Performing Arts and Therapeutic Implications

Tanvi Bajaj, Swasti Shrimali Vohra

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317325710
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

Presenting an alternative perspective, this book proposes that performing arts forge an emotional bond between the performer and the audience, making the act of performance a therapeutic and restorative experience, and not merely recreational.

Studying the life-experiences of six artists, and their unique engagement with three art forms — music, drama and dance — the book highlights the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual effects of performing arts both on the performers and the audience. More importantly, it takes the current understanding of the therapeutic role of arts beyond a deficit model of health that focuses on their use in curing illnesses, disabilities and imbalances, towards a more positive growth-centric model that relates them to promoting holistic mental health, well-being and happiness. It thus bridges the gap between the theoretical understanding of creative arts therapy and the practical experience of performing arts in non-therapeutic settings. Further, it assumes increasing relevance with respect to fast-changing lifestyles to which stress and ill-health are often attributed.

The book will appeal to artists, educators and researchers of performing arts, applied psychology, counselling and therapy, and cultural studies, as well as interested general readers.

1

Nrtta. Natya. Nrtya.

Convenience may allow us to use these three words — Nrtta, Nrtya and Natya — interchangeably, but their meaning remains very different. Nrtta consists of pure dance movements while natya refers to enactment. Consequently, and inevitably, a performance which uses elements of both nrtta as well as natya will be termed nrtya. Although natya now stands for theatre, in ancient India it used to connote something much more than just a theatrical performance. At pre-sent, theatre may be viewed as either a form of entertainment or as a tool for reformation. In ancient India, exponents of theatre conceived natya as a powerful means for deepening our understanding of the complexities of human life. Theatre has the potential to incorporate various forms of arts, crafts and even technology. According to the Natya Shastra, also known as the Fifth Veda, natya can admirably blend all the different kinds of yogas such as bhakti, hatha, mantra, and jnana. It aims at presenting the artistic reality of the larger-than-life truth. A theatrical presentation following the concept of natya appears more or less non-realistic and often highly stylised. Like a religious ritual, stylised theatre is often at the meeting point where human and non-human, finite and infinite, come together. It has the potential to appeal to the inner as well as the outer eye, all at once.

Dance can be an important aspect of the dramatic expressions in natya. The Harivamsa, an important Purana of around the 4th century BCE says, ‘natakam nanartu’, which means ‘a play should be danced’ (Pani 2004: 29). Elements of dance impart to the art of acting a rare mimetic and choreographic character; and an element that can tie nrtta, natya and nrtya together is music, or sangeet. Sangeet is present in every aspect of our lives. From elaborate musical performances, to the chirping of birds, music is all pervasive. It is that underlying thread that binds different nrtta and natya experiences together.

Creative arts such as dance, drama and music are the things that make life worth living. To get completely engrossed in a performance — whether as a performer or a viewer — can be like meditation. Those who are involved with the arts at a deep level would agree that there is something about these arts that doesn’t leave you. As a dancer would say, ‘When you have to dance or sing, you have to dance or sing.’

The purpose of this book is to encourage and educate the uninitiated, inspire the learners, and present the wonders of arts. It urges readers to fill their lives with sangeet, nrtta and natya.

Definition of Art

Arts is a very broad topic and it is nearly impossible to limit it to just a single definition. In a generic sense, it is anything that stems from human’s creative side. It is the conscious production or arrangement of material such as sounds, colours, forms, or movements, in a manner that impacts the aesthetic sensibilities.

The most common usage of the word ‘art’, which rose to prominence after 1750, is understood to denote skill, used to produce an aesthetic result. The Britannica Online Encyclopedia defines art as the ‘use [of] skill or imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others’. Traditionally, ‘art’ was used to refer to any skill or mastery. However, talent is perhaps what separates skill from actual art. Skill can be taught, talent is more inborn, and together they create art, but it may be argued that it is impossible to define talent as well. Art is also a vehicle for the expression or communication of emotions and ideas, and a means for exploring them for their own sake, and as representation. Any body of work that expresses feelings, or symbolises certain emotions, such as love, or shows something that would be difficult to express through mathematical formulae or lab experiments, could be considered a part of the arts. Thus, thinkers have interpreted art as a medium for self-expression and interpretation, covering a diverse range of human activities, creations and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, paintings, graffiti, and dance.

