On Conducting Workshops and more....

Earlier while a few of us were discussing/ineventing ways to improve rasika base, workshops were also mooted as a tool. Here is an article which outlines the characteristics of a good workshop. This article is a report by LEELA VENKATARAMAN, titled "Taking tradition to the young". Here is a transcript :-
" Spic Macay has persevered through a long innings of taking our classical performing arts to the young. Sometimes the sheer length of time can make what should be vitally constructive a dull routine and this is where lies the constant need for Spic Ma cay to reinvent its strategies to ensure optimum mileage from the painstaking endeavour of artistes and the organiser.

Witnessing two sessions of Virasat 2007, one felt that a closer look was needed while scheduling the events so as to marry the right art event with the right institution......

ery different was the Bharatanatyam lecture/demonstration at the NIFT, where a brilliantly articulate Malavika Sarukkai held the students spellbound and brought home to the raw students the wonder of Bharatanatyam. How the dancer designs space, how numbers in tala become poetry in the dancer’s rhythmic arrangements, how disciplined body moves create not just decorative movement but also narrate a story and how dance is a journey of interaction between art and the artiste, one inseparable from the other, were all stressed through succinct explanations followed by demonstrations.

Above all was the point driven home that the person watching dance needed to be more than just a passive viewer. Imaginative involvement was called for to understand the dance. While much depends on the concerned artiste, Spic Macay needs a constant re-look and rearranging of sessions to get the utmost out of renowned artistes’ efforts."

To read more visit http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2007/10/12/stories/2007101250180200.htm