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Catch
them Young
With
great enthusiasm and heaps of excitement a Primary syllabus
had been written some months previously, and I had contributed
quite actively to the process.
Some
months later, for our next examiner training day, it was suggested
that a mock examination be conducted, and almost tacitly,
I found myself to be the teacher leading a group of four children
for this.
From
our regular class, we had to select some children and come
one Sunday, I had four sets of serious looking parents and
four eager faces awaiting the preparation for the exam. I
got out the syllabus…and was quite daunted! It all looked
familiar, no doubt, but it also all looked like there was
one heck of a lot to do! Moreover, how did one manage to make
sure that each of the young ones focussed on what was asked
of them in a situation that was a significantly new experience
and where there would be an audience of new faces, making
notes?
These
children had been in the Mudralaya class for over a year,
studying classical Bharatanatyam, and the Primary syllabus
needed them to show general qualities like spatial awareness,
ways of travelling, balance, action and stillness etc. They
needed to do a teacher-led routine incorporating all the principles,
or most of those listed in the syllabus…and we’d
never done a routine with them in the class-only steps or
‘adavus’ and more adavus! So what was the basis
for the happy optimism with which I had believed I could more
than cope with leading four sprightly 7-8 year olds through
an exam? ‘Is it quite so soon?’ queried an anxious
parent, adding to my sense of impending doom.
Taking
a deep breath, I resorted to running a session in my best
workshop mode - to assess the potential of the youngsters
in the context of the syllabus, I reassured myself. To mask
your inadequacies?, queried my inner voice. Everyday movements,
familiar, comfortable, gave way to the excitement of new and
unusual instructions in the dance class - clap, clap, clap,
silence: clap, clap, silence, clap: clap, silence, silence,
silence: clap, silence, silence, clap - and our routine was
born.
Rhythms
are the bounty of Indian dance and in the establishing of
simple first principles, one does teach many fundamental movement
concepts. This was my big discovery on this occasion, after
several years of teaching in the traditional mode. As I set
simple movement tasks to establish qualities of rotating,
rising, or extending, I found the young aspirants thinking
like dancers - much to my edification and delight. The work
I thought I needed to have to do was almost nearly all done
for me, except for the packaging.
We
set a dance, and found that so long as it was teacher led,
the youngsters danced for the teacher. When I asked them to
dance on their own, they performed completely unselfconsciously
and to the audience. What was the best lesson learnt? Catch
them young…and exams will be synonymous with smiley
faces and happy hearts….and will our tribe of dance
teachers increase, Amen!
Pushkala
Gopal
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