Dance

"At present, the Indian government recognizes eight different classical dance forms, namely Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, Manipuri, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, Mohiniattam, and Sattriya."

"Now the old lady fell ill, and it was said that she would not rise from her bed again. She had to be nursed and waited upon, and this was no one’s duty more than Karen’s. But there was a grand ball in the town, and Karen was invited. She looked at the red shoes, saying to herself that there was no sin in doing that; she put the red shoes on, thinking there was no harm in that either; and then she went to the ball; and commenced to dance."

"Dance you shall,” said he, “dance in your red shoes till you are pale and cold, till your skin shrivels up and you are a skeleton! Dance you shall, from door to door, and where proud and wicked children live you shall knock, so that they may hear you and fear you! Dance you shall, dance—!"

"I have no desire to prove anything by it. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance."

"My dancing days are done."

"DANCE, v.i. To leap about to the sound of tittering music, preferably with arms about your neighbor's wife or daughter. There are many kinds of dances, but all those requiring the participation of the two sexes have two characteristics in common: they are conspicuously innocent, and warmly loved by the vicious."

"A thousand hearts beat happily; and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again, And all went merry as a marriage bell."

"On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the glowing hours with flying feet."

"And then he danced;—all foreigners excel The serious Angles in the eloquence Of pantomime;—he danced, I say, right well, With emphasis, and also with good sense— A thing in footing indispensable: He danced without theatrical pretence, Not like a ballet-master in the van Of his drill'd nymphs, but like a gentleman."

"If people stand in a circle long enough, they'll eventually begin to dance."

"There comes a pause, for human strength Will not endure to dance without cessation; And everyone must reach the point at length Of absolute prostration."

"As to dancing, my dear, I never dance, unless I am allowed to do it in my own peculiar way. There is no use trying to describe it: it has to be seen to be believed. [...] Did you ever see the Rhinoceros, and the Hippopotamus, at the Zoological Gardens, trying to dance a minuet together? It is a touching sight."

"Where dance is, there is the devil."

"Nemo enim fere saltat sobrius, nisi forte insanit."

"The thing about dancers is they're a certain breed. You don't do it to become rich and famous, you don't do it to have a really long career or to be the star, you do it because you can't imagine your life not doing it."

"When you can tell the story of the song through your movement, it's brilliant. It comes across as so honest and not fake."

"Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free, Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands, With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves, Let me forget about today until tomorrow."

"A time to mourn, and a time to Dance."

"At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance."

"Dance is poetry because its ultimate goal is to express feelings, even if through a rigid technique. Our task is to convey words through movement."

"The historical weight of traditional forms (in India) provides both a firm technical base to train in, and a firm place from which to launch into new territories. ‘Distinctive Indian style’ is arguably more about the diversity of styles than anything more unifying. From my individual Western viewpoint as a theatre programmer and producer, I see a lack of professionals to help link artists and their work with the right audiences. It is extremely testing for artists to do the fundraising, marketing, press and publicity and contractual negotiations - as well as have the energy and focus to create fresh, stimulating work.""

"Alike all ages: dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze; And the gay grandsire, skill'd in gestic lore, Has frisk'd beneath the burden of threescore."

"We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance."

"How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat. Some dance to remember, some dance to forget."

"The bones of this body say, dance. Dance the story of life"

"Round they went, a circular procession of dancers, each with hands on the hips of the dancer preceding, round and round, shouting in unison, stamping to the rhythm of the music with their feet, beating it, beating it out with hands on the buttocks in front; twelve pairs of hands beating as one; as one, twelve buttocks slabbily resounding. Twelve as one, twelve as one. "I hear Him, I hear Him coming." The music quickened; faster beat the feet, faster, faster fell the rhythmic hands. And all at once a great synthetic bass boomed out the words which announced the approaching atonement and final consummation of solidarity, the coming of the Twelve-in-One, the incarnation of the Greater Being. "Orgy-porgy," it sang, while the tom-toms continued to beat their feverish tattoo:"

"We have eight costume changes per show and we have amazing dressers (about one dresser for every three Rockettes) that get us on stage, on time, and looking fabulous."

"We have very precise movements that we have to do. There are spots in the line that are more difficult. Because you can imagine if you’re catching a taller lady, there’s going to be more weight on you. It’s about trust and I totally trust all the women that I’m dancing with. It’s difficult, it’s a crowd-pleaser and I love it."

"The costumes, I can’t give you exact numbers, but each costume costs thousands of dollars. So that’s not something they would just hand over to me."

"The most immediate way we experience the universe is through our body. This is why contemporary dance is the most honest expression because body movement, as they say, cannot lie. Even if you are pretending, it shows.""

"Dance, (Indian or otherwise), like sport trains the body, increases its potential for physical intelligence, accuracy, strength, speed, alignment and develops kinaesthetic awareness. There is style in sport just as there is athleticism in dance."

"Dancing is generally held to be unlawful [in Islam], although it does not appear to be forbidden in either the Qur'an or the Traditions, but according to al Bukhari, the Prophet expressly permitted it on the day of the great festival. Those who hold it to be unlawful quote the following verse from the Qur'an Surah xvii 39 "Walk not proudly on the earth," as a prohibition, although it does not seen to refer to the subject. The Sufis make dancing a religious exercise, but the Sunni Muslims consider it unlawful."

"Merrily, merrily whirled the wheels of the dizzying dances Under the orchard-trees and down the path to the meadows; Old folk and young together, and children mingled among them."

"The dance of renewal, the dance that made the world, was always danced here at the edge of things, on the brink, on the foggy coast."

"Ghritachi and Menaka and Rambha and Purvachitti and Swayamprabha and Urvashi and Misrakeshi and Dandagauri and Varuthini and Gopali and Sahajanya and Kumbhayoni and Prajagara and Chitrasena and Chitralekha and Saha and Madhuraswana, these and others by thousands, possessed of eyes like lotus leaves, who were employed in enticing the hearts of persons practising rigid austerities, danced there. And possessing slim waists and fair large hips, they began to perform various evolutions, shaking their deep bosoms, and casting their glances around, and exhibiting other attractive attitudes capable of stealing the hearts and resolutions and minds of the spectators."

"Come, knit hands, and beat the ground In a light fantastic round."

"I've seen her dancing; to hell with romancing."

"Ich würde nur an einen Gott glauben, der zu tanzen verstünde."

"Others import yet nobler arts from France, Teach kings to fiddle, and make senates dance."

"Oh! if to dance all night, and dress all day, Charm'd the small-pox, or chas'd old age away; * * * * * * To patch, nay ogle, might become a saint, Nor could it sure be such a sin to paint."

"Dance is about saying something. If you ain’t got nothin' to say, get off the dance floor."

"They have measured many a mile, To tread a measure with you on this grass."

"He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute."

"For you and I are past our dancing days."

"When you do dance, I wish you A wave o' th' sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that."

"I always thought dancing improper; but it can't be since I myself am dancing."

"It is sweet to dance to violins When Love and Life are fair: To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes Is delicate and rare: But it is not sweet with nimble feet To dance upon the air!"

"O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance?"

"This dance of death which sounds so musically Was sure intended for the corpse de ballet."

"O give me new figures! I can't go on dancing The same that were taught me ten seasons ago; The schoolmaster over the land is advancing, Then why is the master of dancing so slow? It is such a bore to be always caught tripping In dull uniformity year after year; Invent something new, and you'll set me a skipping: I want a new figure to dance with my Dear!"

"Imperial Waltz! imported from the Rhine (Famed for the growth of pedigrees and wine), Long be thine import from all duty free, And hock itself be less esteem'd than thee."

"Endearing Waltz—to thy more melting tune Bow Irish jig, and ancient rigadoon. Scotch reels, avaunt! and country-dance forego Your future claims to each fantastic toe! Waltz—Waltz alone—both legs and arms demands, Liberal of feet, and lavish of her hands."

"Hot from the hands promiscuously applied, Round the slight waist, or down the glowing side."

"What! the girl I adore by another embraced? What! the balm of her breath shall another man taste? What! pressed in the dance by another's man's knee? What! panting recline on another than me? Sir, she's yours; you have pressed from the grape its fine blue, From the rosebud you've shaken the tremulous dew; What you've touched you may take. Pretty waltzer—adieu!"

"Such pains, such pleasures now alike are o'er, And beaus and etiquette shall soon exist no more At their speed behold advancing Modern men and women dancing; Step and dress alike express Above, below from heel to toe, Male and female awkwardness. Without a hoop, without a ruffle, One eternal jig and shuffle, Where's the air and where's the gait? Where's the feather in the hat? Where the frizzed toupee? and where Oh! where's the powder for the hair?"

"To brisk notes in cadence beating Glance their many-twinkling feet."

