Charisma of dance

Talking, writing, singing and acting are various means of expressing ones inner self. Dance is another. The rythmic movement of body synchronized with music. It is an experience, a feeling of whose like there is none. They say that dance is 'the poetry of the body'. I present in the following lines the experience of a classical dancer and he tries to explain this fact.

Spreading colours
Up and down,
Round and round
On the canvas of stage,
I do not dance;
Dance does me.

Alaap is the preparation or begining of a musical piece, done softly on the tunes of a single instrument (e.g. fulte) without percussion. In the following lines the dancer enters the stage from the side, walks slowly (indicated by the sound of ankle bells) to the centre, the only place lit dimly and performs alaap. (Rest of the stage is dark black)

I knock the door,
Another world I enter.
Slowly pacing,
I find a shelter.
My body, my soul
Merge with the music
And the amalgam as a whole,
Tries to explore that magical world.
Gone are my sorrows,
The ecstasy knows no bounds
And when my soul returns,
I am born again.

Nrita is the technical part of the dance characterised by concentric circles and intricate foot work synchronised with each and every beat of the percussion instrument. The beats get faster gradually and after reaching the climax slow down or stop suddenly

I hear someone,
Calling me.
I follow and catch her
I hold and embrace her
Together we run,
Faster and faster
Till we are one
And then
The explosion occurs
And together we stop
Suddenly
Happily
Ah! The joy
Is it heaven?
No,
Its much more than that!

Now the dancer enters the last part of the performance, the Abhinaya or the dramatic aspect of the dance. An exquisite poem/ghazal is sung. The dancer acts on it and feigns different objects.

Alluring
Bewitching
Enchanting
Such are her ways
She commands me
Thus pass my days
I am a peacock
I am a tree
I am a sun
I am a sea
I am a thunder
I am a moon
I am a flower
In full bloom
So here I am
Thus
Immortal!

Magic

Magic....people wonder what it is. With you I know I have experienced it. There were moments when we were both so in tune with each other, connected by a force nobody can explain. That all I can sense is a feeling of true love and acceptance. Moments when a meaningful glance or a simple smile becomes more powerful than anything. Moments when we know that this is where we were ment to be. Memories for a lifetime are created in these moments. And I dont know what to call it except magic. Thanks for bringing love, magic and so many beautiful memories into my life!

Forbidden Territory

'They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much'


Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

Tag

So heres your tag awais :)

Here are the rules:
* You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
* When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
* At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
* Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged.

I dont use it but Chaudhry is my surname, so Shahid becomes my middle name

S Solitude
Most of my time pased alone in childhood. I was shy...quiet, wouldnt mix up with my cousins...quiet, wouldnt play with my age fellows, quiet. I was the odd one out, didnt like sports and playing in the streets at all and people said you are arrogant (pick up the new definition fellows: if you are quiet/shy you are arrogant) But it was good. It gave me time...to think, to figure out things...to develop my inclinations. And I think that whatever I have developed into today that is largely because of the silent period I have passed. Had it been different I would have been different today. (hey but now I talk and I laugh, and I laugh and I talk :) )

H Hafeez Khan Talwandi
For opening for me the doors of a new world (finally....the long awaited) near which my aptitude took me. I remember the first day. I got unbearably excited largely because of the Tanpura. The magic which oozes out from it pierced me like some nuclear radiations and they did not have any sign board outside the door saying 'Beware of the high intensity radiations inside'. And I did well. A guy who had been learning before me wasnt given the chance to sing at a concert, I was. About me he once said a punjabi proverb (when I made some Palta (a music terminology) myself) which means roughly that if you touch a film or a drop of oil on the surface of water, it spreads out, on the other hand no matter how hard you strike leather, it doesnt expand, it shrinks even more. He said I am like oil.
Though I am still very far away from perfection and get very little time to practise but I love to, whenever I can.

A Aveda Kadevra
I have always been interested in mysterious,eccentric things. Death is intimidating and exciting for me at the same time. Having died quite a few times in my own dreams, I cannot forget the sight of my grandma departing permanently infront of me. At another time I saw near death, and it was terrible. I get to know some things before hand based on hints. Once during childhood, I learnt some simple 'magical' tricks from a book and performed them infront of my cousins. They were flabbergasted :) I believe in astrology and palmistry (yeah..most of them are fake but there are some true possessors of this knowledge) Be it the Nienty of Qudratullah Shahab or the street magics of David Blaine and David Copperfield or dr. Attya of Alakhnagri, anything odd is exciting for me and I would like to know and learn these things :)

H Hospital
Well...by that I mean the medical studies I am undertaking. Though I am in second year now but I know that half of the rest of my life would be passing in hospitals. Dissecting and tearing open dead bodies everyday, cutting away the hands, arms and legs, digging out the eyes, breaking the jaws, splitting open the skulls, snatching away the hearts, lungs and livers of the poor cadavers does affect your life somehow :)

I Inquisitiveness
I am...very much...about the things I like. Always trying to know more, the people, society, music, everything. Everything that clicks me and makes me utter 'Wow!'

D Depression
For various reasons. Foremost is faliure, be it of any kind. Then sometimes it comes without any reason, a sudden inexplicable desire to cry, to run away, to burst apart. Sometimes due to lack of knowledge about life. 'Why and from where have we come and where shall we go' like questions. Sometimes when at night I sit in my room....quiet....alone and I feel myself a nonliving object just like the lamp, the books, the bed, the chairs in my room. Sometimes they scare me. When I feel the nothingness of myself in this vast universe and then Im scared of myself so much so that I feel like crying. Sometimes bloodshed and war going on in the world and hatred brings such a feeling and its the worst feeling.


And I tag:

S Sir Jawwad
H ---
A Asad Malik
H ---
I Illusionist
D Dilshad Muneeb