FAQ on Dance and Faith

A personal hearty message to those who dance in todays world —–

I do not have a predetermined reason to focus on any particular literature, culture, language, people, religion, faith, or specific subject matter per se. My selections are generally driven by the events, opportunities, and anticipated needs that I foresee, and its market. Lot of times, student signup drives it. My curriculam is thus much diverse.

If somebody has such feelings about it, definitely must do it on own or can easily find a place that specifically goes by it. When you run a dance training center, and having sign ups ahead of time, private packages and whole lot of brands — I just cannot afford to be choosy on specifics of one religion, culture, language, people, faith or religion.

And then comes part — at times most of batch is formed way before i even publicly announce it — which means some batches are formed before open house and thus, majority wins as those batches do learn to perform in their personal functions atleast something towards the end of the year.

How about certain respect for dance form itself as most classical dances are merely handicapped without use of certain literature or at times faith itself. I cannot argue on certain topics. That’s how it is in every classical dance. #YES

Plus the awards are by several of these subject matter – it becomes too plain without a subject matter to dance aimlessly throughout the performance. How much music to get by through out!

This is just a thought based on all the productions and performances as well scale at which I personally instructed, supervised to my students.

Please don’t tell me that a Qawwali can simply be selected without considering references to Khuda. If it does not invoke Khuda, it often has romantic love as its central subject matter—which can, in itself, become an issue for some younger students and their parents.

The same challenge exists across classical and folk traditions. An invocation in classical dance will naturally often include the name or reference to a deity. Even something as seemingly simple as Gujarati folk music may include the name of a goddess. A significant portion of Kathak repertoire contains references to Khuda or related cultural and spiritual terminology.

Very few traditional dance pieces are completely free of references to a culture’s gods, goddesses, spirituality, or romantic themes. That makes repertoire selection extremely challenging—very challenging!

We certainly have plenty of music to work with, but the question is not simply whether music exists. The real challenge is finding repertoire that is culturally authentic, artistically appropriate, age-appropriate, and comfortable for the families involved. That requires much more thought and careful selection. Productions are challenging.

Not that i have not done those. Other way to understand this is – Christmas has carols! Directly places jesus, mary and such relevance in the drama or songs or dances.

Let me add to this, as a convent kid all my life — I honestly had no problems learning about carol singing either for straight 4 years, and today, i do work around catholic charities too. The mindset needs to be cleared. I honestly had no problems learning “shayaris”, or iranian folk either :). As i evolved, i added couples latin influenced dance styles to my portfolio, and much later Hiphop. This allowed me to grow.

MINDSET!

For some reason, the bharatanatyam based on Jesus works have not been cleared. Unsure why, but this is all i know. Some kerala dancers have performed those beautifully but was not accepted.

I sure hope, someday it is! I think the contradictory part of this is not the dance but whole essence of raagam thalam which follow through the composition which then has not been created to other religious compositions. Hopefuly soon it will.

Performing arts have come this far, should be fine later as well 🙂

An artist growth does depend on various factors in performing arts rather than just the dance part. Variety is always the best spice.

All the time dance on plain music becomes mentally challenging. At some point, you have to work around expressions, dramas, stories of folk lores, fables or sometimes some dances based on other subject matter or through invocations and such dance items. It is very difficult to just have music throughout.

At times, my batches are extremely diverse and when this happens, automatically my songs and compositions change. As one of the most diverse businesses in DFW, i have by far earned that much love and respect to have people from all walks of life, religion, faiths, cultures, or language. But then, with this, there are limitations to participations itself because of this very reason!

By far, some of the most beautiful compositions are based on various cultures, religious subjects, folk lores, gods, goddesses. As much as I hate to admit this, it is fact.

#YES

Please adjust and tread through.