Thursday, July 18, 2013

Day 17: Recitation

17 Days ago I had no idea how to find the tekha while listening to lehera only...In fact I didn't know the proper terms for lehera and tekha. Today, one of the most satisfying things I experienced was how just by listening, I knew where I was in the teen taal cycle of music. And I could match my foot work to the music properly; I practiced vilambit (slow) and madhya (medium) speeds of tatkar (footwork) and I was able to properly align myself with the tekha. I still need work on aligning myself to the music in the druth (fast) speed.

(our 1st and last class on Wednesday is writing down the phrases to the composition we just learned)
 

I worked all this out by reciting the tatkar bol and adjusting to fit the music. YAY! Who showed me how to do this? Joanna Di of course! On the first day that she tried to show me, I was like "What?" Now it makes sense. I am seeing how important recitation is! Recitation is actually what is going to let me dance -- in other words, I recite, I match my recitation to the tekha and/or lahera (lehera follows the tekha), once I am able to recite properly, and I know where each bol lands in the phrase I am going to dance to, I can then dance to it... It's quite an interesting interconnected process. This ain't no 8 count linear music...its cyclic. Kathak is the most interconnected dance art I have ever encountered; although I have been familiar with Kathak since childhood, I did not understand it's inner workings; and I am still only at the beginning...its extremely mental, mathematical, physically challenging, and involves great investment of emotion. Kathak can create agility of the mind, and physical awareness; I would urge parents to understand the importance of the performing arts...I find that many South Asian parents focus solely on academics, giving arts the last glance. But if you gave the arts a proper place in your children's lives (and your own life for that matter), you would find that a disciplined method of artistic expression will actually enhance and increase your child's academic abilities; not to mention their physical and emotional abilities.

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