"And the dancing has begun now, And the dancers whirl round gaily In the waltz's giddy mazes, And the ground beneath them trembles."

"Twelve dancers are dancing, and taking no rest, And closely their hands together are press'd; And soon as a dance has come to a close, Another begins, and each merrily goes."

"He who esteems the Virginia reel A bait to draw saints from their spiritual weal, And regards the quadrille as a far greater knavery Than crushing His African children with slavery, Since all who take part in a waltz or cotillon Are mounted for hell on the devil's own pillion, Who, as every true orthodox Christian well knows, Approaches the heart through the door of the toes."

"Come and trip it as ye go, On the light fantastic toe."

"Dancing in the chequer'd shade."

"Dear creature!—you'd swear When her delicate feet in the dance twinkle round, That her steps are of light, that her home is the air, And she only par complaisance touches the ground."

"I know the romance, since it's over, 'Twere idle, or worse, to recall;— I know you're a terrible rover; But, Clarence, you'll come to our ball."

"I saw her at a country ball; There when the sound of flute and fiddle Gave signal sweet in that old hall, Of hands across and down the middle Hers was the subtlest spell by far Of all that sets young hearts romancing: She was our queen, our rose, our star; And when she danced—oh, heaven, her dancing!"

"He, perfect dancer, climbs the rope, And balances your fear and hope."

"Once on a time, the wight Stupidity For his throne trembled, When he discovered in the brains of men Something like thoughts assembled, And so he searched for a plausible plan One of validity,— And racked his brains, if rack his brains he can None having, or a very few! At last he hit upon a way For putting to rout, And driving out From our dull clay These same intruders new— This Sense, these Thoughts, these Speculative ills— What could he do? He introduced quadrilles."

"We are dancing on a volcano."

"Inconsolable to the minuet in Ariadne!"

"While his off-heel, insidiously aside, Provokes the caper which he seems to chide."

"But O, she dances such a way! No sun upon an Easter-day, Is half so fine a sight."

"Dance light, for my heart it lies under your feet, love."

"And beautiful maidens moved down in the dance, With the magic of motion and sunshine of glance: And white arms wreathed lightly, and tresses fell free As the plumage of birds in some tropical tree."

"Jack shall pipe, and Jill shall dance."

"Sports and fitness are not the only media of physical experience that use the body as a source of enjoyment, for in fact a broad range of activities on rhythmic or harmonious movements to generate flow. Among these dance is probably the oldest and most significant, both for its universal appeal and because of its potential complexity…But just as with athletics, one certainly need not become a professional to enjoy controlling the expressive potential of the body."

"Dancing symbolizes the rhythmic, patterned movements of life itself. Music and dance amplify and make manifest to our senses the unheard tones and unseen waves that weave together the matter of existence. Even when we are sitting most still or resting in deep sleep, the atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, organs and systems of our body dance in astounding harmony and exchange the ambient energies from air, water, food and invisible electromagnetic radiation."

"One you have danced, you always dance."

"Dance to the song of life."

"Of what is the body made! It is made of emptiness and rhythm. At the ultimate heart of the body , at the heart of the world there is no solidity…there is only the dance."

"The truest expression of people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie."

"The dance is strong magic. The dance is spirit. It turns the body to liquid steel. It makes it vibrate like a guitar. The body can fly without wings. It can sing without voice. The dance is strong magic."

"Never trust spiritual leader who cannot dance."

"People dance because dance can change things. One move can bring people together. One move can set a whole generation free. One move can make you believe like you're something more. … Dance can give hope."

"Bharata Natyam is an art which consecrates the body which is considered to be in itself of no value. The Yogi by controlling his breath and by modifying his body acquires the halo of sanctity. Even so, the dancer who dissolves her identity in rhythm and music makes her body an instrument at least for the duration of the dance for the experience and expression of the spirit."

"...the traditional order of the Bharata Natyam recital viz., Alarippu, Jatiswaram, Sabdane, Varnam, Padams, Tillana and the Slokas is the correct sequence in the practice of this art, which an artistic Yoga, for revealing the spiritual through the corporeal."

"Bharta Natyam is a resolutely a global form. It has circulated internationally at least since 1838. In the last two decades, however, this circulation has accelerated; its viewers too are on the move. A dancer can no longer assume that she performs for an audience of afficiandos."

"At the beginning of the twenty first century, the global status of Bharata Natyam renders the form even more visible."

"Bharat Natyam transcends national and cultural boundaries yet remains resolutely tied to them. It circulates globally but operates as a symbol of exotic."

"...in the period from 1923 to 1948, known as the Bharata Natyam revival. Performers, critics, and promoters through Bharata Natyam to the urban proscenium stage, recontextualizing and renaming it. In doing so they crafted a genealogy in which Bharat Natyam came to represent ancient tradition and critical experimentation, nationalism, regional identities and the global transference forms outside of geographical and cultural boundaries."

"Bharat Natyam’s immediate predecessor was sadir, primarily a solo dance form practiced by devadasis, courtesans affiliated to temples and courts as performers and ritual officiants."

"Several Telugu composers settled in Tamilnadu for generations produced padams."

"Maharaja Swati Tirunal of Travancore (1813-1847) wrote 67 padams in Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada and |Malayalam and he introduced them in Bharata Natyam performance by artists patronized by him in his own state. His padams have a rare literary flavour and the padams of this composer are becoming increasingly popular in the Bharat Natyam field…"

"Raja Srfoji II (1798-1832), the Maratha ruler of Thanjavur rendered a unique service to Bharata Natyam from a different angle. Thanjavur is considered to be the home of Bharta Natyam and the art was at its peak during his time...Serfoji wrote chain compositions in Marathi for use in dance dramas in the Bharata Natyam style and many of these padams and abhinaya padams are intended for choreography."

"The revival of Bharat Natyam therefore depended not only on politics, but also on the ability of practitioners and promoters to articulate their understanding of the dance form’s history."

"Bhrata Natyam dancers, like Western dance modernists, strove to validate dance, describing it as a “high” autonomous art that expressed creativity and engaged with serious intellectual and philosophical concerns. Dancers in India, as in the West, validated their performance practice by emphasizing the originality of their work while also drawing on historical sources for their enquireis."

"Rukmini Devi Arundale was an invaluable contributant to the rebirth of Bharata Natyam as an accepted dance form, removing the unpleasant eroticism of dasi attam, and like Queen Santala of the eleventh century, showing that dance is a means of expression for all and is a true form of beauty."

"The introduction of the Shiva as the central deity to the form, a god who incinerates impurity introduced to Bharata Natyam, a modality quite outside that of devadasi dance, a dance preoccupied with cataloguing the infinite shadings of feeling in love."

"[This] refined dance form became and remains perceived as the form that ‘encapsulates the phenomenon and depth of the spiritual and artistic heritage of India'."

"The dance tradition and its package deal debut have become points around which Indian families rally to guarantee the continuity of Indian values, to reconfirm their Indianness to themselves...and to prepare their daughters to enter middle class Indian-American life."

"...the fillip given to such ancient traditional forms as the Sadir, Bhagavata Mela, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, and Yakshagana by the revival movements in the country, has not been wholly to their advantage. Often, indeed we find corrupt tendencies and outlandish tastes...insinuating themselves … ostensibly in order to make the art fashionable."

"It becomes a momentous occasion, therefore, when someone emerges showing the restraint and spirituality of approach required to retain the essential quality of an art that took its birth with a sage."

"...Bharatanatyam is a medium for depicting an illustrative anecdote of Hindu religious themes and spiritual ideas emoted by dancer with excellent footwork and impressive gestures. Its performance repertoire includes three main elements, nritta, nritya and natya. ‘Nritta’ is a technical performance where the dancer presents pure Bharata Natyam movements emphasizing speed, form, pattern, range and rhythmic aspects without any form of enactment or interpretive and emotional aspect. In ‘Nritya’ the dancer communicates a story, spiritual themes, message or feelings through expressive gestures and slower body movements harmonized with musical notes."

"Traditionally Bharat Natyam has a close affinity to the floor and pull of gravity. The body “sits” in a demi pile position and energizes itself through rhythmic contact between feet and ground."

"...there is nothing in Bharata Natyam which can be purified afresh; it is divine as it is and innately so. The sringara we experience in Bharata Natyam is never carnal; never, never. For those who have yielded themselves to its discipline line with total dedication, dance, like music is the practice of the Presence. It cannot be merely the body’s rapture."

"In Silappadikaram, eleven dances are referred to, which were danced by divinities like Siva, Tirumal (Vishnu), Muruga, Kama, Kali, Tirumagal (Lakshmi) and Indrani. They depict the destruction of various demons and symbolize the triumph of good over evil. This is evidence enough that dance was a divine art whose theme was the destruction of evil and the purification of the spirit."

