In earlier blog posts, I mentioned some of my dance experiences. Movement and dance is one of the five tools of. The five tools of TAHD (Theater Arts for Holistic Development) are 1) Movement and Dance, 2) Music and Rhythm 3) Storytelling, 4) Drama, and 5) Arts and crafts. In this post, I will describe my experience with movement and dance. First, I will describe some benefits of dance for me. Then, I will share my experience spending quality time with my nephew by dancing with him.
Movement exploration/ dance is very important for neurodivergent learners because it teaches us how to use our body for communication (Whole Body Communication).
Movement exploration /dance provides many other benefits for me:
- Relieves stress: I start my day with a daily walk. I do dance and theater activities throughout the day
- Creates enjoyment: Dance is enjoyable and I look forward to my dance lessons and practice.
- Builds strength: For example, when I practice a varnam for 20 – 30 minutes, I develop stamina. When I started dance in 2012, I had very little stamina. I would dance for a few minutes and ask for a break. By the time of my arangetram, I could easily do a performance of about two hours.
- Improves sleep: Now that I have started dancing more because I started my diploma in Bharatanatyam, I am also sleeping better.
- Improves attention: My attention also improves when I do dance and theater activities throughout the day.
- Expands opportunities for social interactions: I interact with many people
- I interact with my teachers
- I spend good quality time with my nephew because of dance (see below)
- When I perform, many of my family members attend the events.
- I have also celebrated two of my birthdays online and used TAHD to engage family members and others.
- I performed for the Ganesh Chaturthi in my community. Hence more people in my community know me.
- I attend performances at RASA and RMCL (Ramana Maharshi Center for Learning). At these performances, I meet many people I know.
Enjoying Dance with My Nephew
One of my exciting TAHD adventures is dancing with Ishaan, my nephew (who is now 2 years old). As described in my previous post, RASA uses the fourEEEEs approach. Below, I will describe dance with Ishaan using the four EEEEs (Exploration, Experience, Expression, and Enjoyment).- Exploration is when we try something new. My teacher, (Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh, senior faculty for learning, Ramana Maharshi Center for Learning) and I explored the body parts song and the animal song for the TAHD 100-Day Lab for parents organized in collaboration with RASA. At that time, I was not very interested in children’s songs. When we taped another song, I got excited when I figured out that my mother and I could do the song with Ishaan. I noticed that the animal song was sung to “Old Mc Donald had a farm” tune and Ishaan used to listen to that song.
- Experience is when we are engaged in something familiar. I practiced the animal song myself many times so that I could do it with Ishaan.
- Expression is our own creative way of doing what we learned. When I played the song and did the actions, Ishaan kept looking at the computer. Hence, I started singing the song and dancing. Then, Ishaan looked at me and we enjoyed the song together.
- Enjoyment: I enjoyed doing the animal song with Ishaan. Exploration, experience, and expression are all enjoyable in different ways.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqFzR-vYU-Ziz3HINADZZTlCbicSh5wYZ&si=sT34fDzB46p7j-DT
We created this playlist for parents to enjoy with their children.
Some people are comfortable with an unstructured approach to movement, so that “enjoyment” is the focus, some people reach the “enjoyment” through a structured approach to dance – such as Indian classical dance . The latter works very well for me.
Parent Note:
Ananth had significant motor challenges and had much difficulty imitating movements. The structured and incremental approach to teaching Bharatanatyam worked for him. As a neurodivergent learner, he also seeks order and predictability in learning experiences. He had tried other structured forms of movement (e.g., karate) but he was not motivated. Bharatanatyam combines structured movement with music and rhythm. His guru and others have commented on his strong sense of rhythm. It is possible that his sense of rhythm supported him in learning Bharatanatyam as compared to karate. He learned Bharatanatyam for over ten years and did his arangetram. Now, his imitation skills and movement vocabulary are well-developed and he enjoys less structured forms of movement.
2 Responses
Thankyou Ananth!
This is a very structured and wonderfully written blog. Starting with the four elements. I liked how you mentioned the benefits along with personal experience. Ishaan’s part in this blog for me is heartwarming for me. Best wishes and have a great time enjoying movement with little Ishaan 🙂
Co-incidentaly my son name is Eshaan, who is 10 years old .
Love and gratitude ❤️
Eshaan’s Mom
Wonderful write up Ananth.Loved the way you articulated your experience.I had the opportunity to see one of your performance online.Loved it.You never missed a beat in your dance.Keep going and show others the path.You are an inspiration to others