‘Art’ can take on different meanings depending on the context of its use. Listed here are situations where art is being used differently. It can refer to the study of a creative skill in the context of Fine Arts; it becomes a process when painters create art through a painting. Art can also refer to a final product of creation — a piece of art. Here ‘art’ is usually a tangible object, like a sculpture, a painting, a building, or a garment. Further, the main objective of art is to evoke an aesthetic experience. Colloquially, this may be referred to as artistic. It could be the vibe of a place, a personality or an object. Thus, ‘creative arts’ is a collective discipline that aims at producing art works, driven by the artistic bent of individuals (artists), for an aesthetic experience for its audience.

Artistic works have existed for almost as long as humankind — from early ancient art to contemporary art, much has been written about the concept of ‘art’. However, the broadest meaning has remained closest to the older Latin meaning, which roughly translates to ‘skill’ or ‘craft’, and also from an Indo-European root meaning ‘arrangement’ or ‘to arrange’. In this sense, ‘art’ is whatever is described as having undergone a deliberate process of arrangement by an agent with some skill. A more recent sense of the word ‘art’ is commonly used as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art. Fine art means that a skill is being used to express the artist’s creativity, or to draw the audience towards consideration of the finer things. Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, people will consider it a craft instead of art. Similarly, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it will be considered commercial art instead of fine art. Crafts and design are sometimes also known as applied arts.

Functions of Art

Art forms stimulate an individual’s thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or ideas through the senses. Each one of us at some point in our lives may get affected by a movie, a book, a melody, a painting or by poetry. Depending on the extent of influence and the meaning it holds for the receiver, art can serve many different purposes.

Since the history of art is as old as the history of mankind, it must be understood why and how art stood the test of time. What purpose was it serving that it evolved along with the human race and did not phase out as we discovered more forms of entertainment, knowledge and learning. More often than not, art is looked at as a recreational activity, for the purpose of leisure and amusement. However, arts also serve deeper and greater purposes. At one level, arts connect humans to what is greater and beyond our physical world into the mystical aspect of existence. Arts — creative and performing — may have a transcendental quality that strings an emotional and spiritual cord in its audience. They connect us to the rhythm of life that is inherent to all that exists. Arts remind and reinforce nature’s principles of balance and harmony in us. Through the arts we value beauty and aesthetics. They also play an important role in expanding our minds and imagination. What is not possible in real life becomes possible through art, either in a painting, a play, or a dance recital. Also, how different individuals or artists stretch their minds and explore this creativity is unique to them. Thus, arts are universal, yet subjective. Any piece of art can hold a different meaning for each person, and this meaning may also change over time. But arts bind people, they bring people together. Moving from this larger-than-life purpose of art, we also use art in our rituals, festivals and ceremonies. Sometimes they become central to any religious practice, for example, Bhakti Sangeet (explained in detail in Chapter 3), while at other occasions its purpose is only decorative (rangolis during the Hindu festival of Diwali).

On the other end of the spectrum, arts also serve a utility function, wherein the purpose is clearly defined and the actors/creators set a specific intent behind their creations. The primary purpose, in this case, is that of communication. At times when a message cannot be expressed through the limited patterns of language, arts play an important role. Social and cultural messages like that of patriotism, love, kinship, and family values, are communicated through cinema. The primary advantage of this is that a large part of the community can be ‘spoken to’ at once. Other examples can include illustrative arts, like maps and diagrams, which may explain certain phenomena better than words. Arts also communicate political messages, such as graffiti art, which expresses a particular world-view. The Surrealist revolutionary movement that began in Paris in the 1920s is also an example of using arts in politics. In the field of well-being, too, arts can play an important role. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), developed by Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan in the 1930s, uses art for therapy and diagnoses of psychological states. This projective technique uses pictures from which the patient makes stories that enable the therapist to uncover the hidden unconscious desires and conflicts of the patient. Lastly, in our economy-driven society, arts also have a commercial responsibility. They take the form of advertisements, hoardings, graphics, and digital campaigns, all of which seek to sell products through manipulating the viewers’ moods, emotions and reactions towards an object, a thought, service, place, or even an individual.

