A study of movement: Science and Dance at the 6th Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan and Expo

A study of movement: Science and Dance at the 6th Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan and Expo

As the narrator (Sutradhar) for the 6th Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan and Expo held in Ahmedabad in Dec 2023, I helped weave the dance that students of Nritya Kala Kendra did, with science. In this video, I talk about movement, and how the study of Bharatanatyam can be considered a neuroscientific study of movement. I also introduce the piece - Thillana in the ragam (melody) Behag. The transcript can be found under the video and in the close captions in the video. ​ ​

Transcript:
The third piece that students Nritya Kala Kendra are going to be presenting for us today is a Thillana. it is a piece that's literally a study of movement. As we know in Bharatanatyam, we have very soft subtle movements that are only (for example), of our eyes, to those are of that are movements of our eyes and the neck, to really big sweeping movements. And we'll see a variety of movements in the thillana. There's going to be a lot of poses as well, and this is an occasion for us to think of how the brain (first of all, how the brain) perceives the difference between movement and stillness as an audience or as a spectator, as well as how the brain makes movement and stillness possible.

There is a new branch (or maybe a not so new branch) of neuroscience which is called neuroaesthetics, and neuroesthetics is really a field that aims to think about why we find certain works of art (whether it's visual art, performance art, arts of all kind); why we find it beautiful, and really what is happening in the brain that leads to this perception of beauty.

We mentioned different kinds of movements in thillana, and in dance in general, and it is interesting to think about how the brain creates movement. While it is a topic of great discussion and study amongst the scientific community, we do know that a part of of the brain called the motor cortex is responsible for movement. The cortex is the outermost layer of our brains, and the motor cortex as the name suggests is something that is critical for movement. There are parts of the brain (again speaking to the specificity of different parts of the brain), there are parts of the motor cortex too that are responsible for initiation of movement, for planning of movement, as well as terminating the movement.

So something that might appear so simple to us, for for example even taking (or) picking up a glass of water - a movement as simple as that has a lot of things that are happening in the brain to make that movement possible.

This thillana is in the Ragam (or melody) Behag, and is in the talam Aadi. It has been composed - the words and the dance - have been composed by our Guru Smt. Maheshwari Nagarajan, and this is an ode to Sadguru Gyananada who is again the beacon of light and knowledge.