Stamping my right foot to the side twice, tapping with my left foot behind, then switching sides.
Walking with an exaggerated bend at the knee, heel first. I feel rather clumsy and uncoordinated as a figure of Shiva watches us from the sidelines.
Madhavi eases us into the workshops by telling us a brief history of how body, expression and song go into what we know as a dance, and she shows us a small portion of the vocabulary used through hand gestures. I’m immediately intrigued when I realise that every song is actually telling a story through these gestures, that nothing is merely decorative.
Coming from a Western background (originally from Germany) this is indeed what struck Madhavi first when she visited Malaysia for the first time. At the Temple of Fine Arts in Kuala Lumpur – a centre for Indian culture – she watched dance students practise outdoors in beautiful saris and knew this was her calling.
This started her years of dedication and practice to the art of classical Indian dance and eventually Bollywood dance. She focused on Bharata Natyam, a classical dance that originated in temples of Tamil Nadu and neighbouring areas.
Bharata Natyam serves the expression of Hindu religious themes and devotions. It was originally performed exclusively by female temple dancers, only brought to the stage for public performance in the 1930s.
As we learn a couple of basics, using muscles we probably didn’t know we had, she tells us how in Bharata Natyam gods and goddesses are the subjects and personified images that express universal experiences. “It broadens your vision and perception of life. In Indian dance you are always reminded of this circle of creation and destruction. Like life, situations are always changing and you are confronted with new challenges to move on and grow inside.”
In Indian dance you are always reminded of this circle of creation and destruction
She continues to explain how this dance actually incorporates different artistic disciplines: pure powerful rhythmical dance, facial expressions and a unique language of hand gestures (mudras). Thus it is like a pantomime, storytelling, the meaning of the song texts and their poetry is acted out.
As Madhavi spent years also working with theatre groups in Germany, this further increased her interest. With a nostalgic smile she remembers a really exciting and memorable day that was her graduation performance in Chennai after four years of training with Savithri Jagannatha Rao.
Bharata Natyam incorporates different artistic disciplines: rhythmical dance, facial expressions and a unique language of hand gestures (mudras).This performance, called Arangetram in south India, is the day your teacher presents you to the public. It’s a stage debut, a full-length solo performance.
Coming to Malta meant a new country, a new culture and a new chapter in Madhavi’s life. So far, Bharata Natyam and Indian dance in general, including Bollywood dance, are not so well known here.
As she has always been a bridge-builder between two worlds, the east and the west, she hopes to continue to share the uniqueness of her dance art through performances, workshops and classes in Malta.
In the second part of the workshop we are introduced to Bollywood dance, a far less cosmic dance in its philosophy, but a whole load of fun nonetheless. Bit by bit we learn to tell a story of a woman who has lost her earring in the market, who then decides she cannot be bothered with this, so she will dance instead!
If you also want to learn these steps or start a journey into Indian dance, follow Madhavi on www.facebook.com/indiandancebymadhavi.