"It is this stream of sringara that swells into the mighty river of the lover-beloved songs of the Vaishnava and Saiva saints, the Ashtapadi of Jayadeva and the compositions of Kshetragna. In Bharatanatyam, too when it comes to abhinaya, sringara has been the dominant mood."

"In the beginning, Alarippu, which is based on rhythm alone, brings out the special charm of pure dance. The movements of Alarippu relax the dancer’s mind and thereby her mind, loosen and coordinate her limbs and prepare her for the dance. Rhythm has a rare capacity to invoke concentration. Alarippu is most valuable in freeing the dancer from distraction and making her single-minded."

"The Bharata Natyam recital is structured like a Great Temple. We enter through the Gopuram (outer hall) of alarippu, cross the Ardha mantapam (half-way hall) of Jatiswaram, then the Mantapa (great hall) of Sabdam, and enter the holy precinct of the deity in the Varnam. This is the place, the space that gives the dancer expansive scope to revel in the rhythm, moods and music of the dance. The Varnam is the perpetuity which gives ever-expanding room to the dancer to delight in her self-fulfillment, by providing the fullest scope to her own creativity as well as to the tradition of the art."

"In the Sabdam, emotions are withheld at the beginning; thereafter, when the dancer has clarified herself, they are released in a measured and disciplined manner. It is after, mastering this discipline that she dances the Varnam which is a living river that holds together movement and interpretation."

"The Padam follows. In dancing to the Padam one experiences the containment, cool and quiet of entering the sanctum from its external precinct. The expanse and brilliance of the outer corridors disappear in the dark inner sanctum; and the rhythmic virtuosities of the Varnam yield to the soul-stirring music and abhinaya of the Padam. Dancing to the Padam is akin to the juncture when the cascading lights of worship are withdrawn and the drum beats die down to the simple and solemn chanting of scared verses in the closeness of God."

"Then, the Tillana breaks into movement like the final burning of camphor accompanied by a measure of din and bustle. In conclusion, the devotee takes to his heart the God he has so far glorified outside; and the dancer completes the traditional order by dancing to a simple devotional verse."

"The aesthetics and the artistry of Bharata Natyam alike make us realise that sringara has pride of place here. In a sense, Bharata Natyam is a combination of the yoga and mantra sastras. The mudras of the mantra shastras are the same as the hand gestures of Bharata Natyam."

"If we approach Bharata Natyam with humility, learn it with dedication and practice it with devotion to God, sringara which brings out the great beauties of this dance can be portrayed with all the purity of the spirit."

"The basis for the Bharat Natyam technique is the perception of the human body as a geometric ideal both in its static position (pictured as the straight axis around which a circle could be drawn) and its articulation through the dance (which explores all the harmonious geometric shapes possible from the central axis within the circle."

"Unlike ballet, the demi plié of Bharata Natyam is not an intermediary position from which the body moves. The Indian technique demands a muscular consolidation of this position by allowing the weight of the lower body to ‘earth’ it. The arms in natya-aramba in a semi circular shape peculiar to Bharata Natyam create three-dimensional effect to the circle and trace its curve."

"The rules of Bharata Natyam nritta by referring to purely geometric ideals, make it also a totally objective dance."

"The ‘musical notes’ in Bharata Natyam are the adavus – units of dance which contain in them the alphabet and grammar of the dance."

"Generally Shiva is associated with Tandava dance...found in the Natyashastra of sage Bharata."

"According to Natya Shastra as proposed by Brahma, Bharat staged ‘Amrit Manthan’ aNd ‘Tripuradha’ before Shiva on a suitable place of Mount Kailasha. Both these dramas were composed by Brahma. Siva was very pleased and said – “it reminds me of my evening dances”. This dance was accompanied by various ‘Angaharas’ and ‘Karanas’. Then he told Bharata “I am glad to enjoy your dramas but I advise you present dances accompanied by songs. Then he instructed Tandu to train Bharata in ‘Angahaara’, which was done accordingly. ‘ Lasya’ was added by Parvati. Finally, Tandu designed the dance with songs.In this way the Tandava dance evolved. It was composed and designed by Tandu, so it may be called Tandava/"

"The image of Shiva as Nataraj is indelibly stitched into the Indian imagination. How many various dances of Shiva are known to His worshippers. I cannot say. No doubt the root idea behind all of these dances is more or less one and the same, the manifestation of primal rhythmic energy. Whatever the origins of Shiva's dance, it became in time the clearest image of the activity of God which any art or religion can boast of."

"O my Lord, Thy hand holding the sacred drum has made and ordered the heavens and earth and other worlds and innumerable souls. Thy lifted hand protects both the conscious and unconscious order of thy creation. All these worlds are transformed by Thy hand bearing fire. Thy sacred foot, planted on the ground, gives an abode to the tired soul struggling in the toils of causality. It is Thy lifted foot that grants eternal bliss to those that approach Thee. These Five-Actions are indeed Thy Handiwork.""

"There is no need to shy away from any form of art. Many men are interested in Bharata Natyam, however, they fear of thinking how society will look at them? How will they make a profession out of it? We have to break these barriers. There is a need to change and this cannot be changed overnight."

"Odisha located on the eastern sea coast of India is a place where the highly lyrical form of Odissi has evolved. On the temple walls of Bhubaneshwar, Konark and Puri, the Odissi dance sculptures are clearly evident. This dance style combines both Tandava and Lasya. Odissi has become as a classical dance form only in the last 60 years, but one can trace the dance style that prevailed in the region of Odisha and Bihar in the days of the Natya Shastra."

"Odissi and sacred arts in general can be compared with the great rivers like the Ganges. They have flown for ages absorbing and discarding in the process. There is invincible power in this great tradition to flow into the future through every threat, very much like the rivers do. However, like nature, even art forms need conscious effort from mankind to survive. It is important that these old traditions speak to the new generations and the latter relates to them instead of thinking of them as boring or uncool."

"The Natya Shastra, an ancient text on dance and drama, written by Bharata Muni has mentioned four styles of classical dance prevalent in different parts of India; they are Avanti, Daksinatya, Panchali, and Audra Magadhi. Audra here refers to Odisha. Another text Abhinay Chandrika, stated that there were schools of dancing in India; one amongst them was Audra belonging to Odisha."

"Odissi traces its origins to the ritual dances performed in the temples of ancient northern India. Today the name Odissi refers to the dance style of the state of Orissa in eastern India."

"It was practiced in the most important shrines of the region, like that of Puri, as part of the ritual ceremonies since the year 1000, although it is believed that it existed from as far back as 200 BC."

"With the decline of Odissi dance and the culture of Orissa this saying emerged ‘People who have little shame sing, people with no shame play musical instruments, and those who are totally shameless, dance"

"The current form of Odissi is the product of a 20th century revival."

"When one speaks of the culture of Orissa the mention of Orissi dance becomes a natural thing to do. And when one speaks of the Odissi dance, a mention of the great Sanskrit poet Jayadeva, who wrote the Gita Govinda becomes a must."

"It is a classical dance, danced mostly by women...It originated in the temples where the composers, singers, and the dancers came together. It centered on the celestial love of Krishna and Radha. At one time it was performed by the Devadasis dedicated to the temples but now it has spread out to the homes and cultural institutions. But the purity is maintained and the essentials are always kept in view."

"The Odissi dance of Odisha (Orissa) is one of the six acknowledged classical dance forms of India. Like all other Indian classical dances, it also has its initiation in religion and philosophy with an origin in the temples of Odisha (Orissa). The rhythm, Bhangis and Mudras used in Odissi dance have a distinct style of its own. The dance is performed mainly with the theme of Infinite love of Lord Krishna and Radha."

"Being a part of the culture and knowing the language are very essential for any Indian classical dance. For Odissi, you need to read, write and speak Oriya. You also need to understand Odissi classical music, Sanskrit, myths and epics in Hinduism. You must experience Jagannath culture, be familiar with Orissa's history, its legends and myths. You must be able to immerse completely in the local culture to be a good dancer."

"Odissi dance lives on in the ancient temple sculptures and friezes of the State of Orissa on the eastern coast of India. Neglected in this century, it has been less well known and less practiced than Bharata Natyam."

"The dance experience is an interface between person and culture."

"The Konarak temple represents the period when dance and architecture reached a point of climax in history and followed a sharp decline when Islam and later colonialism affected the culture and arts due to the changing religious and political scene of the state. Odissi dancers in the temples were considered prostitutes and when British rule came in to effect the performance of Odissi as a religious ritual was completely banned from the temple. For 200 years Odissi dance faced the most draw back until it was in the 1950s when the country was in the process of regaining its national identity after its independence in 1947."

