Dance and Love

The famous poem by Bulle Shah Teray ishq nachaya, translated by some Kartar Singh. I post it with some modifications.

Your love has made me dance like mad

Falling in love with you
Was like taking a sip of poison
Come my healer, forsaken, Im dying
Your love has made me dance like mad

The sun has set, its flush only left
Ill give my life for a glimpse of you
My fault, I came not when you bade
Your love has made me dance like mad

Dissuade me not from the path of love
Who can hold the boats on the move
Stupid, I joined the boatmen's squad
Your love has made me dance like mad

A peacock calls in the grove of passion
I see my love in Qibla and Kaaba
You asked not once after you stabbed
Your love has made me dance like mad

Bulleh Shah sits at Inayat's door
Who has dressed me in green and red
And caught me the instant I flew from the pad
Your love has made me dance like mad

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!