in this compilation are taken from internet, books on Bharat Natyam, with addition of personal notes.

I do not claim to know everything about Bharata Natyam. They say that one has to spend 11 lives in order to master this art. So I am just in the very beginning of the road. But I already have something to share. And this work is meant first of all to piece together for me what I have learnt during these years. I guess this kind of manual is exactly what I missed when I started to dance because Bharata Natyam for me was something highly magical but also a big puzzle at the same time. So I decided to systematize the outcome of my research in order to continue learning new things. And here it is!