Philosophy of dance

Renowned writer from Rome Cicero wrote drama is the reflection of the life style of the civilization and mirror of their level of education and sensitivity. In Indian classical dance, drama is the main activity, because expressing a feeling is only possible by facial expression and hand movements. By adding music, literature and instrumental music it affect more powerfully on human mind.

In practical life dance helps us to overcome our brutal feeling and take us to the spiritualism. Indians long ago observed this and used dance in their ritual ceremonies in temples in ancient time. Dance is a form of yoga and helps to maintain blood pressure, physical strength, reduce anxiety and anger, helps to understand life more deeply then an average man.

Even though a person do not want to become a professional dancer, any way regular dance practice help him to control on himself and regulate the innermost feeling to the situation. it also helps to synchronize our body to the nature. When a person moves the body of some part of the body in rhythm then it is called exercise. In this the mode of energy is inward. But when this energy is outward tendency then it take the inner feelings with it and affect not only the person doing this but all the people watching or gather around the person doing this. Both actions are exercise but due to change in tendency of the energy affect is entirely different.

What is Dance?

The peak of enjoyment is nothing but the Dance. When a man becomes unable to express his feelings then one takes the medium of dance. We can assume that the early caveman expresses himself by two methods firstly by the hand and body movement secondly by drawing sketches on the wall. That time it was not that important as the musical sense was not very developed, later on when man developed sense of repeating the actions or the movement with the pace of some rhythm, dance came into existence.

That time instruments were very basic and less complicated like stones, bones, woods, were the source of rhythm. Group vocal was the supporting music for the dance. Dance was performed at all occasions specially when good hunt is done or to attract the partner it was the best way to express feelings.

Gradually dance for celebration of harvest, hunt, marriage, death, seasons came into existence. With the concept of harvest, concept of God who helps them to keep everything all right developed that brought a great revolution in dance, a new concept of devotional dances on every occasion likewise harvest and hunt in the form of sacrifice dance came into existence.

Up to that time dance was only collective society affair which are the expressions of the immediate feeling of the mass. These dances do not have any written text or fixed movement everybody dance as he want or all people follow any senior person who take part in the procession. Dance start at slow speed and ends on very fast rhythms., these dances gradually patronize their gestures and movements instruments which been used during dance also played very important role in creation mood and specialty of the particular occasion.

Dance is an art of expressing oneself. When somebody repeats some motion or activity with rhythm and feelings may consider as dance. Before the invention of language man communicate through the medium of drawing, Hand or Face gestures or by different sounds. As the early cave man lived in-groups every occasion like hunt, Birth or death was celebrated with sound and body gesture.

Later on drawing lead to stone carving, sound to Music and face and hand gestures to dance. Music was always an essential part of dance. With the time man learned harvest farming and animal farming and with this started a very deep relation of man with nature. There is a phrase in Sanskrit 'Nritymayam Jagat' means Nature is full of dance. Moon rotates around earth, Earth rotates around Sun. Waves of the sea gives an immortal rhythm. Cycle of season gives feelings of non-stop natural rhythm and man understands that he can only survive when he coordinates with the rhythm of nature.

When one can not express his feeling by words he use his body. In other words when any feeling reaches on its peak automatically man or any living thing starts dancing with face gestures and movement of the body parts etc. For example some time people start jumping out of anger or excitement. Walk to and Fro when irritated. Different acrobatics by the male during mating season in animals and birds is another form of dance. Love, anger, excitement, sadness are the common feelings which are expressed through dance.

From the very early period man understood that dance has an enormous capacity of concentration and meditation. That is why in most of Asian countries developed trend of using dance for devotional purpose. On the other hand showing their happiness at harvesting time and bravery after a big hunt became a common feature in rural areas.

In western countries dance remained in its basic trend to enjoy and attract the opposite sex. While in King's courts for formal amusement except group dancing like ball dancing (Polka, Waltz, Tango Foxtrot, Quick Step, Cha cha cha, Rumba, Flamingo etc.) developed. Also the Theater where solo dances, duets and dramatic expressions were staged. In Russia Ballet developed as classical dance where dancers from very tender age start learning techniques of dance and not only solo dancing but also group choreography was staged very often.

