Love and Dance

It remains unrevealed to me how seamlessly love and dance can co-exist with each other. I have seen many dancers living emotions on stage, be it devotion, compassion, fear, agony, or love. How flawless they express themselves! Their eyes, lips, forehead, even cheeks do wonders, along with the tiny movements of their body! Although rigorous and prolonged training helps them, it is all the talent that plays a key role.

However, when it comes to expressing love, I have this question in my mind: Since there are so many dimensions to this emotion, or rasa to be precise, how is it possible to depict each in its uniqueness without making the spectators doubtful?

How is it possible to depict each rasa in its uniqueness without making the spectators doubtful?

For a veteran performer, this question might be annoying as he/she can very well do it, but budding dancers would definitely find it a challenge. I am one among the latter group, and I find myself struggling at junctures where I can no longer claim to be doing justice to my work.

When I dance, usually, I get fully charged and become filled with confidence. I rarely have let my gurus down in this. But, it is a different story when it comes to the abhinaya part. Whenever my gurus explain a particular emotion or sentiment through their expressions, I find it difficult to reflect the same. How much ever I try, even in front of a mirror, inside the freedom of my room, I never satisfactorily recreate what my gurus want me to do.

This is where I find the importance of music. For me, as a dancer, music is for giving tala and laya and more for providing the context. If somebody asks me if I can dance without music, I would say, 'of course I can.' I can find ananda by dancing or moving my body in a flow. Music is not necessary for it. Nonetheless, it would not be complete without music.

Music with or without vocals can complete our performance, but for context, I would always prefer music with vocals so that I can express myself better. This could be interpreted as an immature opinion, but it is true, at least in my case.

Now, coming back to expressing love, especially a specific dimension to it, I think the above helps me more. For me, the most beautiful dimension to love would be the one that is untold, unrecognized, or unfulfilled, and expressing it becomes more difficult as it grows more beautiful.

Here, I have tried finding my way to explore the emotion by using this amazing song Vathikkalu vellaripravu. It is ADDC choreography and is not a classical rendering as the song itself asks for a casual presentation. Here, a Hindu girl is in love with a Sufi, and it is almost impossible to imagine that her love for him can lead to a relationship that can be given a name. She lives her love by dancing to his songs. How beautiful that can be! The song is from Sufiyum Sujathayum, a Malayalam movie released in 2020. I am not sure how far I have achieved my own target here, but I wanted to attempt it.

Do let me know your thoughts on this article in the comments section, and also tell me how did you find my piece of art in motion. Stay tuned for more!