"The community which played the greatest role in popularizing this art--by giving it a news spirit, a new hope and horizon--was the community of the temple maidens or Devadasis. Devadasis or Maharis used to practice this dance form and used to perform it before the lord as a form of prayer or ritual. At first, only some Mantras accompanied their Nrutya. But after Jayadev composed the Geeta Govindam, thus incorporating abhinaya in dance form, the grace of this dance form got revived."

"The new form of Odissi had its old historic roots yet it had changed to conform to the changing cultural trends of the people during the 1950s-60s. Earlier it was bound within the religious doors of the Hindu temples but upon its revival it became a more public or secular form of art and was performed on stage world wide."

"When the dancers had only the static sculptures of the temples to recreate Odissi, their task was to design the movement from stance A to stance B in a way designing the in-between space or the transition from one gesture to another, which can be likened to the process of moving through a temple or going down a stepped well and experiencing the different threshold to reach the destination."

"Indeed, the Odissi seen today is the result of a continuous life long effort made by some Gurus and dancers of Orissa."

"Samjukta Panigrahi along with her guru Kelucharan Mahapatra, is credited with reviving the all but extinct Odissi dance, an ancient Indian performance form from Orissa state. Odissi is solo form that combines music, song and a style of dance that includes a rich choreography with mudra hand gestures similar to those in other Indian genres such as Kathakali and pantomimic movement to convey complex narratives of love, personnel sacrifice and humankind’s relations to the gods."

"The Odissi dancer Samjukta Panigrahi...carried the heritage of an ancient art form revived in her body. Her artistry was based on the teaching of her guru Kelucharan Mahapatra, her ability to give physical form to the ancient carvings of temple of temple dancers on the walls of the temples in Orissa, and the transformation of the Natyashstra’s performance rules into the odissi dance form."

"Odissi dancers use their heads, busts, and torsos in soft flowing movements to express specific moods and emotions."

"In Indian Odissi dance, the performers’ body must be curved like a ‘S’ which passes through the head, shoulders and head. The principle of thribhangi sinuosity is clearly visible in all classical Indian statues…"

"All the technique of the dance is based on a division of the body into two equal halves according to a vertical line which passes through it , ad on the unequal distribution of weight, some times more on one half of the body, some times more on the other half."

"Odissi is the only dance today in which practicing artist still use the term [bandha] to mean a separate follow the strictest egory of dance sequence. These follow the strictest possible rules of movements, some time producing acrobatic postures."

"When we compare the bandhanrtta found in Nartananirnaya with the bandhanrtta practiced in the Odissi style, we find striking similarities. The bandhanrtta of Nartananirnaya requires combination created out of a base of sixteen karanas or short dance sequences, the bandhanrtta of Odissi requires seventeen. These karanas are extremely difficult to perform because of the physically demanding nature of their constituent movements and their rigorous design. As a result they are not commonly practiced."

"We want to dance, we love the Indian dance because it gives joy, but we must remember that there should be integrity and reverence."

"Straight lines don’t exists in Odissi. In contrast to the other classical Indian dances…take the position of tribhangi, the characteristic position of the Odissi style, made from three curves of the body with the torso displaced in the opposite direction to that of the waist and the head."

"Odissi has emerged as a sculpturesque dance in which the head, bust and torso move in soft flowing movements to express specific moods and emotions."

"After the exercise of the feet and the legs, the head and eyes, one learned the hand gestures, the mudras or hastas. There are 28 basic gestures for one hand and 24 basic gestures for both the hands....Each hand gesture has its own use."

"[That we learn] 15 types of jumps and 15 types of pirouettes and the four basic body positions on which the style is based, and 36 foot positions. Each position, gesture, or movement has its own technical name..."

"Then there are the different ways of walking. [We have] sixteen types of walks – for example like a warrior, a lady, a man…learn many animal and bird movements."

"In the Odissi syle [we have] many different steps in the basic position called chauka, which means square, and the same amount in the position called tribhanghi, when the body assume three curves."

"The steps are practices according to the rhythm"

"There are four movements of the torso: deflecting to the left, to the right, in, and out, and the fifth is around in a circle."

"We have nine major sentiments…. The nine universally known emotions are sringara (love), vira (heroism), karuna (pathos), adbhuta (wonder), raudra (anger), hasya (humour), bhyanaka (fear), bibhatsa (disgust) and shanta (peace)."

"To show love, [you are taught] to flicker the eyes and this flickering is executed differently depending on the character"

"There are two types of expression: the loka dharma and the natya dharma. Loka dharma is very natural, similar to the behavior of daily life, nitya dharma is an idealized behavior that is used in dance....one were a realistic behavior and the other stylized, saying that Indian art has always favoured idealism on stage."

"After having learned all the elements of the dance and the nine emotions, once the technique is mastered [we must] continue to practice it so as not to worry about it when we are on stage dancing."

"Like all dances of classical nature, the Odissi is also accompanied by singing in which people specialize and the compositions of Jayadeva and other poets are utilized for the purpose. In fact, the Oriya style of singing and the rendering of the poet’s songs is somewhat distinct and this has given birth to a style of some ragas and musical performance which are unique and special to Orissa."

"Odissi dance has gained acceptance as a classical form while the Centre is expected to accord similar status to Odia soon. Odissi music too has been claiming such a tag since long."

"By the dew drop of Celestine dawn though saw a dream Like a shining star of the Milky Way, I rest on the stream Thy circular flow is constant rhythm of my fight Your ancient stone is timeless flora of thy sight Fortunate to behold the lord of the world so near You never know when and how you are his dear Divinity all over from sand lowest to peak highest Faith in the tinkling bells never moved slightest As essence of his kingdom’s innermost purity Blessed to worship the brightest in darkest sanctuary."

"Kuchipudi is a cultural heritage of Andhra Pradesh."

"In Andhra, particularly the Bharata's Natya Sashtra had been highly developed in the medieval times, in the courts of the Kakatiyas, Reddis, Rayas and Nayudus of Warangal, Kondavidu, Vijyanagar and Racakinda. In the Kuchipudi tradition, the Bhagavatas of Andhra preserved a considerable amount of the knowledge of Bharata's Natya Sastra."

"Kuchipudi started from Samskrutha roopakam and in the 13th Century, Kalaapam was started by Saint Siddhendra Yogi. The inspiration for Kalaapam, ‘Yakshaganam’ was scripted by Kandukuri Rudra Kavi named Sugreeva Vijayam, which was useful in the performance of Kuchipudi bhagavathas from which Yakshaganam was adopted."

"[That was the beginning of the 60s]. In those days, Sangeet Natak Akadem conferences deemed only four Indian styles as classical dances, and Kuchipudi was not one of them. Owing to the profusion of dance masters who were Kuchipudi trained, Kuchipudi was termed as a "filmy dance" or Koothu. However, in the 1958 Natya Kala Conference under the leadership of Banda Kanakalingeswara Rao, Vissa Appa Rao and others, Kuchipudi was just beginning to get some amount of recognition."

"Kuchipudi deals mainly with religious themes and relies on the philosophy of jeevatma’s desire to merge with parmatma."

"An artiste should not live on art, they should live for art."

"Kuchipudi originated as a group performance. So when the solo form emerged, the pressure on the dancer was more as the dancer had to delineate different characters and varied moods."

"It is the dance form that gives you scope to perform diametrically opposite characters at one go, as the theme progresses in the form of episodes. A single dancer can perform the entire Kurukshetra. No other dance form offers this opportunity."

"Kuchipudi there is no dancer, no actor, no musician who is exclusively that. The dancer is the actor; the actor is the musician is the dancer. All put together. It's story-telling. The whole point of it is the style developed with a group of boys taken on to act and.tell the stories. In fact, it was not just dance alone. In India, dance and drama have never been separate. And the dramatic element in Kuchipudi is very important. That is the difference between Kuchipudi and Bharata Natyam — that, in Kuchipudi, the dancer is the story-teller. If a particular point can be put across more by mime, then that is the element to be used."

"Kuchipudi's fundamental pillar has always been the quicksilver change of pace, the spontaneity and the sparkling dance."

"Tillana in Kuchipudi is pure nritta. There are many people who think Kuchipudi is pure gymnastics, it consists entirely of the plate dance."

"Kathakali is probably the most fascinating traditional performing art form in India's rich cultural pageant... this uniquely interpretative dance governed by dramatic dynamics, including an elaborately defined code of body kinetics, which combine with beautifully eloquent gestural representation."

"Kathakali dance-drama is like a vast and deep ocean. Some may come to a performance with their hands cupped and only be able to take away what doesn’t slip through their fingers. Others may come with a small vessel, and may be able to drink that : And still others may come with a huge cooking pot and take away much more."