In Asian countries precisely in India except folk dances developed devotional dances, which were usually performed on some spiritual event in or around the Temple by some selected people or Community, considered holy and pure by the general people. In India these dances were performed to please the God, devotional dances based on some stories from Ramayan; Mahabharata or other holy books were taken. These dancers were known as Bharats, Nut, Kushilav, Chaaran, or Kathak.

Dance is not only an art but also a well-developed science. On one hand it gives full body exercise while on other hand it give mental rest. As per Abhinaya Darpan (A legendary book on dance written about 300-500 BC by Nandikeshwar) dancer should know music, Yoga, Kamasutra, playing musical instrument, master of Rhythm, able to make new compositions etc. If we go in to the deep of these musical and dance compositions we will see that these compositions are based on pure mathematics and Physics different permutations and combinations, differentiation, theory of relativity and aesthetic science. May be it is strange for general people to listen this but it is true.

Earlier musicians and dancers was good mathematician. They calculate and make different and difficult compositions for performance, which shows their superiority on others. All big and legendary devotees from the ancient to the present time are dancers. In Hindu religion mejorly people are divided into three categories 1st "Shaiva" who believes in Lord Shiva 2nd "Vaishnava" who believes in lord Vishnu or in his incarnations 3rd "Shaakats" who believes in Shakti or incarnations of Goddess Parvati. Surprisingly Lord Shiva as Natraj, the cosmic dancer. Shri Krishna (incarnation of lord Vishnu) as Natnaager and Parvati herself as dance partner of Shiva are known to all.

Thus we can see in Indian Religion dance is a serious affair. In India in major music and dance is divided in to two, Southern Indian and Northern Indian. Although the concept of the music and dance is same but the presentation is entirely different. That is also because northern India had faced lots of political and cultural change because of very often attacks by European Kingdoms and Middle East countries. Every time they brought something new which the forced to adopt to the looser kingdom while southern India retained its culture as number of attacks were very less. India is always very friendly and respected others culture that is why lots of musician, dancers, scholars came to India and Indian lot of cultural exchange took place.

These changes shows that the dance of any country or place shows the cultural, political, mental and Spiritual level of the people as well as the richness of the taste which allows the other cultures to merge in. It may be strange but by watching the dance recital from some place one can know the situation of the of that particular place like cultivation, season, height of the place from sea, presence of water near the place, nature of the people, Total rainfall on that place, literacy of the people, economical condition and lots of other characters. Which directly indicates that dance is not only a thing for enjoyment or relaxes but a full science, which directly connected with the psychology and philosophical state of human mind. which shows the development of intelligence of mankind.

Usually dance costumes are bright, shining, and rich in colour, which shows the happiness, energy, and enthusiasm for the life. Some of the costumes are especially for some special dance. Like In Tibet dance performed by lamas during the religious ceremony costumes are kept for centuries which give them an important place in the temple. In Indonesia Dance ballet performed in only special make-up and costumes. In Japan dance costumes are very important feature of their recital even colours of their costumes indicates lots of things about the person who wears it.

Mostly all dances either folk or classical has some special hand and body movements which also helps to identify the particulars of the dance. In classical dance they are more precise and clear, as solo perfection is an essential part of the performance. India has 7 styles of classical dance from Northern India Kathak, from eastern and Northeastern India Manipuri, and Odissi, from south India Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, Mohiniattam and Kathakali. Except these three more dances are in the process of development of being classical these are Yaksha Gaan, Chhaau and Rabindra Nritya. Now are considered to be semi classical dances.

All these dances have a very vast details of hand gestures mostly all of them follows Bharatnatyashastra or Abhinaya Darpun. In short they have about 28 single hand gestures, 32 both hand gestures and about 42 mixed hand gestures each hand gestures have its different meaning and can be used for different expression in other situations in dance. In Hinduism almost same gestures are used during spiritual prayer. In Tantra Shastra, which is, famous as black magic, prayer is performed with very slow dance poses and hand gestures. Magic has very deep roots in human mind. It gives power, pleasure, and Paisa (money). The same effect gives dance during the performance power and pleasure both hypnotize the viewer.

Philosophy behind the dance is to control, express elegantly and beautifully feeling of the heart. In nature where language is a big barrier dance is a universal language.