Introduction

Dancing is one of the most recognized Hindu arts. Dancing incorporates melody, drama, gestures, body positions and head movements. The history of dance in Hinduism goes back to the dawn of civilization (15000+ years) and is associated with Lord Shiva.

 

Shiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja)

Nataraja नटराज is a “form” of Hindu God Shiva as the cosmic ecstatic dancer. God Shiva’s  dance is called “Ananda Tandava” or  “Tandava”. This indicate Dance of Bliss.

The dance symbolizes the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, as well as the daily rhythm of birth and death.

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Dance has been part of Hinduism and Indian culture for thousands of years as an expression of human emotions and devotion to divine.

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Natya Shastra

The earliest known treatise on the performing arts is the Sanskrit classic “Natya Shastra,” written by the sage Bharata Muni. It is effectively a handbook for dance and theatre and details the techniques of dramatic expression.

 

The text consists of 36 chapters with a cumulative total of 6000 poetic verses describing performance arts. It is believed that the format used in Natya Shastra is at least 3,000 years old.

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Historical facts

The statue was recovered in an excavation from the 'HR area' of Mohenjo-Daro, Indus Valley civilization (6000 years ago). It is suggestive of two major breaks-through, one, that the Indus artists knew metal blending and casting and perhaps other technical aspects of metallurgy, and two, that a well developed society Indus people had “Innovated Dance” and other performing Arts as modes of entertainment.

 

Indian Dance Forms

India has hundreds of dance genres, each of which can be traced to different parts of the country. The two major categories are: Classical and Folk dance forms. Over thousands of years various new forms evolved.

Dance and song sequences have been an integral component of films across the India with the introduction of sound to cinema in the film Alam Ara in 1931.

Dancing traditions of India have influenced not only the Indian subcontinent, but Asia, Eastern Europe and many other parts of the world.

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Goals and Objectives

• This program is for educational purpose only

• Educate community members about the rich history of Indian Dance and Drama

• Educate the community about the various dance forms and their history

• Publish short videos for dance form for social media upload. Each video shall have 50% speech about its tradition, history, attributes and rest 50% the actual demo

• Develop 2 dance performances per year that align with eYogi Gurukul's goals and objectives. Dance performance shall be based on folk traditional Indian style dance form

• Prepare students for giving a performance in eYogi Gurukul events

• Develop lectures on the history of Indian dance

• eYogi Gurukul will respect the logo of the third party supporting this effort to create a win-win situation

 

Students

• All interested students of eYogi Gurukul

• All members of the community that are interested in this program

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Target

• At least one activity per month published on Youtube/Facebook and Whatsapp.

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Support Infrastructure

• Any literature books and courses will be supplied and funded by eYogi Gurukul Charity (subject to approval from Trustees)

• Dance gears, clothes, etc. can be supplied by eYogi Gurukul charity (subject to approval from Trustees)

 

Nritya Academy Library

• To be added

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