INDIAN CLASSICAL DANCE AND PRESENT-DAY CHALLENGES IN PRESERVING ITS ORIGINALITY
Art being an integral part of evolution of mankind, has occupied an important role in the life and culture of the modern human being and his society. Dance, which is considered an important part of performing arts genre, is classified into two categories viz., Classical and Folk forms. The classical dance form as its name suggests, has a particular system of learning, presentation and its own theory and practice. Classical dance must have certain aspects to it in terms of learning, tradition and presentation in order for it to be called classical. It is quite evident that it got influenced by the culture, society and tradition of the communities as well as geography where it evolved. Thus, classical dance forms got classified into 8 types majorly. As we go through the scriptures, Vatsayana in his scripture mentioned about 64 art forms or the skill activities. Among them classical dance is the one which fits in the category of Performing Arts. As the name suggests it is a presentation in the form of a repertoire. This involves the main artiste, supporting artistes and the audience along with the various settings required to become a repertoire. Once we look into the structure of repertoire we need to understand the various aspects of it. In this, repertoire maybe of traditional type or a contemporary one. Being an art form of Guruparampara tradition, classical dance has its essence based on the Rasa concept mentioned in the ancient scriptures, its Do’s and Don’ts as per the tradition and so on. But as the time changes and marches on, everything in nature and the world changes, and it is not an exception in the field of art too. In this regard, we being the artiste fraternity of our country have a great responsibility to preserve and propagate it without altering the originality of the same. Ancient scriptures are an important source to understand the traditions of our culture as well as art forms. Over a period of time, we Indians got influenced by western culture, especially the present younger generation, and it has had a lot of influence in the field of classical dance as well. It is the responsibility of each one of us to educate younger generation to understand the depth of our culture and tradition through our Art forms. Among the five senses a human being is endowed with, the eyes are the most sensible and have a better effect on the brain than other senses. Audio-Visual effects have more influence in learning than just listening or reading. Thus, being an audio-visual art form, classical dance has more potential to attract, influence, refine and elevate a human being. The problem occurs when a Guruparampara based art, that is classical dance, comes under the academic ambit such as a university where it would be a subject in the curriculum. The entire system of academics in the university is completely different compared to the system of Guruparampara. Here one can find it difficult to cope up with the system and it is true especially for the performing artists. We can mention here that many have become artists by imbibing the art through Guruparampara system only. So, till about the 20th century the classical dance had the strong foundation of learning and practice in Guruparampara system only. As it demands many hours and days of practice or ‘Abhyas', it won’t fit into an academic system like in a university or a college. In the academic system time will be limited for practice or ‘Abhyas’ as there will be pressure both on the faculty and students on covering other common subjects also. Practically it doesn’t meet an artist’s need to be an expert on the subject with deep practice and contemplation. This aspect will be of high priority to look into, when one considers how to create a really good professional in the field through academic education. In this process there will be a danger of either losing originality or altering the tradition by the practitioners, as well as the younger generation. In this system one can become either a performer or an academician only and combining both will be a real challenge for the artists. In this regard this paper tries to offer an analysis to finding solutions to this problem.
Author:	Submitted on : 15-Oct-2024	Arts : India/ Classical Dance/ Bharatanatyam
Journal ID : 0001-101-0068
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