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Showing posts from January, 2012

Contrast in Dance: Role of Dynamism and Grace in Creation of Beauty

There is this dance sequence from the movie ‘Shirdi Ke Sai Baba’ that I came across recently, in which the ‘Lavani’ (a form of traditional Marathi song accompanied with dance) performer is singing and dancing about having forgotten all things worldly, so intense is her love for her lover.  Throughout, so graceful and sensuous - the performer has done full justice to the song and Asha Bhosle’s voice is at its lilting best! There is a constant dynamic motion as a result of jumps and other visible body movements, interspersed with subtle and slow movement of the hands (dancer’s palms painted pink) and fingers along with facial expressions in lock-step with the subtle movements that add to the grace and accentuate the beauty of the specific sub-sequence. Synchronization with the music (predominantly dholaks and sitar) and keeping up with the tempo of the singing by Asha Bhosle catapults the sequence to a level where it has a near-mesmerizing effec