Every Sunday morning, the stretch from IDBI Bank to Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy is cordoned off to commuters. This space is thrown open to anyone who wants to up their fitness quotient and take part in fun, group activities. On this road, you will spot young children hop, skip and jump, the older ones learn kickboxing or join experts as they guide them in yoga and zumba.
Amid all this, there’s also a 45-minute session of classical dance one can join. To talk of classical dance only as a means to fitness would be doing it disservice. What if someone uses the principles of classical dance to make novices, cutting across age groups, learn hand-eye coordination and basic movements that could improve their concentration levels and agility? Mohiniyattam dancer Anita Peter has been doing exactly that the last few Sundays.
“For long Indian classical dances have remained confined to the few who train. Those who aren’t familiar with dance normally wouldn’t attend classical dance programmes unless the performer is known to their family or is a well known actor. Dance is holistic in its integration of mind, body and soul,” says Anita, who is also a certified zumba instructor.
When Anita mooted the idea of conducting sessions for Physical Literacy Days, she was clear she wouldn’t dilute the essence of classical dance. Along with her students, she began conducting the sessions. In the beginning, there weren’t many takers. She observed how most people began moving towards other fun activities. A few observed from a distance, curious to see what a Mohiniyattam team would do. Her students, from the ages of 12 to 60 and above, demonstrated basic movements or ‘padams’.
The idea, says Anita, is to drive home the fact that fitness is more than working out at a gym. “You could be size zero and going through depression. Dance requires all your concentration and makes you feel good at the end of the session,” she says.
In one of the sessions, Anita drew attention to facial movements, “We live in an age of emojis. There’s an emoticon for every expression that we end up becoming zombies.”
Those who had enrolled in dance classes at some point would remember learning eyebrow and eye movements in the early classes. Anita observed how many among the gathering couldn’t rotate their eyeballs. She broke the sequence down to eight steps — ta ka di mi, ta ka ja nu — and asked everyone to follow the rhythm and do the movements.
As minutes ticked by, she saw more people joining, including men. She reiterates that gender and regional barriers have no place in dance, “You can start learning at any age and any dance form, be it Mohiniyattam, Kuchipudi or Bharatanatyam, is universal.”
Anita also draws a parallel between squatting exercises and ‘ara mandi’ or ‘ara mandalam’ (semi-sitting position) in classical dance. “When you sit in ara mandalam and perform movements, your brain in alert as you negotiate the hand, eye movements,” she says.
All these sessions, Anita believes, will make classical dance more accessible.
What: Physical Literacy Days are hosted each Sunday, from 6 am to 9.30 am, near Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy, Gachibowli.
Where: The road from IDBI bank to the academy is open for street games, music, zumba and classical dance, yoga sessions, street theatre and other fun activities.
Sessions: In the last few Sundays, several events have been held including a friendly run with community by Pinkathon team, zumba sessions by Abhimanika Yadav, cycling by Kondapur Health Club, boxing by Bcube Boxing, tyre flip challenge, gully cricket and other games for children.
