A treat for the child
NARENDRA SHARMA
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Dance theatre for children is a vital contribution to the well being of society.
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RECLAIMING THE RIGHT TO JOY The author in action
Dance is the closest art to a child. To respond to a rhythm and express its joy has been gifted to the child by nature right from the beginning. It enables the child to have a feel of the reality through its make-believe world. As children grow up they lose touch with this joy. When they enter the world of `competitive' education, it deprives them of their right to joy.
We have always under-estimated how enriching and inspiring that natural joy is for children, and we have helplessly accepted its loss during their formative years under school education. The child today is the most underprivileged class culturally. We have not been able to evolve a new child-culture as an alternative, not paid any attention to the need to create a new child-culture suited to our times. We have never thought of investing in this area of human resources. Yet, the child is growing every hour and ever day and cannot wait. The electronic media takes all care to deluge children with distorted images of heroism in this consumerist society.
Having worked with a leading public school in New Delhi for over 30 years, I created about 300 short ballets and 30 major dance productions involving thousands of students, audience and parents. It was not only a period of adventure in school education but was an equally enriching experience for me as a choreographer to work with young students closely and have a feel of what they were looking for.
Dance and education
The Creative Dance, the style in which I worked for all these years, has given me an insight and experience of integrating dance as an integral part of education. It thus became one of the most absorbing collective activities for students, which they have always cherished. It was in those days that I initiated Bhoomika's Dance Theatre for children, TREAT, in 1984, presenting 10 performances for 6000 children from the resettlement areas.
A well-designed live dance-theatre performance with movement, music, decor and colour as a collective experience for both the performer and the audience through an ensemble of creative choreography, could perhaps be one of the best alternatives to the electronic modes of entertainment. In course of time, it could take the form of a regular dance theatre for children. We have paid much attention to revive the past in the form of techniques and scholarly research, but have overlooked the research part for a new child culture. A new cultural experience can help children to identify themselves as individuals and place themselves with dignity within society.
Dance in education need not be restricted to performance only. It could related to free spontaneous expression, developing personal grace as a part of physical education, participation in a choreographed production, classroom techniques for choreography. Dance and drama can be integrated as a whole. A school might even develop its own students' dance ensemble parallel to sport teams. Mark Twain once wrote, "It is my conviction that children's theatre is one of the very, very great inventions of the twentieth century, and that its education value now dimly perceived and vaguely understood, will presently come to be recognised." How true!
Bhoomika has plans to present its professional dance ballet performance on a continual basis under its project and develop a Dance Theatre Centre which will not only enrich the child but also reawaken the child in adults, parents, teachers and audiences, thus creating a new dimension of theatre.
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