"At old feasts there were always supposed to be sixty-four items served with rice. Katahakali is like that – it’s got sixty-four attractions. If you liken one thing, you can fix your attention on that."

"It didn't matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don't deceive you with thrills and trick endings."

"To the Kathakali man these stories are his children and his childhood. He has grown up within them. They are the house he was raised in, the meadows he played in. They are his windows and his way of seeing. So when he tells a story, he handles it as he would a child of his own. He teases it. He punishes it. He sends it up like a bubble. He wrestles it to the ground and lets it go again. He laughs at it because he loves it. He can fly you across whole worlds in minutes, he can stop for hours to examine a wilting leaf. Or play with a sleeping monkey's tail. He can turn effortlessly from the carnage of war into the felicity of a woman washing her hair in a mountain stream. From the crafty ebullience of a rakshasa with a new idea into a gossipy Malayali with a scandal to spread. From the sensuousness of a woman with a baby at her breast into the seductive mischief of Krishna's smile. He can reveal the nugget of sorrow that happiness contains. The hidden fish of shame in a sea of glory."

"The Kathakali Man is the most beautiful of men. Because his body is his soul."

"Actually, there are two kinds of audiences for new plays. One set observes them without any per-conceived notions about Kathakali and accept it as a way forward for the art form. Then there are those self-proclaimed ‘critics' who believe that it's their moral right to question why I've had the gall to change something – why Vavar, for example, doesn't follow a particular style of vesham. I don't believe in compromising the aesthetics of plays or characters to suit so-called traditionalists."

"I have blended the stylized Kalluvazhi tradition with the more flexible semi-realistic emotion filled southern style technique. Kathakali without the elaborate costumes is easily comprehensible and so it is a good idea to initiate in people the love of Kathakali without the costume to start with. When rasikas have understood the finer nuances of Kathakali, then the costume assumes its place of importance. I personally would prefer the traditional approach and would not like to compromise on the finer aspects."

"Kathakali has become a world-famous dance-drama within the least fifteen years. Nearly every foreigner who visits Kerala wants to see a Kathakali performance"

"Everything is bizarre, sub human and superhuman all at once. The dancers do not walk like human beings - they glide… The world we know offers nothing even remotely comparable to this grotesque splendor. Watching these spectacles one is transported to a world of dreams for that is the only place where we might conceivably meet with anything similar."

"Kathakali as (1) “ritual theatre” implies an actor (2) who is “transformed”, an audience (3) which is “transported”, a world (4) which is “dreamlike,” and a tradition (5) which is “ancient” (teaching primitive roots). Collectively these five elements created a kathakali “mystique”"

"Clearly what holds the attention is the powerful spiritual substance of this kind of performance. The performers enter with reverence and go through some form of invocations before the show begins."

"When at last the gods triumph once more over evil, the tension breaks, the music stops, and slowly the drum beats cease. Almost unwillingly one wakes up from the reverie, tired and exhausted, but triumphant as one who has danced with gods."

"Within five hours these small somewhat bandy and rather tired men were to transform themselves into awe-inspiring and terrible gods. .. The actors lay down upon the floor and soon seem to be asleep, breathing heavily and deeply…But this, it is said is the time that the inner transformation into god or demon will get underway …The actors are wakened; gait and gesture have been changed; the look in the eyes has become intimidating"

"The object of this pantomime is a form of magical transformation...Kathakali is at once ritual as well as drama...It remains modern and at the same time ritualistic in its abstract characterization, in its concentration on the visuals, and in its belief in magical transformation."

"It [Kathak] is a different art form, where there is more of abhinaya."

"One of the eight forms of India's classical dances, Kathak, meaning “story teller,” originated in northern India, and there are references to this dance form in sources dating from the third and fourth centuries B.C. Kathak dance, today characterized by fast, rhythmic footwork, became sophisticated court entertainment with the advent of Mogul culture in northern India."

"Natya Shastra was the root for both Bharata Natyam and Kathak, and both are of the same period. Kathak, which flourished in the North, was in the direct eye of the typhoon of invasions."

"The dance form also underwent a mute period for 2 or 3 centuries. When it was revived by the Moghul emperors it became a secular kind of dance. But there are several actions which still have a strong Vaishnava touch."

"First of all, classical shouldn't be called a dance. We present various expressions on abstract music, which has no meaning and no name. Interestingly, the sound and the expression depict the feeling of love or anger and hence the entire katha can be presented… it means a kind of wind is blowing and through hands, water and other five elements of earth are explained."

"With those elegant footwork and gravity-defying turns Kathak opens a fantastical world before a dabbler, who is sure to fall deeply in love with its mesmerising ways."

"Kathak has three gharanas or genres named after three culturally-rich places, Lucknow, Banaras and Jaipur."

"Kathak has a very flexible language when compared to other classical dance forms. Due to its similarities with Spanish Flamenco dance, there are many who believe that Flamenco has been originated in India. Kathak the term was derived from ‘kathakar’ (story teller) who used to narrate vignettes from Ramayana and Mahabharatha at Hindu temples. Later on, Kathak moved to courts because of Muslim invasions. Girls from Persia(courtesans) were brought in and they performed Kathak before the Mogul kings."

"One of the most emphatic dance forms that the City of Nawabs has given - the Lucknow Gharana of Kathak, which came into existence mainly in the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, the ruler of Avadh in 19th Century. Kathak, its exponents say, was so powerful that no other dance form posed a challenge to it for a long period."

"Dance styles depend on the sociological background of the people who first started practising them. Take Kathak, for example. It was with the Muslim invasion that Hindustani classical music received prominence. They brought with them the tawaifs, who, along with the existing kathakas or storytellers, gave Kathak its flavour. And then, Kathak went into the darbari mode. Post that, elements of raas leela started being incorporated into Kathak, which is now, a versatile product of these influences."

"It's sad that the art form is not appreciated in its place of origin, Lucknow, despite being popular across the globe."

"The dance style has not changed but with less time and more work, the duration has decreased,""

"Earlier, parents used to make their children learn this dance as a respect towards it, but now, many come to learn it to make it their profession and harbour dreams of becoming stars."

"There is a new trend of foreign students coming to India, specifically to pursue full-time degree courses in Kathak and learn the nuances of this dance style."

"Dance is the best yoga. Yoga is all about maintaining the concentration and finding a balance, that is exactly what we do while we dance Kathak. It's always about concentrating on 'talas' and 'w:laya:layas' and catching smallest of beats. After years that I have put behind my art, I have achieved a fine tuned balance that goes much deeper than making me able to handle my art form well."

"All is the play of beats and they will always remain the same as ever, you can only add instruments; so fusion is fine if created esthetically. My only concern always has been, is of maintaining the purity of our forms and not creating a fusion that confuses the audience in identifying the original beauty and qualities of our traditional dances."

"Raigarh Darbar, an elite form of Kathak, encompasses the best of Kathak styles of Jaipur and Lucknow gharana. Raigarh gharana although new, has its own compositions of thumris, ghazals, todas and bols which are unique in themselves."

"In the Hindu period the dancers used to wear ghagras or saris. At the Muslim court they had to adopt the durbar dress, which was the Peshwaz worn over churidhars, seen in the Moghal paintings."

"The costume changes have over the years been adopted by kathak dancers, mainly because the peshwaz is more comfortable and also allows viewers to see the intricate footwork which gets obstructed by saris and long ghagras. Rao uses all three costumes for her dancers-saris, ghagra-sari and the peshwaz."

"We have several parans or rhythmic patterns based on Ganesha, which are recited or sung, along with accompaniment on the tablas. Similarly there are verses dedicated to Siva and Saraswati. There's a special invocation for Krishna, who is the patron saint of kathak dancers"

"We dance to ghazals (Urdu poems), thumris (a genre of semi-classical Indian music) and taranas (a type of Hindustani classical vocal music). There is also a spontaneity and subtle ‘abhinaya’ about Kathak. We usually dance to the syllables of tabla and pakhawaj hence there is a lot of intricate footwork,"

"I was taken away by the nagma (tune), taal (rhythm) and that extempore quality of kathak. There was that openness about the art form which I could easily connect with."

"...I take Kathak as an example, is that we are living in a very different kind of world from when Kathak first took shape and the needs of our present society are ever changing. There is a whole new generation of Indians who belong to an international and cosmopolitan community. The world is closing in on us, so to speak, and just as people from different cultures and religions are interrelating through technology, migration, hitech communication, dance also wants to be involved in this process. We are no longer living in the temples or courts; hence we must make a great leap into the international arena of dance."

"Choreography, as understood today, requires the dance form to be put into a different kind of space. This requires a new approach of the known structures to suit new concepts. It is simply safer to keep looking over your shoulder for material from the past rather than facing the vast, open plain before you. We must come out of this safe corner and have the courage to confront this thing called creation."

