Should Dance Educate? How?

Sri Aurobindo once wrote:

The first and lowest use of Art is the purely aesthetic, the second is the intellectual or educative, the third and highest the spiritual. By speaking of the aesthetic use as the lowest, we do not wish to imply that it is not of immense value to humanity, but simply to assign to it its comparative value in relation to the higher uses. The aesthetic is of immense importance and until it has done its work, mankind is not really fitted to make full use of Art on the higher planes of human development. (CWSA, Vol. 1, p. 439)

What made me recall these words this morning?

I recall them because of a Dance programme I attended last evening. It was an Odissi dance performance by Nayantara Nanda Kumar. The performance was actually part of a dance theater production titled "Beyond Names" which also included storytelling and poetry recitation. Produced by Secundarabad-based organization named Our Sacred Space, Beyond Names "celebrates the paths by which we seek the Essence. Whatever way we choose to acknowledge it. It is but One Energy - to which we assign the name of our choice." (programme brochure).

It was this programme description on Auroville's website that prompted me to go for it. Particularly the idea behind the title itself, Beyond Names. A movement through the various forms to the essential one formless, through the varied names to the one eternal nameless. This sounded very inviting.

The programme started off with the usual invocation to the gods, the universe and the audience, with the dancer performing Panchadevata Mangalacharan (salutations to five deities - Ganesha, Jagannatha/Vishnu, Rudra, Surya, and Shakti). This was followed by Sthai Nato, a pure nritta piece.

For the abhinaya component of the performance, a touching Hindi poem about a barbaric act of violence committed during communal riots was evocatively recited by the dancer's mother, a librarian and storyteller, while the dancer portrayed the emotions of the story through her performance. And this is the point where I found a certain part of my mind becoming a bit more active than I would have liked at a dance performance.

The dance combined with the storytelling was definitely meant to evoke a certain kind of educative experience. But for me, somehow it felt more like a mentalised education, at times briefly touching an emotional chord because of the emotional content of the story. It failed to become a deeply moving experience that could have touched a much deeper part of the heart, maybe even the soul.

After all, arts are meant to be an education for the soul. Not just mind and heart. But that depends on the readiness and preparedness of the learner too, I suppose.

Maybe I wasn't receptive enough last evening, maybe I failed to open widely and deeply enough to take 'in' the experience. Or just maybe I couldn't 'feel' a movement away from the names and forms to the Nameless and Formless, from the seen to the Unseen, from the violence to the Peace.

All the pieces that came after the abhinaya (Prayer for Peace - Moving Meditation, Transforming Anger, Jung ya Aman) ended up solidifying this mental educative experience further. There was no dance in any of these pieces, they were more theatrical pieces incorporating words, gentle movement, poetry recitation, and a video clip of an interview with a spiritual teacher.

What were all these pieces about, starting with abhinaya? Going back to the programme brochure, they were meant to address the following:

"We are witnessing a revival of fundamentalism of various hues. We are encouraged to believe that the religion we profess is the "best", unlike the "other" that is rabid/discriminatory/primitive, little realizing that it is the notion of "best" that contains the seed of violence.

"War is but the orchestrated version of the violence that we allow in thought, word and deed. War brutalizes both victor and vanquished and makes violence acceptable, leaving a trail of broken homes, broken families, broken lives...

"Beyond Names asks: Can we not evolve ways that are non-judgemental, inclusive, loving? For, in truth, there is no "other". To hate another is to hate ourselves....to embrace another is to embrace ourselves. Is that not the Essence that all of us seek...to be able to live in peace with ourselves?"

Sounds great. And as I read the brochure standing outside the auditorium before the programme, I was actually quite looking forward to the experience. I was looking forward to witness how the dancer and rest of the performers would take me to a deep place within where these mental questions of violence, war and fundamentalism would gradually and gently ease into a place of awareness, even if only a momentary awareness, of that Essence that is beyond all names and beyond all forms, that just IS.

But sadly, that never happened for me. The experience didn't take me to that place. Even with the last piece, which was a dance performance titled Moksha and Shanti Mantra, which ended rather quickly before I could really 'immerse' into it or 'flow' with the vibration of Peace this was meant to evoke.

The experience just kept me mentally engaged with the questions such as -- why an exclusive focus on only one "name" or one "form" of fundamentalism, why use a sensationalist-headlines type of story to illustrate the deep-rooted-ness of a ruthlessly violent part of all imperfect human nature, why not use dance and movement to express the idea of mindfulness instead of the words of a spiritual teacher, why not use a video clip of dance instead of a video clip with words, and a few more.

