5…6…7 & 8

Thalungu thakka thiku thakka thathingina thom

Math effortlessly slides into musical notes and finds itself dancing to the rhythm. It is evident, the duet of mathematics and movements. Yet life has a way of helping you notice things you otherwise miss.

My Diploma (Bharatanatyam) classes occupied the evenings of my weekend a few years ago. No amount of experience or talent would let anyone begin with an urupadi  or a full-fledged song in the classes. The routine is to begin with warming your body, soaking in the adavus or the fundamentals and as slow as a caterpillar metamorphosing itself into a butterfly, you start with songs. 

Rightly so, we were practicing adavus, I lost my memory of which specific adavus it was though. Or perhaps, it was Thattadavu, the first adavu that is taught to every beginner. It looks simple yet so demanding. Ain't the simplest of things made us wait the longest, naturally? Well anyway, the teacher reminded us (once again), "Keep your hands straight" but added "like the X axis you drew on a graph sheet back in school". It was an unexpected analogy that took us all by a pleasant surprise. Looking at our expressions, our teacher had that mischievous smile and began her leela. 

"Well, draw an imaginary graph in front of you. Superimpose yourself into it. As you go to your arai mandi (half sit),, place your hands on the X axis. Your arai mandi is now in the shape of a rhombus, right? The Y axis is dividing your body in two equal halves. Now, your eyesight, core and heels are aligned straightly on the Y axis. Now that it's straight on the Y axis, your knees and heels are facing outwards forming the 180° we need. As you lift your heel, it should go to where X and Y intercepts and come back to its original point". We all looked bewildered. It was novel yet rational and I now have a personalised graph sheet calculated for my body language.

Gradually, having the picture live in our minds, we slowly placed our body on the imaginary graph and began dancing. Seeing our tiny attempts, ma'am started giving talas. Eventually we got a hang of it and it was easier to keep a track of everything we needed to keep in mind. I never imagined math and dance to interact so beautifully. 

At the end of the class, our teacher informed us by explaining how she had framed her thesis merging Geometry and Bharatanatyam. Then things fell in place as to how that analogy came to be. Math has helped me reach my Anga Lakshana, (the way of moving one's body, as mentioned in the Natyashastra). Be it samam (standing), arai mandi (half seated), muzhu mandi (fully seated), leg postures or any pose for that matter, it is now easier to calculate the appropriate measurements of my movements into muscle memory (even without the help of a mirror, my usual rectifier). 

Thanks to (one of) my Guru Smt Deepa from Kalakshetra and Bridge Academy for offering the course.