Performing Arts

The creative arts are often divided into more specific categories that are related to their technique or medium, such as decorative arts, plastic arts, performing arts or literature. The decision about which art forms to consider in this book was based on both practical as well as philosophical grounds. As mentioned earlier, ‘arts’ is a very broad area covering painting, music, dance, sculpture, writing, graffiti, etc. These art forms are very different and, hence, cannot be clubbed together under one head. The focus of this book is on Performing Arts — the arts that consist of those forms in which the artist uses his or her own body, face, voice, and presence to create something. It requires active engagement of the artist’s physicality. For example, creative writing, although clearly an art form, is beyond the scope of this book. Three forms of performing arts are discussed in this book: Music, Drama and Dance.

The origin of the term ‘performing arts’ can be traced back to 1711 CE, when it is said to have first appeared in the English language. Very simply, as the words themselves suggest, ‘performing arts’ are arts or skills that require public performance in which the artists perform their work live to an audience. While performing arts use the artists’ body as resource, plastic arts use materials such as clay, metal or paint, which can be moulded or transformed to create some physical art object. Dance, theatre, opera, music, magic, circus skill and puppetry are all different forms of performing arts. Some performing arts also involve some form of plastic art, perhaps in the creation of props. Artists who participate in these arts in front of an audience are called performers, including actors, comedians, dancers, musicians, and singers.

Dance

‘Dance’ generally refers to human movement, either used as a form of expression or presented in a social, spiritual or performance setting. It is also used as a method of non-verbal communication between humans or animals (mating dance) as well as motion in inanimate objects (leaves dancing in the wind, waves dancing in the sea). According to Rukmini Devi Arundale (1957), ‘nrtya’ is defined as

the history of the soul of India and, therefore, expression both manifest and unmanifest. It is spirit of both eternity and time. It is the spirit of both man and woman. It is the purush and prakriti, and expression of the evolution of the movement, a truly creative force that has come down to us from ages. This embodiment of sound and rhythm which creates poetry of spiritual expression is called dance or nritya (cited in Shah 2002: 104).

‘Indian Classical Dance’ is an umbrella term for various codified art forms rooted in natya, the sacred Hindu musical theatre styles whose theory can be traced back to the Natya Shastra of Bharata Muni (400 BCE). The term ‘classical’ was introduced by the Sangeet Natak Akademi to denote the Natya Shastra-based performing art styles.

Sangeet Natak Akademi currently confers classical status on eight Indian dance styles (along with their state of origin) — Bharatanatyam (Tamil Nadu), Odissi (Orissa), Kuchipudi (Andhra Pradesh), Manipuri (Manipur), Mohini Attam (Kerala), Sattriya (Assam), Kathakali (Kerala), and Kathak (Uttar Pradesh).

At this stage, let us also look at the difference between the terms ‘natya’, ‘nrtya’ and ‘nrtta’ in more detail. In the context of the present-day art world, ‘natya’ is a term which could be used in place of rupaka or rupa, meaning drama, or a play intended for presentation. However, ordinarily speaking, ‘natya’ or rupaka are loosely used to mean nataka. This very important feature of Indian classical dances requires the use of the mudra, or hand gestures, by the artists as a sign language to narrate a story and to demonstrate certain concepts such as objects, weather, nature and emotion. Natya comprises of four aspects of abhinaya or acting — angika (physical), vachika (vocal), aharya (auxiliary) and sattvika (psychic). These have been discussed in detail later in the book.

Nrtta is constituted of karanas and angaharas (gestures and postures of body). Nrtta, by itself, does not communicate any meaning; it is characterised by graceful movements of the limbs and other parts of the body set to a particular rhythm.

When the graceful movements of nrtta combine with the abhinaya, graceful nrtya would emerge. Bharata Muni (5th–2nd century BCE), the creator of Natya Shastra visualised this possibility and, henc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Plates
• Foreword by Guru Syed Sallauddin Pasha
• Preface
• 1. Nrtta. Natya. Nrtya.
• 2. The Spiritual and the Performer
• 3. Rhythm Divine
• 4. On the Other Side
• 5. The ‘Play’ of Life
• 6. The Guru–Shishya
• 7. Bharatanatyam: The Ultimate Remedy
• 8. Intangible Ananda: Music, Dance and Drama
• Annexure
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• About the Authors
• Index