I came out of the auditorium not sure of how I felt about the whole experience. And that's what made me recall the words of Sri Aurobindo that I quote at the beginning of this post. Particularly the part about the educative function of the arts, particularly Indian forms of dance and drama.

Which brings me today to some more questions. (Are you surprised?)

What should be the role of dance and theater in education? What kind of educational experience should dance and theater evoke? How and in what ways should dance and theater evoke a learning experience? Should they touch only the outer layers of the viewer's mind and heart as last night's performance did for the most part? Or are there ways possible through which dance and theater can take the audience to a place beyond mind, even if it is for a split second, where a mental answer is not required because the questioning mind there is silent and finds an answer in the stillness itself? What is the place and purpose of experiment in Indian classical dance performances?

And as my husband and I kept discussing some of these questions during our drive back from the auditorium last evening and continuing that over our Sunday-special idli breakfast this morning, I was reminded of another passage from Sri Aurobindo. These are the words that help me reach to that place of silence within where the questioning mind stops.

Speaking of a true all-encompassing, life-affirming spirituality of the future and its all-inclusive connection with all activities of life and world, he writes this about the Art of a future society founded upon a true spirituality:

"The highest aim of the aesthetic being is to find the Divine through beauty; the highest Art is that which by an inspired use of significant and interpretative form unseals the doors of the spirit. But in order that it may come to do this greatest thing largely and sincerely, it must first endeavour to see and depict man and Nature and life for their own sake, in their own characteristic truth and beauty; for behind these first characters lies always the beauty of the Divine in life and man and Nature and it is through their just transformation that what was at first veiled by them has to be revealed. The dogma that Art must be religious or not be at all, is a false dogma, just as is the claim that it must be subservient to ethics or utility or scientific truth or philosophic ideas. Art may make use of these things as elements, but it has its own svadharma, essential law, and it will rise to the widest spirituality by following out its own natural lines with no other yoke than the intimate law of its own being." (CWSA, Vol. 25, pp. 229-230)

Image: Nayantara Nand Kumar, Source

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Glossary:
Nritta:
abstract dance, where the body makes patterns in space and there is no particular meaning attached to any gesture or movement. Even though mudras are used vastly in nritta, they are not used to convey stories.

Abhinaya: 
a tradition of story-telling in Indian classical dances, Abhinaya is a word made up of: abhi- ‘towards’ + nii (naya) - ‘leading/guide’. It literally means a ‘leading towards’ (leading the audience towards a sentiment, a rasa). Dancers bring forth stories based in myth or even contemporary commentary to invoke a certain response in the audience.

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Linking this with ABC Wednesday, D: D is for Dance

The Story Behind the Image on the Blog Header

I met her (virtually) in April during the month-long A-Z blog challenge, and we connected well because of our common interest, India and her culture! Eli is a wonderful blogger who has made Mumbai her home for the last few years and is happily enjoying the rains, traffic, and all the sumptuous street food the mega-city has to offer. Originally from Norway and having lived in Greece for many years, she enjoys traveling and exploring new places and is now definitely on her way to become a Mumbai-wali. She writes a beautiful and highly enjoyable blog about her expat life at Expatliv - in Exotic India.

Sometime ago Eli so kindly asked me to write a guest post for her blog, about something interesting in Pondicherry. It can be anything, she said. I considered a few ideas that came to mind but rejected them all. And then one day as I casually looked at the header image on my blog, I knew what I wanted to write. 

Dear reader, have you ever wondered where this header image is from? It's from... let my guest post on Eli's blog tell you a story and you will know the answer. 

The Legend of Irumbai and Greening of Auroville

(Guest Post for Expatliv - in Exotic India)

Once upon a time, maybe 500 years ago or more, there lived a highly evolved Siddha, a Yogi (Self-realized person) known as Kaduveli Siddha. He lived in a small village presently known as Irumbai, about 10 kms from Pondicherry, near Auroville, the international township with a deeper aim to realize the inner unity of humankind. 

Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity.

To read more about Auroville, visit: Auroville.org
To read Auroville Charter, click here.

Back to the story...

