Learn the lingo
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Starting this week, an attempt to demystify some of the technical vocabulary of the arts.
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Dance
Araimandi (also aramandi): The characteristic position of Bharatanatyam with knees and toes turned outwards and the dancer bending the knees, so that the body is lowered into a half-sitting posture, known as demi-plie in Western parlance. A distance equivalent to two or three fingers' width is maintained between the heels.
Chowk: A characteristic posture of Odissi, similar to the aramandi of Bharatanatyam, but with a distance of about three spans between the heels.
Music
Aakar: Singing without lyrics, enunciating the vowel "aa"
Alap (also alapana): The introductory portion of a raga, sung as aakar or played on an instrument at the beginning of a song, before the lyrics are introduced and before the rhythm-bound portion begins. In this the musician displays the salient features of the raga, improvising with the notes of the scale, usually beginning slowly and sometimes increasing in speed. In a traditional concert format, the alap is neither accompanied by percussion, nor is it bound to a time cycle.
Visual arts
Oil on canvas: It refers to the most sought after, traditional technique of painting. It involves the use of oil colours mainly brought from France, Germany and U.K. These come in a series of tubes. They are priced Rs.250 onwards. Artist Sidarth is the only in India who makes his own colours from clay and minerals procured from all over the world. Because of the gloss that the oil paintings produce, their stability and hence durability, the oil paintings are often most expensive.
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