| Choreographic
Competition for Students
It
was customary a few decades ago for a student of classical
Indian dance to be attached to one teacher, one style. If
there were problems and the family fell out with the teacher,
the student and her cousins and her cousins’ cousins
would either have to give up dance or start from the very
first step with another Guru!
Over the years, as the creed of professional dancers
increased, Gurus have been known to have appropriated well
trained incumbents of another order, leave alone restricting
entry to pupils of a different style. With alumni from Institutes
like Kalakshetra having an easy approach to students being
attached to more than one Guru, the scene is quite relaxed
now, especially where the non-professional student is concerned.
Traditional training dictates that the longer you train under
the influence of one mentor, the higher standards of perfection
you achieve, within the chosen style. Influences on students
these days are many - other styles of live performance are
one source and work on a less lasting level: as you see, you
like or dislike, sometimes you are inspired,at best you carry
home a few images, you move on. The influence of MTV and Bollywood,
can be secured on recordings and often this is what consolidates
as other dance influences in a dance student’s life.
What are the results of influences which encourage a classical
dance student to dilute or adulterate their dance training?
Can cloning forms and presenting
them be good or bad in the long run? Is a student who is not
yet steeped in a style, i.e. had full time training for 6
- 8 years, able to do any choreography at all - within their
style - outside of it -applying it? And is choreography a
helpful thing for such a student to do?
These are some of the issues that are buzzing in the minds
of the professional teachers at the South Asian Dance faculty
of the ISTD, as we have devised the first ever choreographic
competition for students, that’s right students, of
Indian Dance. From finding appropriate music, to convincing
teachers that this would be a good step in a child’s
creative development, and further convincing them that the
teacher is not to do the choreography, but the child is to
make up the dance on some peers, it is all a challenge.
The main reason to risk a venture of this sort, is that whenever
community events like weddings have called for it, the most
reticent dance student has been able to surprise family by
making up a fairly impressive number almost instantly, to
Bollywood music! We are possibly trying to extend that creativity
to their endeavours in classical dance and see how it works.
Our categories of choreography are Kathak, Bharatanatyam and
Open. With this last, we hope to bring in pupils of other
dance forms with an interest in any form of Indian - even
Bhangra - or have young dancers working with any of their
school-fellows. We do look forward to having the participation
of the wider community and expect to learn a few lessons from
this number, ourselves, as teachers in the 00s!
Teachers, do please see our event advertisement on the opposite
page.
Pushkala Gopal
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