Understanding Self: Understanding Body

— by Srabasti Ghosh

(Reading Time: 6 min Approx)

Dance is the medium of expression where mind and body work together. Dance, for me is the way in which one can express oneself. Dance is the vase where each part of body gets space to express. Dance teaches to understand each part of the body, every muscle. Dance helps to understand the strength of the body and also enhances power of body. Therefore, as body is the central medium of dance, understanding one’s own body must be the primary focus for all practices. At the same time, one actually cannot separate body and soul. That means dance is the form of practice where the connection between mind and body happens continuously, equally and simultaneously.

Being a student of dance, I felt that while dancing I always focus on how perfectly, how beautifully I am moving. I think this is quite a natural feeling for all dancers. But I was getting stuck in this ‘perfection’. As a result, I was not getting the joy from my dance. I felt that I am not dancing for myself at all. I am focusing on beautification, rather than on myself. That started bothering me. This point of time, I have had gone through another experience, where I learned from a contemporary dance class that I have no career in dance as I am short! But rule of modern dance is saying, Anybody Can Dance (ABCD), irrespective of height, weight or any other barriers.

From this point, my take on dance has drastically changed. I do not believe in teaching. My workshops mostly are based on exploration. I believe in facilitating, co-learning. And, I believe, each of us can dance. We all have our own body type, body rhythm. Therefore, we all dance in our way.

Here, particularly, I want to talk about one workshop, I have facilitated with a group of people from Alternative Living Theater. The workshop named, Moving Body in Dance and Theater.

The primary focused areas of the class were connecting mind and body and through this, focusing on’ INNER SELF ‘, or searching for self. There was no ‘teaching’ on how to move or where to move. The participants were asked to move the way in which they want to, their body wants to, their self wants to. That also talked about acknowledging each body part, each movement, even the smallest movements of the body. At the same time, this acknowledgement is also for the self. One needs to be aware about the polarity of emotions we carry, and one needs to acknowledge the polarity ‘each’ time.

Loving and understanding inner self, helps to extend love and acknowledgement to the other. Thus, a group of people can connect with each other and work together in a better way- That was the takeaway from the class.

Therefore, all the workshops, I take, are based on the methodology of exploring one’s self, one’s own body. Therefore, here, for me, or in my space, I see dance as a tool for self-expression, a holistic approach of well-being. For me, until one cannot understand own self, he/ she will never be able to create or think independently. I believe, each one of us, who are connected with dance and theater practice, we all need to see art or performance as a method of own conversation. Otherwise, everything becomes a very much one person oriented, ‘director’ oriented performance. That system offers the authority to a particular person and that creates an obnoxious hierarchy in performing art field.

Hence, listening to inner self, understanding self and reacting through self are essential things. Body is the main and primary tool that contains that ‘Self’. Therefore, one needs to understand self to understand body, as body embodies ‘self’.

Please follow and like us: