DON’T LOSE OUT, WORK OUT by RUJUTA DIWEKAR

Author:RUJUTA DIWEKAR [DIWEKAR, RUJUTA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Westland
Published: 2014-02-23T22:00:00+00:00

Technical note — Bharatnatyam and periodization

Our culture really is so, so fascinating. Just us, as a nation, we have seven classical dances. The aim of our classical dances is sadhana, not fat loss. But to reach a place where sadhana, learning, the very means of spiritual evolution is possible, the physical body must be in great shape. In Bharatnatyam, you study something called adavu (like alphabets, so that you can speak the language of dance). Every adavu is taught to you in a sequence that’s been transmitted from generation to generation of nattuvanaars or dance gurus. Now I learn Bharatnatyam, and I was just so intrigued when I discovered the sequence. First came kuditameta, a sequence of dance steps that required me to jump with my heels up but toes down, killed my legs and challenged my brain (came after learning to strike my foot flat and hard on the ground). Boy, my adductors (inner thighs) squealed in pain and I struggled to keep my spine aligned and my hastas decent (alarm stage). Slowly but surely, under my teacher’s hawk eye for detail, my body adapted and I learnt to do this with less groaning in the thighs and more control over the fingers, spine, eyes, etc. (resistance stage).

Next came tandutala. Now not just my heels, but also my toes and in fact my feet, my legs, my entire body was mid-air and I was required to keep my spine, hands, eyes, etc. calm, balanced and in mudras (progressive overload). In one action, I whirled around on landing, in another I opened my hands into a petal formation and in a third I struck my right foot. My body and my senses were endlessly challenged. And I wondered if I was doing the right thing for my ‘age’ (self pity / ego crushing was taking place). My thighs, my hands, my spine, my balance, I felt I was losing everything and I dreaded what would come next. And right then, after tandutala came sarika. It didn’t require me to jump, in fact it didn’t even require me to sit in aramandi (the half-squat pose that’s characteristic of Bharatnatyam). It just required me to step side to side with my feet almost never leaving the ground. Wow! It seemed like a dream post tandutala and it was, for my aching feet, thigh, spine and sore muscles, but now it required me to coordinate the minute muscles of my fingers with my eyes while I leaned forward slightly and stepped side to side.

Sarika relaxed my stimulated skeletal structure; giving it time to adapt and keeping it in the resistance phase without letting it reach the exhaustion stage. At the same time, it shifted the stimuli to another area — hand-to -eye coordination so that a new training concept could be introduced. I was stimulated, relaxed, learning and progressing at the same time.

I wondered aloud to my teacher if her nattuvanaar had ever heard of Bompa or if Bompa had ever looked into our ancient physical training system.

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