“Alokananda, are you going to dance through your life!”- my mathematics teacher at school had enquired with anger for repeatedly not doing my home assignments. Much later, with my newly formed identity as a Dancer-choreographer, I met her. She recognized me and mentioned how proud she was of me. I told her-“M’am, I am actually dancing through life “.
Much to my unawareness, I have always danced to my moods as a child. It is, as on this day, my only spontaneous and preferable mode of expression. Joy and sorrow, gain and loss, life and thereafter my dance never discriminated; it just happened and I allowed it to. I am yet to come across a more ambitionless life, as mine. Which is why, I possibly had no expectation from life and was content with whatever came along. How so ever could never involve myself into any activity as long as I did not enjoy doing it.
The element of pure joy that evolves from the absence of intended gains has been my only focus. It often saddens me when I comprehend the orientation of the future society, based on the object of achievements and not on the state of life. Yes! Times have changed since my childhood. When innocent curiosity for knowledge, as an act of growing up was more fun than participating into incessant competition.
Me as an audience, have seldom displayed the virtue of patience, which otherwise I am. I have always monitored my own work, being in the shoes of the spectator. How can I ever expect my audience to enjoy a visual art form like DANCE, one that I do not enjoy creating effortlessly? And that spontaneous process, though technical by the physicality and dynamics, is always emotional, as it roots into the expressions, connecting the soul.
I often wonder as to what really is my language or style of DANCE! My fortune of having the best teachers of my era, to mentor my techniques and dance vocabulary, has defined my fundamentals. True, grammar is so required for the effortlessness of a physical presentation. But working with non-dancers over a decade and seeing them delighted in the flow of joyous energy, unperturbed by their discrepancies. Yet, effortlessly connect by sheer honesty of their attempt. Their being in the moment and discovering the beauty of physical movements coordinating to a rhythm pattern, has many a time made me connect, to the higher source of energy. That is perhaps how life always leaps out to touch the energy within. Over-monitoring of such dynamics robs the natural progression of a performer, restructuring into an emotionally-arid, technical brilliance.
Finally, I have always stayed off, comparisons and competitions since that do not nurture the dynamics and capacities of an individual. Eventually, for me the Art form – DANCE should actually be a flow of joyful human expressions or should I say, Lyrical Salvation.
