Teaching dance is beyond teaching movements. A teacher is
always loaded with the weight that s/he is helping someone learn new things and
grow.
I am not sure how much this is true for me. But one truth has
stayed permanently with me. And that is that after each class since 1972, my
students have never failed to teach me or project dance to me in a newer
dimension every day.
Recently I had a session with our senior beginners at
Rasadhwani. During such sessions the lessons are always interactive. I was
demonstrating, verbally and bodily, some of the technical aspects of
dance. I tried to explain to them that sheer movement is not dance just as mere
words are not poetry or mere portrait is not painting. The connoisseurs read
the poetry in between the lines, search for the painting on the blank space of
the canvas and watch dance more in the non moving limbs than in a
furiously moving body.
The session got over and I left for home in my usual happy
mood. Soon I received a message on my mobile-phone from one of the students who
was present in this session. He wrote, “Teacher, today's lesson that that
what does not move is Dance, that what is not portrayed is Painting, that what
is not mentioned is poetry - is a profound revelation.”
- Dr. Uma Anantani