During a time when the village and nearby areas were not getting any rains and the drought was making life difficult for people and other creatures, Kaduvella was busy performing his austerities and spiritual practices (tapasya) sitting under a peepal tree. He was so fully concentrated in his tapasya and the intensity of his physical and spiritual heat (tapas) got so strong that soon an anthill started to rise up around him. People thought that the drought was getting worse because of the tapas generated by the Siddha's intense tapasya and austerities. But they didn't know how to break the yogi's concentration, especially when they saw the anthill grow bigger and bigger with every passing day. 

Suffering because of the drought and resulting deprivation, the villagers approached the king who agreed that the Kaduvella's ongoing tapasya must be 'broken' in order to bring down the intensity of the 'heat'. But he too didn't know how. A temple dancer, named Valli, a woman of enticing beauty and a devotee of Lord Shiva, decided to do her best to get the attention of the yogi, and to rescue the King and people from the adverse effects of his tapasya (penance). 

To read rest of the post on Eli's blog, please click here.


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Linking this post with ABC Wednesday: I, I is for Irumbai, Image

Renew and Refresh

A new post in the series - When a Picture Leads

This picture speaks to me of Renewal. Refreshing. Rekindling of hope.

This picture was taken by me in Auroville a few months after the mighty destructive cyclone Thane hit Pondicherry and Auroville area on December 30, 2011. According to some estimates, about 40% of the trees in Auroville were uprooted or destroyed because of the devastation. (And if you know anything about Auroville, you must know something about its thick green cover, its massive trees and vegetation and its red earth. And you perhaps also know about the 40 years of hard work and great effort put in by the dedicated Aurovillians and local villagers to convert what was once a barren land into a green paradise.) After the cyclone, it took several days to clear up the roads and streets of this international township, and power was restored only after two weeks to the whole area in and around Auroville. My own little garden at home (near Auroville) suffered some loss because of the cyclone.

But I am not interested today in that memory of loss and destruction, or that memory of nature's fury and chaos.

I want to think of the new beginnings instead. I want to think of new life that comes after death, new growth after destruction. That is the story this picture tells.

I clearly remember the day when I took this picture. I had gone to Auroville Visitor Center with my husband, and my niece who was visiting us from Delhi. We were planning to do some shopping and have lunch at the cafe there. I saw this tree stump in the parking lot itself, and was pleasantly surprised to see the new tender green leaves sprouting at the base and the top. What a sight of hope, new life!

While a reminder of what this tree once was was still there nearby in the form of an uprooted trunk of another big tree, the new growth was a proof positive that life doesn't stop. It only takes a little pause now and then, to recuperate its strength, to rejuvenate itself with fresh energy and soon it bounces back. Full of vigour, full of new energy, full of hope and new beginnings. That's what I remember feeling when I witnessed this sight.

The timing was also important because my niece was visiting with an objective to study Economics with me for a few weeks as part of her preparation for her senior secondary examinations (12th grade). She was feeling a bit doubtful about this subject and needed a little boost, a sort of a push to regain her confidence and will to study well for her forthcoming examinations.

She is an intelligent young woman, but it is just that her kind of intelligence is not always recognized or valued by the kind of examination and grading pattern we have in the mainstream Indian schooling system, especially at the level of "board" examinations. And the system is such that if a student doesn't score well in these public examinations, her further education including admission to a good college may become very difficult.

She knew she needed to do well, at least reasonably well, in the examinations, but just needed some gentle push and some one-on-one guidance for at least a little period of time. And of course I was extremely happy when she chose to come and stay with me and thought that I could be the person to give her what she needed.

I can't say what, if any, help I was for her at that time. But all I can say is that the visit provided me an opportunity to bond with my lovely young niece and renew myself with that youthful energy. I also got an opportunity to recognize and realize what an important asset a healthy sense of self-confidence is, especially for the youth preparing themselves for the big world out there.

A renewal of this confidence in oneself, in one's capabilities and unique intelligence is necessary from time to time. For all of us. We all go through times when a refresher dose of hope and optimism is required. This rekindling of hope, this constant renewal is what gives us the persistent strength to go on pursuing our dreams, walking toward the unknown-to-us future.

That, I believe, is life. A journey, a seeking, a promise of renewal. Sort of like a promise of re-doing, a rebirth almost. In renewing and refreshing ourselves we rediscover ourselves. And perhaps that's how we also re-dedicate ourselves to our goals, dreams and aspirations.

The more we can open ourselves to the Light and Force, the eternal source of all that hope and energy and optimism, the more alive and living we begin to feel. Ready to begin anew.


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For the previous post in the series, click here.
For all the posts in this series, click here.

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Linking this post with Write Tribe Wednesday Prompt - Memory triggered by a photograph.

