Music and Dance

I wanted to start off with some basic examples of how music influences my life. I've been learning Indian classical Kathak dance fora couple of years now. I've been learning with a group of others around my age and it's been really fun! We're going to be performing soon around the end of September and other cultural dances will be there. I don't practice a lot though, I should be practicing an hour a day. But I love kathak since it is really graceful and there are a lot of beats in the music piece we're learning. But the most important part- here is the connection between dance and music. Without music, there could be no dance right? Dance is all about beats, following through to the correct rhythm and matching the movements with the tone of the song. For instance, someone can't dance hip hop to piano song (e.g. fur else- Beethoven). In Kathak, the beats are really prominent and the footwork and hand movements are in synchronization with the beats. Expression on the face is crucial to displaying the manner of music and as my dance teacher always suggested "smile!". A smile can make a great difference as the audience can absorb the happiness represented by the dancers and music. The beats in Kathak are tig dha dig dig tig dha dig dig (there other ways to say it). Music is the key to keeping dance in correct balance and orderly timing. It's like theory in science- gravitational force is what keeps all the planets synchronized in order and orbiting in their correct paths. Without this force, all the planets would crash into each other and not follow the path placed for them. The universe wouldn't function properly and nothing would make sense. That's how dance and music work. If the dance doesn't follow the beats of the music it is following, no one would understand how it relates and probably wouldn't get the meaning of it. But if everything is done in balance, that is dance follows the tone of the music, the full meaning of the music is captured. And to understand music means people can find a correlation and connection between the lyrics of the music piece and life. Usually, people take dance just to exercise or just to have fun with friends but really dance is another way of helping our mind to grasp the full meaning of life. Below is an example of kathak. The actress is Aishwarya Rai and this music video is from Devdas. If you watch closely, there are a lot of graceful hand movements in which the hand is twisting and shows a lot. In the background, there are people speaking beats (bols). The dancers follow the rhythm and use expression to explain the tone of the event. Though we (the group I'm in) don't dance in saris, the outfits they are wearing are called saris and I really find them pretty! Hope this video really gives you an idea of kathak and enjoy! :)