Are we really dancing?

It was a Sunday afternoon when I was thinking to write a new post on my blog. I had put lots of pressure on my brain still couldn’t think something interesting to write about. Some hours later I switched colours channel which was airing an episode of” jhalak dikhla ja”.The contestants were showing off their talent through some dance form or the other. Out of 8 contestants 2 of them performed on aerials and a form of rhythmic gymnastics. Knowing the fact that few of good shows are left on television, I still switched to another channel hoping to see something different and Indian. Again I could see aerial act with also promotion of such classes in India, It is really great that India welcomes western forms of dancing and promotes it to a bigger level (as discussed in my earlier posts) but then balance of both dances forms is very important. Like in United States, jazz and contemporary are their dance forms and classical dances are still treated as guests. It is a possession if a foreigner is trained in classical dancing as its rare for them. But I think here in India dancing to kathak or kuchupidi on a media platform would be a priced possession as we hardly get to see it.

Today this post will be about two such forms that have overshadowed Indian dancing (In the domain of my blog topic).one is the rhythmic gymnastics and the other is aerial or acrobatics.

Rhythmic gymnastics is an exercise done in a dance form, Earlier we could see such art form either in Olympic Games or any other game competition. Today searching for such an art form on media level won’t be a difficult task. Rhythmic gymnastics grew out of the ideas of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727–1810), François Delsarte (1811–1871), and Rudolf Bode (1881–1970), who all believed in movement expression, where one used dance to express oneself and exercise various body parts. Peter Henry Ling further developed this idea in his 19th-century Swedish system of free exercise, which promoted "aesthetic gymnastics", in which students expressed their feelings and emotions through bodily movement. And now since some years this gymnastic form is being practiced as dance in India.

Just like rhythmic gymnastics another dance form that is being promoted by India in large scale is the Aerial dancing. Aerial modern pieces, whether solo or ensemble, often involve partnering. The apparatus used has its own motion, which changes the way a dancer must move in response. The introduction of a new element changes the dancer’s balance, centre, and orientation in space. Aerial was incepted in Boulder Colorado in July 1999.Since some 3 years we can see aerial techniques being practiced in India and seeing it grow brilliantly.

Introduction of aerial and rhythmic gymnastics to Indian dancing ground is commendable but if this effort would be put into Indian dances (the one discussed in my previous blogs)then at least ethnicity would be retained. I would request all the readers of this blog to share the word because ethnicity starts from us.

Choreographers and the styles

We live in a world where media is our father source or say the main source. We depend on media for every pin to pen and mainly for entertainment.

Bollywood has provided a very important and big platform to dance. All the dances that people know is mainly because of bollywood.so it is a platform that has promoted different styles and dances to the masses.

For western dances to overshadow Indian dances, bollywood is responsible to a large extend and also the choreographers who bought such styles. So today this post will be about the bollywood choreographers and the western forms that some of them brought.

Talking about 1980’s, well that era was totally about Indian dances. We could see pure Indian folk dancing or the classical dances .Eminent choreographer saroj khan, the mother of bollywood gave us the sight of our roots. The beautiful folk dance and a mix of classical dances were beautifully shown by saroj khan through the feet of Sri Devi and madhuri dixit.

Slowly we had emerging choreographers who covered the light of Indian dancing with the western shadows.Shiamak Davar an Indian choreographer who is considered to be the first Indian to bring Contemporary Jazz and western forms of dances. Shiamak Davar began his choreography for Hindi cinema with the film 'Dil To Pagal Hai’ Having changed the way dance was perceived in Indian films, and the change settled permanently with less traces of Indian dancing.Today,saroj khan dancing is hardly found and I feel sad for the change. It’s good that western dances were bought to Hindi cinema but the roots were destroyed completely and the Indian dancing sadly is becoming history.

Supporting the western dances we have more prominent Indian dancers like Terence Lewis .An Indian dancer and choreographer, specializing in contemporary dance. His first choreography in a Hindi movie was a ballroom waltz, titled "Waltz for a Romance”. And so contemporary dance has also become a large part of bollywood today.

We also have amazing choreographer like prabhu deva who bought his own Indian style to the dances. A bharatnatyam dancer who bought in Indian dancing and traces of roots to bollywood.

As mentioned in my previous blogs, adapting westernization is a great thing but lethal of our roots is the saddest part. Today I would still love to see Prabhu Deva and Remo D Souza dancing and choreograph tapori forms. The dinchak sound is missed by my ears and so I know by many Indians like me.

Undoubtedly we have amazing choreographers in our bollywood industry but it would have been more pleasure to watch if I could see them bringing up some of Indian dancing to our movies.

This post provides no offense to anyone and I render apologies if it is to hurt sentiments of any person.

Tit for tat?!

