NRUTYA LEKHAN ( DANCE NOTATIONS)

Indian Classical dances and also other various forms of dances have been evolved from decades. The volumes of Natyashastra also state that dance forms even existed in 1606. Thus many dance forms, especially folk are getting deviated as they are not being carried on from the present performers to the young generation. But for Indian Classical dances, the Guru-shishya parampara carried on these dance styles to reach up to a lot of people. The Gurukul became the home for the students taking education under Guru-shishya parampara where they were given Guru Mukhi Vidya. With this teaching method, the students generally bi-hearted everything taught to them and thus they may not have felt the need for nrutya lekhan.



With the changing time and period, the British rule came in India, which eventually changed the system of education, right from the basic education. Now the education here took the form of classroom teaching method. Now with the changing generation, the guru-shishya paampara started deviating. Though we know the institution like Lalit Kala Kendra and many other would be helpful for the art lovers. Still, for the people who do not get a chance to come up to such institutions to get such knowledge, I think the script like Nrutya Lekhan would definitely help such dances to reach up to many people and also next generation far and wide.
The second thing would be the help and sense of belonging which we would get if it is in writing. We learn so many dance items and some being choreographed in so many different forms. In such situation, if we have these items and choreographies in written it would be most helpful for dancers like us. Thus whenever we need to recall something’s we can just pop in and see the required data. Some positive points would be the help of writing such notations in details which are most helpful.
Nrutya Lekhan would also help in memorising these notations carefully and vividly as it would be written by us. Even we would get to understand it better by notations. Many a time it would also help in generating various ideas and new steps while we are actually writing these notations. Also, writing these notations in a specific style rather than using different symbols and notations personally is necessary as it would avoid chaos. We have two great examples of Bhatkhande and Paluskar style of writing notations used in Kathak which is really helping them a lot to go through their earlier collection and preserve their own.
As all other things, even this has some drawbacks. Knowing that we have all the material in writing it would make us lean and sometimes we may not take the effort to learn and remember our choreographies. Also during the Guru-shishya parampara the students could pass on the knowledge to their students only which they remembered from the vast knowledge provided to them from their guru. Thus we can say that nrutya lekhan can be a storage device for the knowledge we are going to get from our Guru. It will also help us preserve old choreographies and make some new choreography’s using those.

Thus, I think that avoiding some of the drawbacks which are being present in every condition Nrutya Lekhan is very helpful and definitely necessary. It would definitely add a helping hand to the knowledge which is being parted to us by our Guru.

Introduction to India Performing Arts (Music)

Shri. Atul Upadhye Sir in our Orientation Program( Lalit Kala Kendra, University of pune)said that “Music lies between the gap of two notes, there was sudden plain and clear picture for music in my mind as I never understood it before so easily in such simple words. But this is an explanation to students who take formal education for Music, Dance and Theatre…who makes use of these notes and beats in there Art forms.

Then for common people how does music play a part in their life. I think if you just look at a view where does music lie? Then you will find that music is everywhere. It’s what comes out of the speakers when we play a CD on our stereo. It’s what we hear on the radio. Music is singers singing and Musician’s playing. Music is something that people create and something that people respond to. It is also heard from natural sounds like waterfall, thundering, rains, the trotting of horse, etc. Or we can say the twittering of the birds, dogs barking, etc. and I think these are very pure and basic sounds which we can put forth as different types of music. When these sounds are being put together in proportionate beats, rhythm etc. they constitute to become Music. Especially the Music like classical which is also presented in forms of written notations.
Now comes forth the question why do we hear these types of music or sounds. Sometimes we even hear some music like songs again and again. This has a very simple answer to it being because we like to hear them. And we like to hear them because the soothing sound attracts us towards the music. Music is a type of form which leaves sensation to our whole body. Some people start moving their legs as they hear a tint of music, some dance to the tunes, some get totally envolved and get lost in their own world. I think this is the main power and result of music which holds on to our day to day life, especially artists like us.