"Solo Kathak dance did not excite me any more because it had developed too much gimmickry to it. However, I was deeply rooted in dance and the technique of Kathak itself was very artistic and complete. The way it was presented needed a lot of consideration. A performance needs to embody a certain dignity and finesse. This was my very first commitment to the presentation of Kathak. In my vision, I saw the entire stage filled with dancers, patterns of colours, music which had musicality and not just an accompanying element."

"Music has always been a companion to dance. One cannot think of dance without music. In classical Kathak dance, music played the role of timekeeper in the form of a "lehara" played on the sarangi. Vocal music was only used in the performance of "thumri", "bhajan", or "hori" where a dancer enacted "abhinaya" word to word. Creative music was never a part of Kathak."

"...in the Kathak format, which have for long been forgotten by solo dancers. In their impulse to gain instant popularity they have concentrated only on what brings an instant response from the audiences. To this day I have not had to look outside the Kathak technique for movements and forms."

"The aesthetics of a dance form springs from the land of its origin."

"...the most beautiful and complete language of movements through which the Indian dancer provides the concrete manifestation of the inner state and vision of his/her existence, of the truth of all experiences, by art."

"Hasthalakshanadeepika, the ancient Sanskrit classical text on the dances of Kerala, mentions 24 basic mudras or hand-gestures, which are in use in the classical dance dramas of Kerala. Mohiniyattam, in particular, uses them."

"...the relationship among the traditional forms of Mohiniyattam, Nangiar Koothu and Thiruvathirakali — all of which feature female artistes."

"Like most classical arts in Kerala, it's the youth festivals that are keeping Mohiniyattam alive among the younger generation. Youth fetes are a good thing but they are just not enough for the future of performing arts. Now that they've taken out the Kalaparthibha-Kalathilakam titles and started awarding grades instead of first place, second place...in competitions, I find that it is actually a little demoralising for the young performers. After all, who doesn't want to win? They would have worked hard enough for it as it is. The government needs to be much more proactive. Much like they help sports persons get placements, why can't the Government support those who choose performing arts as a career? Not only would such a move be an incentive for people to take up performing arts but it would also ensure that the arts sustain themselves."

"In the absence of a well-defined structure, Mohiniyattam had earned qualifiers like ‘poor cousin of Bharatanatyam, ‘an off-shoot of Kathakali' and so on during the 60s and the 70s. This had motivated quite a few dancers to make serious attempts to provide the dance form with an identity indigenous to Kerala;"

"Mohiniattam has long been referred to as the Bharatanatyam from Kerala. There was once a time when it was also called a 'bad imitation of Bharatanatyam. But all that has changed now."

"Year 1960 onwards, Mohiniattam, in spite of being a very old dance form, has started gaining prominence. It has spread from Kerala to other South India states, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and now, even Mumbai. I know many kids who are choosing to pursue Mohiniattam instead of Bharatanatyam."

"Treatises belonging to the Sangham period shed light on this. Perhaps the efforts to link Mohiniyattam to Thiruvathirakali and Nangiarkoothu were a sequel to this research."

"They [Attaprakaram of Nangiarkoothu] opened a treasure trove of mudras employed in this art form that could be traced to the ‘Hasthalakshanadeepika'."

"...could rejuvenate items like Easal, Poli, Kurathy and Chandanam of Mohiniyattam that had become extinct."

"Nirmala Paniker has done research on the Hastalakshana Deepika and by 1985, introduced a methodology for learning all the hand gestures in Mohiniattam using the Sanskrit slokas for the first time in the history of Mohiniattam."

"‘Mohiniyatta Seva,' suggesting its link to a temple ritual. “Unless this eye-catching dance form is liberated from the clutches of Carnatic classical music, its identity is at stake."

"Mohiniyattam has gone through a renaissance many times. It had a renaissance under Swati Tirunal, then again at Kalamandalam and now innovations are being brought in. Kerala has so many traditional and ritualistic art forms, when compared to other States. Kathakali and Koodiyattam, being male-dominated, naturally enjoyed more popularity and for a long while Mohiniyattam, sadly, was sidelined. Thanks to the structure laid down by dancer-scholars such as Kalyanikutty amma, Kalamandalam Satyabhama and the efforts of people like Bharati Sivaji and Kanak Rele, the face of Mohiniyattam has changed…now Mohiniyattam has a good stage, both nationally and abroad."

"In the oriental art tradition, the relation between the Guru and the Shishya is exemplary. Among traditional performing arts of Kerala, Mohiniyattam along with Kathakali fascinated Western artistes even in the early 20th century."

"Mohiniyattam is not a well known Indian dance form in France unlike Bharatanatyam. The Western audience does appreciate the moods of the Nayika in and the movements of Mohiniyattam...Since it is a cultivated art form I don’t expect to draw a crowd to watch Mohiniyattam. But there will always be rasikas and connoisseurs in the audience."

"The film on Mohiniyattam [he directed] primarily aims at experiencing the ‘dance’ rather than dissecting it intellectually. It juxtaposes the life of women on- and off-stage. The film is on Mohiniyattam and not on the individual styles of performance. Working with Adoor was an ingenious and insightful experience."

"...like the wavy movements of the arm in Mohiniattam. With eight girls synchronising, it looks fabulous.""

"The possibility of presenting the subtle facial expressions and detailed mudras for which Mohiniattam is famous? "I can't jump around like a frog to show my energy," she quips, emphasising, "The methodology will change, but you can't destroy the soul." The mukhaja abhinaya, conveying expression using the face and eyes, for which she is known, she reserves for limited spaces."

"The lone survivor of this unbroken tradition is Kalamandalam Sathyabhama. She has been rightly described as the matriarch of Mohiniyattam for her epochal contributions that accorded the dance form a well-knit structure for the first time."

"By G.S. Paul In"

"The costume and jewellery of Mohiniyattam that we see today are immortal contributions of Kalamandalam."

"As further directed by the divine, in 1779 CE, Jai Singh introduced a dance form that later was to become one of the eight prominent classical dances of India—the Manipuri Raas Leela. In this dance form, the philosophy of the pre-existing Meitei beliefs forms the basis on which the Vaishnava and Bhagavata theories and philosophies are constructed around in an aesthetic and pleasing manner."

"The essential elements and the mode of dancing were drawn from Laiharaoba, while technical aspects such as head, body and neck movements, intricate footwork were drawn from the Thengou-rol (sword play), Khu-Sa-Rol (spear play) and Paphal-graphs (charts of graphic movement). Thus, broadly the choreography is a spectacular combination of Thang-Ta (martial arts of Manipur), Sarit-Sarat (unarmed Manipuri martial arts) and Mukna Kangjei (war exercises), all of which emanated from the pre-Hindu culture of the state."

"Manipuri dancing is charge with faith, the devotional fervor of bhakthi. To a Manipuri, one whole life is a dance offering. The Tandva style of men’s dancing may be swift and vigorous, the feminine Lasya an apotheosis of grace: fluid movements merging into one another with no clearly defined beginning or end, continuous as the rhythm of birth and death. One style is not more or less than the other, that’s not the point. The point is that no extraneous glance or gesture should be allowed to defile the sanctity of your offering. The ignorant call it an expressionless dance. Never! You aspire not to subtract emotion but to absorb it. The true dancer has reached a stage where the earthly audience has ceased to matter, and she is conscious of the deity in the temple of - another shrewd look – the gift of life itself."

"Being an art born out of the soil, Manipuri dance which achieves classicity through the ages, retains still the abstract, magical quality associated with the Lai Haraoba tradition."

"Manipuri dance is the collective name given to the dance and performance traditions that is the heritage of the Meitei people in Manipur. It has different elements in it. The classical tradition is the one associated with Rasleela, and Natpala. The folk/indigenous elements are those from Lai Haraoba."

"Manipuri dance is long recognized as a classical dance form in India – both administratively and socially. However, given the difficult geographic access to Manipur and Northeastern India in general the dance form has relative less publicity in large Indian cities."

"Manipuri dance has both similarities and differences with other Indian Dances. The movements of Manipuri dances are all found in the movement system described in the Bharata’s Natyashastra. Most importantly, the music system, especially the tala system in Manipuri dance is very similar to that used in the major music systems in India with a few regional variations."

"The history of Manipuri dance can be divided into two broad phases – the pre-Hindu and Hindu. The premiere festival of the Pre-Hindu tradition of Manipur, the word LaiHaraoba has been derived from “lai hoi lauba” which literally means shouting of the word “hoi” by the gods reflecting on the Meitei creation myth."

