Life of a Chollu - (The Spoken Sound )(12 March 2023)

 Chollu - The Spoken Sound

The sound of a chollu or a sound uttered has a life. It may live for a few seconds to even as small as a millisecond. The skill of a dancer is in embodying that sound fully and wholly within her movement.

What is a movement in terms of dance ?

I see it as a shift in the body's alignment from the base form. In bharathanatyam we can attribute the base form as Samam. The Samam posture is the stance where every part of your angas(main) and upangas(subordinate) body parts are in its samam position.

The movements of these main angas are in conjunction with those of the upangas. This coordinated movement of the angas and upangas within the confines of a sound or syllable can be considered as a movement in dance. This definition does not correspond to te concept of “Chari '' in Natyashastra. We will look at Charis and Karanas in future posts.

A movement when executed to its maximum spatial and temporal capacities will enhance the aesthetics of the dance. It creates a harmony which is an important factor required in a dance presentation. A dance comprises several such harmonious movements. Each of these movements do not exist on its own. A dance sequence is interconnected by each of these units. Harmonious execution of each of the movements within the sequence will result in a well rounded and aesthetically pleasing presentation.

A dancer has to train her body and mind to attain this harmonious spatial and temporal existence as she moves through her dance sequence. This requires training her mind and body. An effective method to train a dancer’s body and mind to get to this state is to practice every move at an extremely slow pace before doing it at its intended pace. Most Indian classical dances have the practice of doing every Adavu(step sequence) in a gradation of speeds (1st to 3rd). 

Executing the adavus(step sequences) in a slower pace than the customary 1st pace, almost like a slow motion where each syllable sound is extended to match the movement, can be an effective way to get the dancer to become one with every movement. Let's look at an example by taking one of the bharathanatyam adavus.

Visharu Adavu.

Cholkettu -  Tha Thai Thai That Dhit Thai Thai That 

Let's take this as the 1st speed.

| Ta - - - | Thai - - - | Thai - - - | That - - - ||

| Dhit - - - | Thai - - - | Thai - - - | That - - - ||

In order to do a deeper meditative practice the same adavu can be done at 

| Ta - - - | - - - - | Thai - - - | - - - - ||

| Thai - - - | - - - - | That - - - | - - - - ||

| Dhit - - - | - - - - | Thai - - - | - - - - ||

| Thai - - - | - - - - | That - - - | - - - - ||

Pacing each movement to the extended sound syllable will be a good practice to get each move registered with the right spatial and temporal alignment.

In short, take every step slow and steady to make your dance highly defined and aesthetically pleasing.

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