“The Gurukul Experience”
 It is with great pleasure that Natya Academy will present a unique learning experience for students of dance with well-known dancer and scholar Mandakini Trivedi. A gurukul is a place where one shares the inner environment of a teacher, where one learns free of the restrictions of subjects and syllabi, where one experiences the whole of what the teacher ‘is’ and what the teacher ‘says.’
In keeping with this vision, Mandakini Trivedi is planning a gurukul at Natya Academy in April consisting of both practical training session and lecture on dance aesthetics. The gurukul will address her vision of dance training that seeks to initiate the student into the aesthetic, symbolic and yogic aspects of classical India dance and places it at the center of a highly energetic spiritual and artistic tradition.
Practical training session to include:
Session A
- Sessions in Abhinaya. The key to Abhinaya is in the detailed visualization of a situation and character and responding to that personal visualization. In this way the expression becomes each dancer’s unique creation and not a borrowed expression from the teacher. The focus will be on:
- Understanding the principles of Abhinaya in terms of intense and vivid creative visualization of character and situation,
- Netrabhinaya and focusing on a character in empty space,
- Holding a dialogue with an imaginary character and building up of a mood through creating an embroidery of minor moods.
Session B
- Warm up sessions in Nritta to understand the body grid, body sculpting and stylization in expression.
The lectures to include:
The lectures will focus on topics relevant to dance aesthetics. To name a few:
- Role of yoga in Indian classical dance
- Ideals of Indian art
- Rasa theory
More details will be given closer to the start of the gurukul.
This gurukul is intended for students of ALL classical Indian dance styles who have reached a certain level in their dance training and have either completed their arangetram or planning it in the near future.
The dates and times of the workshop are:
Place: Natya Academy, 594 East Chatham Street, Suite #120 (next to Udipi Cafe), Cary, North Carolina 27511
Cost: $230/ per student
Registration Closes: February 20, 2012 (space is limited)
If you have any questions with regards to this program please contact Asha Bala via email or by phone 910 391 6808.
For more information on Mandakini Trivedi and her school, click here |
Current Natya Academy students, click here to register.