"As Vaishnavism came into the valley, the community accepted many of the themes and festivals that are celebrated through out India but in Manipur there was a special element added to it, dance and music. At this juncture the repertoire of classical Manipuri dance came into existence, Rasleela and Natpala began at this time."

"There are two major differences – the first is in the mood. Manipuri dance is very contained and controlled in its repertoire and there is no exaggeration of movements and facial expressions. Secondly, as the dance form is theatrical in origin the entire repertoire is sub-divided into two broad categories – tandava (masculine) and lasya (feminine) for the male and female characters. It is very difficult for dancers to master both techniques as they are very demanding in different ways."

"There are four kinds of celebration of Lai Haraoba throughout Manipur: Kanglei haraoba (celebrated in the major parts of Manipur), Moirang haraoba (as celebrated in Moirang), Chakpa haraoba (as celebrated in Chakpa and the non-Hindu Meitei villages) and Kakching haraoba (as celebrated in Kakching). Among these Kanglei haraoba is the most common form of celebration. The celebration of Lai-haraoba is done any time between April and June. It is usually celebrated communally collecting revenues from the community. The festival is dedicated to the local pre-Hindu deity of the area where it is celebrated, and is officiated by maibas (male priests), maibis (female priestesses) and the pena-khungba (the player of pena, a stringed instrument)."

"The premiere Hindu dance tradition of Manipur is contained in the Manipuri Rasleelas, which are night-long or day-long dance dramas about the life of Krishna that are held in the temple courtyards. These are ritual occasions and are largely performed by devotees, who may not be trained dancers. There are two kinds of Rasleelas –about childhood stories that enact episodes about Krishna’s childhood. These are largely performed by children. There are adult Rasleelas that are held at night, these are performed by adult women, again largely devotees who perform in a Rasleela as an act of devotion. Stories from Lord Krishna’s life are performed at different times of the year."

"The opening movements of Manipuri dance, chali... required synchronisation in movement of almost all the parts of the body — head, eye, neck, hands and legs. You keep discovering different facets of yourself as you learn more about dance."

"Manipuri dancing must be kept absolutely pure, you hear? No jerks, no wriggles. Not even the needles flutter of a single eyelash."

"Hand-gestures are an integral part of the form. The hand-gestures are prevalent in the older Maibi tradition as well, but they do not have any names. The later Rasleela tradition has Sanskrit names for the hand-gestures, in fact that is [the] way we were taught. Other Indian dance forms have very similar traditions of hand-gestures. Later on, in the 1970s during the peak of the political unrest Hidanmayum Thambal Sharma started a new tradition as he re-named the hand-gestures with Meitei names."

"I love people of Manipur and they also love … The Manipuri dance is famous throughout the world. Here women do much of the work including the outdoor work and men are relived to a great extent."

"Sattriya, a dance from the far eastern state of Assam in India,… emerges from a five hundred years old comprehensive theatre tradition nurtured in the Vaishnav Monasteries of Assam."

"Sattriya is revealed as a living, evolving tradition, rooted in the philosophy and vision of saint-preacher-reformer-artist-composer Sankaradeva (1499-1568). The history of the bhakti movement behind the rise of Sattriya, the socio-cultural-religious context."

"Built upon the foundation of bhakti, it has the same all-inclusive approach. Centred on Ankiya Nat and [w:Bhaona|Bhaona]] ( dramatic representation), many of its features can be traced back to Natya Sastra – the Odramaghada- padathi mentioned therein, refers to styles practised in eastern/north-eastern India, which include Odisha and Kamarupa (Assam). Several features of Sattriya find place in Abhinayadarpana, Sangitha Ratnakara, Kalikapurana and Sri Hastamuktavali."

"The most unique aspect of the arts that are nurtured at the sattras (literally meaning Holy areas) is that they are part of a living cultural tradition."

"like many of the other Classical Dance forms of India, [it] has been extracted from a larger body of theatrical practices that constitute the Ankiya Bhaona form."

"The Regional Arts’ Authority, the Assam Academy for the Arts, (Assam Sangeet Natak Akademi) described it as Sattriya, or belonging to the sattras. This is a more dynamic and organic term that takes cognizance of the contributions of later devotees, making spaces for the evolution of the form."

"The origin of thought and movement lie, in the case of Sattriya, you have to locate it in the deeply rooted, shared belief system of the ‘Bhakti Marg’."

"With the exception of the Ojapali (this is one of the pre-Vaishnav dance forms that the Vaishnav culture drew from) inspired segments, which predate the establishment of Sattras, the dance form of Sattriya is mostly culled out of the Ankiya Bhaona tradition that has a distinct vernacular vocabulary for theatrical communication and a sense of regional identity."

"This particular dance form is ‘non-texted’. Teaching and pedagogy has been through oral transmission, and memory has been the key-conserving factor."

"For centuries, when it remained a preserve of men, it followed a careful stance and kinetic demarcation between the sexes. This demarcation continues even today, enriching the grammar of the dance, although women have taken to the form and require no specific indication of gender roles."

"The dance style is sensitive to the world, the musical note and the rhythmic beat. It treats the body in halves, with the lower part interpreting rhythms while the upper part moves around the arc and diagonal chords, to the melody. It has an abhinaya, or expressional tradition, that uses the body the face the micro-features and hand gestures in addition to costume to interpret the song, poem or the emotion."

"The distinctive Sattriya abhinaya defies elitist leanings by depicting activities like fighting, eating, slaying, killing etc. which were frowned upon by the Sanskrit texts."

"The most important feature therefore of this dancer’s form is that its text is constantly evolving and gets ‘texted’ on the dancers body, and inspired by his immediate frame of reference. That is the reason why many of the hand gestures, central to Indian dance, have evolved from local traditions and bear vernacular names (Hairi Haath, Mishing Bihu Haath, Chhatradhari Haath, Roja Haath, Mujura Haath and Rati Haath). The same holds true of the gaits called Khoz, which go by names such as Balimahi (wagtail), Mukuti (egret) and Buguli (crane)."

"In the year 2000, this dance form was declared a ‘major dance tradition of India’ at par with all major dance traditions of India, which are loosely called the Classical dances of India."

"The identity of any dance is incomplete without the music that accompanies it. The unique raga tala pattern of Sattriya music, the two categories of Sattriya vocal (raga based and light ), variations of presentation for different occasions at different sattras, musical instruments, as also unique features such as Gayan Bayan who sing, dance and initiate a traditional Sattriya performance."

"The practitioners of the arts [are] as being arranged in the alignment of a tree. The deep roots are the body of the sattras and the monks therein, who have preserved the art form over five centuries. The trunk is the monks who have renounced sattra life in their mature phase, after training authentically at the sattras and are now available without any religious duties and restrictions, for the promotion of the arts. The branches are many, and these are the urban, educated, often English speaking, articulate modern women who have taken to the dance in the last four decades. They have become the new voice for the form, even if their association with the wellspring, the institution of the sattras is merely formal."

"Prejudice against impersonating women and the fear of ridicule are considered to have contributed to the decline in interest of male performers. Perceived lack of feasibility and limited employment opportunities through dance are other reasons. I have a dance school and only three in a class of 200 students are male"

"...there were two main forms of Yakshagana. The paduvalapaya form included two styles that is badagu thittu (northern style) and tenku thittu (southern style). They were being performed in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Shimoga, parts of Chikmagalur and in Bangalore. The moodalapaya form comprised doddata and sannata performed in central and north Karnataka districts. As Yakshagana was widely performed in other towns and cities in the State now it would be an opportunity for the committee to identify it as the exhibition art of the State."

"...the vivacity of Yakshagana, including its costume, dance and music, deserved it to become the representative exhibition art of the State."

"Yakshagana is traditional dance drama."

"He [Shivram Karanth] rediscovered many ragag fs that were traditionally part of the Yakshagana repertoire but had fallen into disuse. He did away with dialogue, making songs and dance do its work instead. He added new instruments, linked dance rhythms and music rhythms, and searched for and trained talented young artists. Most significantly, he brought down the average time of a performance from eight to three hours, thus allowing Yakshagana to make its peace with the rushed modern world."

"Karanth made Yakshagana more popular through the ballet adaptation of the art."

"This [Yakshgana] was the very variety of contemporary dance-drama forms of India."

"Karanth’s creation can certainly place Yakshagana in a still more elevated position in world theatre."

"Yakshagana Badagtitu Baylata with its vigorous, and fast moving and yet intricate steps, sometimes rough, at other times gentle and delicate in their varied patterns, captivates the spectator and engrosses him in their essential rhythm and movement. It is in the sensual response of the audience to this movement, the beat of the drums and the pervading and persistent rhythm of the dancers’ ankle bells wherein lies the essence of this dance."

"Music is an integral part of Yakshgana...The words of the songs and poems tell the story. And the rhythm of the songs dictate the timing of the percussion instruments and the dance."

