Bharatanatyam and focused attention

Bharatanatyam and focused attention

"What hands should my eyes follow"? For this gesture, does it matter which hand is above the other one?" "What is my face doing while my arms are outstretched?" Participants usually ask these questions during sessions, and it shows not only that they can pay close attention over long periods of time, but also that they grasp why paying attention is critical to the study of Bharatanatyam.

Bharatanatyam has considerable nuance and detail, and to the uninitiated (or impatient), these details may seem trivial. As people lament the lack of attention in our lives, I observe that the practice and study of Bharatanatyam can serve as a vessel for focused attention. The neurological basis of attention is complex and involves many brain structures. The fronto-parietal network is a collection of brain regions that helps us pay sustained attention and focus for cognitively demanding tasks [1]. 

In the next post, I will describe how I approach adaptive Bharatanatyam so that learners can find in it, as a participant describes, an "achievable challenge".

​What are some topics on Bharatanatyam and focused attention that interest you? ​

"Spring into Dance" at Marine Park Alliance, PC: Brian Moreno, Canarsie Times 

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Literature cited: 

1. Liu J, Bayle DJ, Spagna A, Sitt JD, Bourgeois A, Lehongre K, Fernandez-Vidal S, Adam C, Lambrecq V, Navarro V, Seidel Malkinson T, Bartolomeo P. Fronto-parietal networks shape human conscious report through attention gain and reorienting. Commun Biol. 2023 Jul 15;6(1):730. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05108-2. PMID: 37454150; PMCID: PMC10349830.