Another week with our BANJAR

This week was yet another good week learning Bali dances and Bharatanatyam. We had some new experiences and we had a lot of fun. We practiced the basic motions that Kalyani had already taught us and we also had a mock monkey fight in the circle in order to practice for what a monkey fight would be like later on when we perform the Ramayana.

Also, we defined again what we really liked ab out this class and what we hoped to gain out of it. The thing that I hoped to gain was the time to stretch during the week. And, one of the bigger reasons I liked this class was that it allowed me to stretch outside of Kung Fu, which is a big part of my life but I don't get to stretch out for it everyday. So, this class allows me the time and chance to be able to keep my flexibility up and not waste what it took me six years to gain.

Additionally, I liked the fact that the foot stomping is similar to the exercises for iron foot training in the Shaolin temples all over the world. The fact that this was something that I only noticed half way through the class made me realize that everything in my life is interconnected if I think about it for a little while. Chemistry and Mathematics relate to the movements and the basics principles of both relate to how the dances are structured with the angles of my feet and how my body will adjust itself after a short time to the basic motions and after a long time to the more advanced motions. An example in Chemistry is the law of the conservation of matter and how nothing is wasted truly in this dance in that all the pain results in the hardening of my feet. Furthermore, it relates to the Hindu belief cyclic belief that Destruction follows neutrality, neutrality follows Creation, and Creation follows Destruction. There is nothing that is wasted, but rather everything is converted to another form of the cycle. The truth about the situation makes me feel as if I can further understand the story in that I can relate it to my body.

In reference to using my body to tell a story, I think that in order to tell a story using only your body is a different experience. I mean, given that a dance itself is a performing art, I supposed it tells a story alone but it also has a different meaning in the case of the Ramayana. The story was originally told from paintings and so to truly depict that story our bodies have to move as though they were paintings on the wall. We cannot really give three dimensionality to a two dimensional story if we did not originally write the story ourselves. There is increasing difficulty in terms of how to tell the story correctly in terms of how we know if we're right or not. My body has to move and contort as if it were a painting on a wall moving from one to the next but at the same time, it has to be done so that it is fluid but not overly fluid and not rigid, or else it becomes wrong by comparison to the pictures that originally depicted it. The meaning behind a dance like this is really difficult to ascertain, but the meaning of using my body to create art and to tell a story in this case is to become a part of the story and the art itself. To perform with one's body is to be the art itself and not just in a sense that our bodies themselves are naturally the art inherently by performing but rather they become beautiful as an art if work is put into them and they are respected. In other words, working on one's physique, frame, and posture is a part of creating that art as well.

In terms of evolving as an artist, I think that I'm better beginning to understand art from a personal level and not just from the perspective of a person who made art on paper or an appreciating party in relation to the art. To become the art itself is a whole new level that involves realizing that the normal technical aspects of art don't necessarily apply to the situation. The concepts such as structure and composition apply but the creation of said technical aspects is different as they involve different techniques. To say that there is only one way to create the art or art in general is ignorance. I believe that the Ramayana has made me better able to see these things by showing me how to perform with my own body as the art.

The techniques that are different that I was mentioning earlier are similar to traditional dance but the fact that more of a person's physique is shown off in this dance makes it very similar to how athletes and dancers prepare for their performances. In order to make my body a better part of the art, I would have to tone my body, which brings me back to one of Guru's original things he said about making our bodies sculpted by the end of the semester. I'm also going to halve to learn how to make my movements pop but at the same time fluid and smoothe so that at a given instant, I can make a sudden motion and ease it back to normal. The path to making this all happen is going to be difficult but worth it in the long run.

That's my word for the week,

'til next time.

ZBN