Friday, 30 March 2012

The Thread of Continuity



Compositions are permanent, sashwat, continuous. Each time we sing or dance, we make a connection to all the greats who have infused the composition with a piece of their soul. Everyone who danced before us and all those who will after us are singularly joined in time by the permanence of the composition and thus we become part of an infinite thread ...
I see this when I see people around the world who have never heard of Thyagaraja and other greats, being immersed and touched by the music even though they may not understand the composition. At that point isn't the artist channeling the soul of the composer through his own? When we lose our own soul and become one with the composition , the divinity of the composer makes our own soul divine at that moment. It then becomes a journey where the more we lose ourselves, the more we gain....
I feel this the most whenever I see Pt. Birju Maharaj Ji dancing Kathak. The origin of Kathak is associated with the fabled dance of Lord Krishna on the hood of the snake Kaalia,  and when I see Maharaj ji lost and immersed in the thread of Kathak, he is Krishna reincarnate. Maharaj ji dancing to a composition by Bindadeen Maharaj is a unique example of the composer, the composition , the dancer and the rasika all becoming part of this continuous thread of composition...

8 comments:

  1. Nice one, Keep Updating :):)
    Love to read everything about Dance n Ur dance experiences :):)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Superb !!! We always get inspired by your thoughts Sunil & I have learned a very essential thing from you i.e. 'how to think' rather 'Thinking positively' & implementing thoughts accordingly. Being an artist is really like being god's favorite kid or getting his special pampering. I find all the aspects of a gr8 artist in you. My best wishes for your bright future ahead. You are gonna rock.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Enjoyed it immensely, Sunil ! Being a true music lover, i have been fortunate enough to have experienced those moments when a singer hits a perfect note, or a dancer arrives on the 'sum' as effortlessly as a butterfly lands on a flower, and your eyes moisten, you get a lump in the throat. The connection completes and magic is created . Experiencing that feeling has to be the next best thing to being the artist yourself. Here is wishing you and all of us many more such moments.

    ReplyDelete
  4. If Arts was not part of our life we would have been like the dead body buried beneath the surface, A Skeleton without a skin n a soul...

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Music and dance encompasses every phase of life, happy or sad, good or bad, rough or smooth. And when The Nayak takes his Bhumika, all those emotions speak for themselves. At that time the Nayak is just a medium, lost in a transcendental meditation of his own inner conscience. Loosing himself deeper into the state of trance with every beat of the Tabla, letting the speed and grace of the motion overpower him, and then surrender himself to the divinity of the raagas, to the mysticism of Taal, and the magic of the lyrics, thus giving birth to art itself . . .

    ReplyDelete
  7. From Ramkumar Sunkara :Falling in love with dance will make you remain as a child, as you raise your skills in dancing you will mature, and ultimately when you master the art, it becomes a state of your being.
    All my love wishes for you.
    Appu

    ReplyDelete