Workshop as a knowledge-sharing tool

A lot can be achieved provided both teacher and the learner are clear about the purpose

April 19, 2018 02:58 pm | Updated 05:29 pm IST

Ananda Shankar Jayant

Ananda Shankar Jayant

 

In a conversation with senior dancer Malavika Sarukkai, during a dance conference a few years ago, she mentioned the management phrase — ‘Framing Expectations’— as an important responsibility of a serious dancer, in the context of the need for creativity in the process. This kind of responsibility calls not only for widening one’s knowledge base to be open to newer possibilities within existing or extended grammars, but also to keep deepening one’s individual process to get down to the details. As the popular old phrases go, both God and the devil are in the details.

In the third and last part of the knowledge sharing platform series, we talk about the details present in the crux of the subject — the content, it’s relevance and quality, the presentation and the reach. As part of the birth anniversary celebrations of Rukmini Devi Arundale on February 28, a day-long immersion in the genius of her thinking called ‘Pravidya’ was put together in Bengaluru. A demonstration on Tiruvarur Sthalam, through the narratives in the classic ‘Roopamu Juchi’ varnam, as choreographed by Rukmini Devi was presented by dancer and research scholar, Jayachandran.

Indira Kadambi

Indira Kadambi

 

The uncluttered, unhurried, portrayal of ideas was analysed and explained, to understand the effortless sophistication in the minimalistic choreography. Why the original vocabulary of legendary choreographers needs to be studied by dancers, to grasp the grammar in the process, was beautifully presented by highlighting the condensed wisdom in the classic piece.

From the experience of short-term as well as long-term immersive teaching to groom students, a different stream of thought comes from Indira Kadambi, dancer and co-founder, e-Ambalam, an online portal to teach Bharatanatyam.

“There are two ways of looking at workshops — one is just to learn new techniques through different examples and the other is to learn and understand the same just by taking one single composition/particular subject. Short workshops are beneficial for both newcomers and the experienced. For example, if we teach a thillana, junior students may not have the time to understand the calculations, how to sing, how to perfect the moves, etc., whereas experienced learners may catch it quicker.

“But the experience of learning the same in an intensive workshop is entirely different. Every aspect is covered in depth. Short workshops give a taste of a subject and intensive workshop will help one immerse in it. Over 15 days to couple of months, in an intensive learning session, whatever one learns stays in their body due to the amount of time spent on it. When I conduct workshops, I give the student the option to continue and perfect their learning online,” explains Indira.

About the pros and cons of an online learning platform for dance, she says, “Lack of access to good teachers makes it a great tool for students to learn online from anyone, anytime and anywhere. Unlike other subjects, it cannot be just learnt through videos; consistent regular online support is a must to get corrections done and move ahead. It is called Blended e-learning Methodology. Apart from uninterrupted electricity and Internet connection, self-motivation and discipline are important without which online learning would be difficult.”

Parshwanath Upadhye recalls his first workshop at the age of 13 with Padma Subrahmanyam, in a small village near Mangalore. The workshop was in a temple for 15 days. It would start at 6 a.m. with yoga, then move to learning the movements of the anga, upanga, pratyanga, hasta karanas and the day would end after dinner, watching Padma Subrahmanyam’s ‘Karana-Prakarna,’ which was telecast on Doordarshan.

Out of over ten workshops scheduled for him to conduct this summer, not even one is for more than three days and high quality music has become mandatory with the workshops today. “Workshops concerning choreography and other knowledge enhancing sessions attract fewer aspirants compared to workshops by the same dancer teaching a dance piece with music. How the teacher teaches should matter more than what item is being taught,” says Parshwanath. He shares that the number of people learning the classical art forms has increased, but younger dancers are trying to imitate the style of a successful dancer, right from the look, make up and costume, rather than be inspired by the essence of the performance.

“It makes me want to keep improving myself, so that people would come and talk about my dance rather than the lights and my make-up or jewellery. Teachers themselves encouraging their students to attend workshops by other dancer/teachers is a recent positive development, but I with humility hope that the exposure is towards the thought process rather than the end product,” adds Parshwanath.

Nrithya Pillai, a dancer who believes that she dances more because of her hereditary artiste background, and in fact, does not give importance to knowledge-sharing platforms, nevertheless believes in hearing about someone else’s approach to dance. “It would interest me more if artistes from traditional hereditary backgrounds were called to speak on Bharatanatyam. These artistes put in blood and sweat into this art and need to be given their due,” says Nrithya .

Talks on dance

Ananda Shankar Jayant talks about her experience of delivering talks in dance conferences versus talks for TED, India conference at Harvard and other similar knowledge platforms.

“When one speaks to a dance audience, the detailing and depth of the chosen topic is important. For example, when I spoke about ‘Simhanandini’ last June at the Dance India conference in Singapore, I spoke about the history of Simhanandini Tala Dasha Prana — Sashabda kriya Nishabda kriya and poetry used with detailed illustrations and demonstrations. On the other hand, when I spoke about the power of Durga and Simhanandini, in my journey through cancer, at TED, my talk focussed on the metaphor, the image of Durga and the power that the Goddess gave me, which I translated into the dance too — dance as a performance, and audience gets it! The intellect, and the emotion both connect, but need to be used differently to different audiences, and contexts of presentation, she explains.

In the same light of catering to different demographics and profiles of audiences, ‘Andal Reimagined,’ was a unique experiment by dancer and scholar, Dr. Priya Srinivasan and singer Uthra Vijay. It created an environment for an interdisciplinary performance using poetry, music and visual imagery, to look at the inner landscapes of disparate women's journeys through their imaginative connections across time and place to understand atmospheres of emotion. The workshop started with chanting, walking with purpose, bringing in a personal narrative and observing and exploring the nature of movement as different layers viz. the mythology, the music and the personal narrative dominated.

“Am concerned about the arts losing value in the 21st century and love the idea of being a catalyst for change through arts. The two parts of ‘Andal Reimagined’ — the performance following the workshop — will be different from each other in what is being revealed and what is being concealed. The performance will not be an end product but a revelation of the process, leaving it open and elastic,” shared Priya.

Several alternative venues and dialogues for knowledge transfer are being created today, all for the need to understand the process behind the art form and to encourage cross-art dialogue. Valid creative impetus can only be triggered from the deep recesses of well-formed knowledge. The more the arts evolve, the deeper the connection to the origin needs to be.

(The third and last in the series on knowledge-sharing by the author)

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