2024
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"Inspirations come in myriad forms, whether it is poetry, going to a
museum, seeing fine art, a beautiful piece of music, a great sunset, a
sliver of the new moon, a flower flowering or majestic architecture."
- Aditi Mangaldas
('Dancing to her own beat' by Neha Kirpal, Deccan Herald, Dec 4, 2022)
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Samskritam definitions for different types of teachers
1. A teacher who gives information is called ADHYAAPAK.
2. The one who imparts knowledge combined with information is called UPAADHYAAYA.
3. The one who imparts skills is called ACHARYA.
4. The one who is able to give deep insight into a subject is called PANDIT.
5. The one who could remove darkness of all kinds (ignorance), who elevates, enlightens the minds is called GURU.
6. The ultimate and personification of divinity is called PARAMAGURU, touching godliness.
(Samskrita Nikhandu - Dictionary or Amarakosha)
Nandikeswara's Abhinaya Darpana quotes Aachaarya sikshaa sidhyartham.... Please note he hasn't used the word GURU.
- Shared by Natyacharya VP Dhananjayan
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"Creativity has to be as profound as technique".
- Wayne McGregor
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"I think every single one of us is a dancer because dance is movement, and everyone is moving in a different way".
- Natalya Ashikhmina
('Louisville dancer reflects on her 18-year run with the ballet', YouTube)
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"An age without criticism is an age that possesses no art at all."
- Oscar Wilde
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There are so many things art can do: Art heals, Art entertains, Art educates, Art brings people together.
- Matthew Rushing
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"Dance is a power that brings us connection at a time when we're so disconnected."
- Sergey Gordeev, director of external affairs at Youth America Grand Prix
('Ballerinas flood NYC’s Plaza Hotel to stomp a Guinness World Record on
their tiptoes' by Precious Fondren, Gothamist, April 17, 2024)
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These days, we make much of collaborative productions between dancers
and artists from different genres. But every dance performance, in my
view, is in fact a collaboration, even if it's not marketed as such and
even if some of the streams of synergy between the many collaborators
are not visible, or obvious.
The success of a dancer, whether performing solo, or in a group, depends
on the quality of interactive support she receives and the contribution
of many - parents and gurus, muses and musicians, poets and scholars,
patrons and sponsors, costume designers and technical crew. No matter
how brilliantly gifted, without good gurus and a rich dance language or
tradition, our art would be impoverished. Without enrichment and
discerning guidance from parents or mentors we would flounder when faced
with difficult choices. Without fine poets, scholars and translators to
give us the key to powerful and poignant poetry, we would be hard put
to enrich our repertoires. Without sensitive composers to give eloquent
aural form to the poems we select and gifted musicians to translate our
visions into music that inspires, we cannot aspire to write our own
dance poetry. And, without skilled costume and lighting designers, it's
not easy show to advantage on stage.
All these invaluable "collaborators" and more, whether behind the
scenes, or on stage, play important roles in our creative expression and
performances.
- Alarmel Valli
(In conversation with Akhila Krishnamurthy in 'Co-travellers in my Artistic Journey,' May 15, 2024)
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"Humanity is divided by religion, by culture, but for me, dancing is a way of saying: 'We are all one.'"
- Naoko Kihara, Mexico City based Japanese traditional dancer
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"When it appears so obvious that dance can either enhance or diminish
our humanness, why do we seem to use it so frequently for the latter and
so infrequently for the former?"
- Dance educator Susan Stinson in 1984
('Examining the dance world's ethics' by Naomi M. Jackson, Dance Magazine, Feb 7, 2024)
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Mark Edmundson teaches literature at the University of Virginia and is
one of those who still lives by the humanist code. In his book “Why
Read?” he describes the potential charge embedded in a great work of
art: “Literature is, I believe, our best goad toward new beginnings, our
best chance for what we might call secular rebirth. However much
society at large despises imaginative writing, however much those
supposedly committed to preserve and spread literary art may demean it,
the fact remains that in literature there abide major hopes for human
renovation.”
Wouldn’t you love to take a course from that guy?
How does it work? How does culture do its thing? The shortest answer is
that culture teaches us how to see. “The greatest thing a human soul
ever does in this world is to SEE something, and tell what it saw in a
plain way,” the Victorian art critic John Ruskin wrote. “Hundreds of
people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one
who can see.”
(‘How to Save a Sad, Lonely, Angry and Mean Society’ by David Brooks, The New York Times, Jan 25, 2024)
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"I do believe that if we could all align our pelvises, wars would stop
and everything would take its right place… The more dancers we have, the
more healing can take place."
- Dan Wagoner (Dance Magazine, 2007)
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"There is, in art, neither past nor future. Art that is not in the present will never be."
- Pablo Picasso
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"We learn to practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing
dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the
same. One becomes in some area an athlete of god."
- Martha Graham
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Learning dance is tough
To perfect it is tough
To perform is tough
To get program is tough
Having learnt not to perform is tough
To pay money and get program is tough
To watch others pay and perform is tough
To get reviews is tough
To watch others run for reviews is tough
To focus with determination is tough
To break loose and get out of it is tough
To surrender to the lord is not tough
Dance for the divine with divinity and dignity
Everything will fall in place.
- Sailaja, artistic director of Saila Sudha (on Facebook, Dec 19, 2023)
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