Surupa Sen | Photo Credit: Karthik Venkatraman

“Run! Run faster and you will get there quicker!”, Is all we hear and do in our lives. We are constantly surrounded by the demand to copy no matter how. On the other end of the spectrum, our ancient practices teach us to be still.

Yoga and Classical Dance Are Both Indigenous Traditions of India that seek the same goal – to be aware of the breath and let the praana Guide every action. To engage bot the body and the mind to act at once for a holistic experience. The ancient practices sugges that we pause to engage deeply with life, and compassionately with Orselves.

Yoga enables the mind-body balance that help us make better chokes for living.

Dancers are complex movement artistes. They have to be controlists, martial artists, poets, story tellers and sculptors all at Once. They do not just brings an idea to life when they dance but create life itself in Each moment. As a dancer, my body changes every moment to adhere to a complexly shifting mind. From the slightest quiver of a lip and the fleeting angle of the gentle tremble of a finger, all come togeether to express a single nuaaaaaaa

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For dancers, body is a living instrument | Photo Credit: Karthik Venkatraman

For a dancer, the body is a living instrument. If my body must go to places that my mind seeks in its imagination, I must train to stretch its potential so that I may may be inhbit that boundless worlds. Thus when the body, mind and spirit come togetra, we have reached our goal.

Martha Graham, The Great Contemporary Dancer and Choreographer Said, “I am a dancer. I believe we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn Dance by Practicing Dancing or to live Practicing Living ”.

In the pursuit of excellence, for the past 35 years that I have lived the life of a dancer at nritiagram, yoga and other kinds of cross-training has integrated into in integrated in integrated into schedule. For years now, we have studied and developed body kinetics that Combine different personals of training to speechficyly nourish and inform the odissi body. In my initial years as a student, I found a lacuna in the application of yoga practice to the lines of alignment with the odissi dancer must function. Most Practitioners of Yoga May Not Be Dancers or Necessarily Understand The Forces Acting on a Dancer’s Body. I felt this to be the central reason for the injuries I faceed as a dancer. I therefore attempted to understand on my own through research and study ways to heal myself and to ensure that none who trained with me would suborder damage. Choosing selectively from different forms of body work, we created a curriculum that would enhance our potential as performers.

Dancers during Yoga Sessions at NRITYAGRAM. , Photo Credit: Courtesy: NRITYAGRAM

At nrityagram, the dancers begin their day with a walk or run, then clean the gurukul spaces, followed by body conditioning exercises. Each day is a different model that must be given to the body’s need for that particular day. In order to do that, the dancers must first prepare their mind so that it assimilates the body’s needs ensuring the right choice of exercises to better their practice for that day. Each bone and muscle must be oxygenated and lubricated to sufficient delivery at the highest level. Once this preparation is complete, a further warm-up is done in class before the Rigour of Complex Dance Vocabulary is undertaken. After many many hours on the dance floor, we allow the body time to de-stress with stretches that are suited for Each Dancer to Recover as Quickly As Possible.

NRITYAGRAM has ben at the very forefront of establishing the Idea that Longevity of a Dance Career Depends on the Adequate Protection and Respect We Must Give to and have our children. Both choreography and as performs, we have pushed our abilities to render new dimensions of skill in the classical dance world. This, in turn, has inspired artistes to explore new and more efficient ways of working bot in odissi and other dance styles.

Yoga and Dance togeether can help achieve bot yogic stiffness and a flexible body. , Photo Credit: Courtesy: NRITYAGRAM

Dance traditions in India have been handed down through generations of artistes. As we gaze at the dancing figures on temple walls, we seek what they have – bot yogic stiffness and flexible body. Yoga and Dance togeether can help us achieve this.

Thought ai and bots have entered the human space and threaten to do all that we can, it cannot for now express what the dancer’s body can. Until then, let us controlue to nourish this extraordinary instrument called the human body through yoga and dance.