So far my blog posts discussed how western dances have obscured the Indian dances to a major extend. The derivation of western dances from Indian dancing has led to a great invention and growth of western dancing culture leading to gradual homicidal of Indian dancing culture. The sad part here is that rather than preserving the culture, lethal has been supported. It isn’t new to know that the dance shows or any other reality show that we see on TV are rather copy or a replica of the western shows. Though there is nothing wrong in it as copying ideas isn’t an offence. But copying cultures? Well this is just like a game where two cultures are playing and answering tooth for a tooth. I switch on TV on a Saturday and what I see is dance India dance or a similar dance show with an alias name. But what I see is the contemporary or the aerials that I saw some months back in a so you think you can dance episode. Well i know it is an attempt to copy a bigger idea but why copy dance that was originally derived from Indian dancing grounds? Interestingly, I find young Indian kids dancing to brilliant hip hops that overshadowed tapori dance on an Indian dancing competition where they hardly know what tapori is! Indian dancing culture is so wide and spread but still I find kids tied to aerial ropes or imitate contemporary dances. It’s a dance show being telecasted on Indian television so why not Indian dances?

Through this blog I attempt to discuss some Indian dances which hardly people know. This obviously isn’t going to change what is being telecasted but an initiative never goes waste. So putting a glance in the western part of India I find some dances that i wished ever would have been familiar to me.

Tippani
I simply love India because I find even work here is a form of dance. Women especially in India are considered as humans that can do nothing apart from doing household chores. But then how about turning this work into dance? Well this is what tippani is. They do this work in the form of a dance, and sing in accompaniment. The tippani consists of a wooden block with a long wooden handle. Sometimes small bells, or ghungroos, are tied to the handle. The dance begins slowly, with the singing and beating of the ground done in the same rhythm. As the pace quickens, the dancers alternately pound the floor and strike the handles of the mallets together, and then introduce body movements, usually bending and raising themselves. Towards the end of the dance, they stand in rows and strike the floor very rapidly.

Goaf
This dance is a derivative of the Dandiya Raas. Colored ribbons or ropes are suspended from the top of a pole, or other support, and the dancers below hold an end of the rope in on hand, and a short stick in the other. The dancer’s movements are choreographed so that the ropes are woven and unwoven to make various patterns. The dancers also strike the sticks as they dance.

Hudo
Tap dance sounds very familiar since it’s seen in every dance show that is being telecasted. But clap dance? Well I hardly remember if I have seen such a dance. This is another dance form of west India that resides somewhere in the villages of Gujarat. Where men and women clap and create a beautiful rhythm and dance on the beats created by the clap. I wish if I get to see clap dance more than the tap dance.

It would have been so good if I could refresh my eyes with some hudo or the goaf dance. When there is so much within then why copy. An irony here is that what is already copied is being re-copied. Also as I said before, this blog isn’t going to change the truth but some of you would know that there is something more than jazz and hip hop. Some dance forms of India are still original. And efforts to bring out lost ethnicity would never be misspended.

Hip hop - A westernized form of ‘tapori’ dance

Today another western dance form will be discussed which has been derived from a famous Indian local dance i.e. tapori dance. It is very interesting and surprising that the famous hip hop dance that is grooved by every dancer is actually an extension of the once upon a time famous tapori dance.

Tapori was actually a language that was basically found in Mumbai streets. The unique style of speaking in Hindi was called tapori. Gradually this transformed into a dance form which was seen mostly being performed by Street thugs. Tapori culture though resented by many was widely imitated as humorous or comical. It found acceptance in Bollywood films.90 s was basically the tapori era as then every hero was seen performing tapori dance. And then slowly tapori dance faded somewhere behind the street dancing or the hip hop dance which is a groomed or a westernized form of tapori dance. Hip hop was then largely worked on and was divided into certain forms such as locking popping and free style. The Bollywood dance industry responded to hip-hop dance between the late 90s and early 2000s leading to slow death of tapori dance. The free scattered dance that we used to see then turned to cluster hip hops and cutting. Interestingly; the name given to our half cup tea is also a dance style. Tapori dance also led to innovation of jazz funk which started being performed by classical trained dancers in United States who developed studio styles in order to create choreography from the hip-hop dances that were performed on the street. Because of this development, hip-hop dance is practiced in both dance studios and outdoor spaces.

Indian dancing damned somewhere

Desi thumka, tapori moves, taka dimi ta-kita sounds and da- din -din -da, seem lost somewhere with the large influence of the western dancing that has emerged in some coming years and dominantly established its lodge in the Indian dancing grounds. This blog is created to discuss some of e Indian dances, the Indian cinema dances that have been replaced by the western hip hops, contemporary aerials and the cha -cha -chas. Every week some Indian dances that have been overshadowed by western dances will be discussed.

Today the popular contemporary dance will be talked which found its origin in the Indian minces.

Contemporary- An extension of Indian classical dance

A very interesting fact that I found out was that contemporary dancing is borrowed from Indian classical dancing. Contemporary is an improvisation of the classical dances with a western touch. Indian classical dance is about bhavas and the adavas as derived from the natya shastra.In the contemporary dance, bhavas are represented as attitudes on the face and the adavas are turned to foot works that have been presented as flooring's in contemporary dance. Also as Indian classical dances come from different parts of the country like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Calcutta, and Orissa. Similarly, contemporary dance also picks up its bits from Japan, Africa and England. The tradition of Indian dance being represented as a story has also been counterfeited by contemporary dance form. And so it surprises me that the contemporary dance which has been derived from the Indian classical dancing has actually got more prominence over the dance form from where it actually originated from.