A Green Song

A new post in the series - When a Picture Leads

Sometimes you really don't need any other colour. Green is All. Perhaps because through it all colours of Life are possible. 

It felt like that yesterday. It was a beautiful day. Refreshingly sunny but not hot. Sitting quietly on the backseat of our trusty two-wheeler as my husband was driving through the red-clay earthy lanes of Auroville, simply enjoying the presence of all those big, medium and small green trees on both sides of the road, their branches and leaves swaying in the breeze, fresh new growth making some of them look fresher than usual, the beautiful fragrance of new flowers coming up here and there, gloriously green it all was. There were flowers too, but the pinks and purples and yellows and violets were happily immersed and surrendered to that vast and glorious green cover around. 

Somehow in the last few visits to Auroville I had missed out on experiencing this simple joy. Perhaps my mind was too busy then. Or perhaps yesterday I was somewhat more ready to receive this beauty of Nature. Whatever be the reason, the experience was a joyride indeed. Felt energized and renewed. Green is after all, the colour of New Life. 

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Shuffling through my picture folder again; and I find these two pictures I had taken a few years ago at Van Niwas, Nainital. 

With the memory of yesterday's experience still fresh, as I look at these pictures today they seem to be saying something. 

Wait, let me hear. 

Come, you too sit near me and listen what these beautiful green flowers are saying. Listen carefully for they speak very softly. Soft is the language of love, the language of earth. 

Come, hear....

Hey, you there? 

Yes, you, my child. And you. 

Can you hear us? 

Hear closely, you too.  

Come, sing with us. 

The Song of a Love 

For the colour Green 

The song of joy the Earth needs, 

This song of joy you all need. 

Come, sing with us. 

'Sing with us', from Rahul Sharma's album, Celebration - A Circle of Energy

Photos: Mine

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For the previous post in this series, click here.

Linking this post with ABC Wednesday 14G: G is for Green 

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Sunday Morning Lesson in Beautiful and Precise Action

Had the joy of having the freshest possible idlis and steamed dosa for breakfast yesterday at the Visitor Center at Auroville. The joy was doubled when I saw a sweet lady come out of the restaurant kitchen with a basket full of assorted flowers and a polished-to-shine urli filled up to brim with water. She was about to start arranging the flowers in the urli - something that one can see on the restaurant main counter every time one visits this delightful eating joint. Leaving my husband alone at our table, and taking my coffee cup with me I went near this petite lady and after greeting her with a smile and hello, asked her if I could simply stand there and watch her do her ‘thing’ with flowers. She smiled a sweet smile and said yes.

And then it began...the delight of watching one of the sweetest and most beautiful work in progress.

All the flowers from the top of the basket were first laid out on the counter and separated by colours. First came a layer of delicate flowers (Rose periwinkle/Madagascar periwinkle/Catharanthus roseus; Spiritual significance given by The Mother – Integral Progress). 

Photo courtesy here

Each flower was floated in the water with careful precision and delicacy. After all the flowers were arranged in a circular pattern, the lady very gently pulled at one of the petals of each flower in order to leave just a hint of a space between the rim of the urli and the flower. This made the water sparkle in the combined light of the shiny brass of the urli and the white brightness of the flowers.  And I thought to myself – what a nice idea! How beautiful it looks.  But within a second I understood her actual reason for doing that.

She had discovered a whole bunch of tiny purple/lavender flowers at the bottom of the basket (Wishbone flower/Bluewings /Torenia fournieri; Spiritual significance given by The Mother – Krishna’s Play in Matter) and this tiny little space between the rim and each of the white flowers was just enough to float those purple gems. 

Photo courtesy here

And then it began again...my awe at how she was so carefully handling each of these purple flowers and arranging them in an exact precise manner so that their petals were floating in the same direction. No randomness, all in perfect order and harmony, and yet all done with such flawless spontaneous movements of her fingers. The flowers were so tiny but her soft eyes and gentle fingers were so observant and exact that not a teeny-weeny extra bit of an over-grown petal or accompanying leafy material made it to the arrangement.

Perfect precision in creating a work of art from the heart. I wish I had the camera with me to capture that gentle perfection in progress....but perhaps it is for the best that such beautiful moments of creating beauty are simply experienced in the flow of the moment, and not frozen.

Beauty of the action...

Perfection of the form...

Seeking the divine harmony behind everything...

The Sunday breakfast turned out to be a perfect lesson!