"Yakshgana songs are written to be sung in certain ragas; each raga having its own peculiar ascending and descending scale."

"The bhagavata will chose a Śruti note, generally the same one for all of his performances, before each performance...The baghavata sets this note on the Śruti instrument (now days usually a harmonium) and this single note is played in the background whenever the bhgavata is singing."

"One of unique features of the Yakshgana is the high-pitched voice of the bhagavata."

"...that Yakshagana is not considered a classical style of music frees it from the bondage of rules and allows it the freedom necessary for a living art-form."

"In Yakshagana style when the voice oscillates, that is, quivers back and forth from one note to another, the transition is smooth and the breath flows without a break."

"The Yakshagana can be taken to be the common name of an old type of traditional, popular vernacular drama of South India, a name common to the three linguistic areas of Tamil, Telugu and Kannada"

"The Yakshagana belongs to the South Canara in the Kannada area."

"In South Canara, the Yakshagana is one of the two most widespread popular dramatic entertainments,"

"The vernacular name of the Yakshagana is Bayal Attam i.e. open-air play."

"The themes of all the dramas of Yakshagana are fights and warfare, stories of veera and raudra rasas from our puranic legends."

"The Yakshagana make up is as epic as its theme. It is decidedly more graceful, richer and more closely related to the ornamentation found in our sculpture than the Kathakali make-up."

"The old female make-up was full of old jewellery with Makuta or Kirita etc., resembling female figures in our sculpture. The make-up includes masks also."

"The traditional Sanskrit play and its vernacular representatives begin with some preliminary benedictory music and dance called in Sanskrit purva ranga."

"The Yakshagana must have originally been a faithful form of Bharata’s theatre in respect of Abhinaya. As was to be seen till recently in Tamil street-plays, Abhinaya or Nritya must have been present to a large extent in the Yakshagana. But now, it has become considerably reduced, chiefly on account of the introduction of speech in an elaborate manner."

"Though the dance with gesture (Nritya or Abhinaya) is not extensively present in Yakshagana today, the drama is remarkable for its pure dance or Nritta. This Nritta though not as elaborate and varied as the Tirmanas and Adavujatis in the |w:Nautch|Nautch]], is yet of a very attractive variety. Yakshagana is full of this dance."

"The diction of the Yakshagana speech is exalted, strewn as it is copiously with good Sanskrit quotations. A high moral tone is se; fine truths and classic philosophic ideas make the Yakshagana a true form of liberal education, bringing to all the illiterate the essence of the wisdom of the Rishis."

"Kudiyattam plays, always based on classical Sanskrit texts, many of them composed in Kerala, invariably include a long nirvahanam or “retrospective” in which a character reveals, mostly by the silent language of hand- and eye-gestures, abhinaya, the long process that has brought him or her to the present moment in the play."

"It is the most ancient form of classical performing arts, Koodyatam consists of staging of selected acts or ankas from Sanskrit dramas in a characteristic manner with a highly evolved and stylized art technique."

"Koodyattam means several actors depicting different characters in the play as against mono-acting. It also means the presentation of a play availing of the full complement of all the four forms of abhinayas prescribed in the Natyashastra."

"Koodyattam is usually performed in Koothambalams in temple premises, either during festivals or as a special offering. The performers are from a sparse community of Chakyars."

"Kudiyattam is profoundly, perhaps uniquely, therapeutic...this classical art is a “slow” … full-scale plays, each one stretching over many nights and weeks - every moment is intricate, action-packed, resonant with a whole body of pre-existing texts, and irreplaceable."

"I thought it was the most beautiful “thing” I had ever seen."

"A 2000 year old art form and still going strong- That is Koodiyattom … Literally meaning, ‘Dancing Together,’ and officially recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, ‘Koodiyattam,’ or ‘Kutiyattam,’ is a form of Sanskrit theatre, traditionally performed in the state of Kerala."

"Koodiyattam is an ‘apoorva vidya’ – a rare and special stream of knowledge... [We have] a different training system in Koodiyattam as compared to other Indian classical dances."

"For a Sanskrit student to observe a Koodiyattam performance of one of the great Sanskrit plays is a profound, even life-changing experience."

"A debut is seen more like an initiation into the practice rather than a full-fledged performance, after several years of perfecting the art, once the first ‘purappad’ (an invocatory ritual performance) is learned well. Then slowly the student begins to learn part by part and grows as a member of the ensemble."

"Eyes play a very central role in the abhinaya in Koodiyattam. The eye training is very laborious and so is the process of putting on the eye make-up before the performance. We also use chundapoo , the ovary of a special flower, to put into the eye before the performance in order to make them bloodshot and strong."

"Traditions/practices have to evolve constantly and simultaneously grow deeper roots. The growth of the tradition has to go both ways simultaneously."

"...Koodiyattam, Kerala's traditional Sanskrit theatre, has been proclaimed part of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO."

"While some of the Koodiyattam techniques have come down to us in the written form through ‘Krama Deepika' and ‘Attaprakaram', a lot of it has also been transmitted orally. Much of the oral tradition could have been lost."

"Chakkai koothu must have made its way from Tamil Nadu to Kerala...it might have then melded with the local tradition and the amalgam is what we now know as Koodiyattam...suggesting the fusing of two traditional art forms."

"Koodiyattam now finds a place in more contemporary settings. [Margi Madhu, for example], did a Koodiyattam rendering of Othello in Theatre Works' play ‘Desdemona', which had Indonesian dancers, a Burmese puppeteer and Korean drummers."

"Mani Madhava Chakyar with his unfailing urge for complicated, difficult and minute details has enriched the art during the decades of his unparalleled performing life without permitting even an iota of compromise regarding the essentials of traditional style."

"He was also the first to impart training of Koodyattam to non-members of the Chakyar community. The celebrated authority on world theater, Christopher Byrski (author of ‘Concept of Indian Theater’ was his pupil."

"The wonders his eyes do are a rare a treat. Seeing, indeed, is believing. It is only when one sees him perform that one realizes how powerful the eyes are to express, to suggest and to communicate emotions and even to convey whole packages of ideas."

"In 1987 he was awarded the Tusli Samman award for “creativity, noble traditions, prolonged training and practice leading to heights of achievement in the area considered.”"

"I made a film on Koodiyattam-the oldest living theatre in the world for UNESCO. It was basically an effort to document the theatre art form. A three-hour long film resulted though I had shot almost ten hours of it. But then they wanted a smaller version of 10 to 15 minutes duration. It was not impossible, but was not fair to the art, I thought. Instead, I suggested they watch any 15 minutes from the film. That would be more in keeping with this theatre art that takes a few weeks to enact an Act."

"What I fell in love with as a child was 'My Fair Lady,' 'Funny Face,' 'American in Paris,' and 'Singin' in the Rain.' Just perfect movies to me and I was dancing. I started ballet when I was three. And I fell in love with those movies and fell in love with Audrey Hepburn and Leslie Caron."

"The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener."

"In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell... we can't dance synonyms."

"Every ballet, whether or not successful artistically or with the public, has given me something important."

"Degas was obsessed by the art of classical ballet, because to him it said something about the human condition. He was not a balletomane looking for an alternative world to escape into. Dance offered him a display in which he could find, after much searching, certain human secrets."

"The ballet embodies the notes of music. And sometimes you almost feel like you can see the notes dance up there on the stage."

"At the ballet, you really feel like you're in the presence of something outside the rest of your life. Higher than the rest of your life."

"I don’t understand anything about the ballet; all I know is that during the intervals the ballerinas stink like horses."

"The discipline that ballet requires is obsessive. And only the ones who dedicate their whole lives are able to make it. Your toenails fall off and you peel them away and then you're asked to dance again and keep smiling. I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer."

"On Les Syphides. Here is the true masterpiece of the romantic ballet."

"Ballet as we know it today originated in Italy but was brought to France in the late 16th century by Catherine de Medici. The first ballet comique de la reine (dramatic ballet) was performed as an aristocratic wedding at the Parisian Court in 1581. It combined music, dance and poetic recitations (usually in praise of the monarchy) and was performed by male courtiers with women of the court forming the corps de ballet. Louis XIV so enjoyed the spectacles that he danced many leading roles himself at Versailles. In 1661, he founded the Academic Royale de Danse (Royal Dance Academy), from which modern ballet developed."

"I didn't care too much for ballet, because you had to be more disciplined, and you sort of looked like everyone else. It required a certain kind of conformity that I didn't feel like I wanted to do."

"I think everyone should take ballet classes. I know that not everyone wants to be a dancer, but if you are interested in staying in good shape, physically and mentally, for a long time, you should just take ballet class as often as you can. It's much better than jogging. When you're jogging, your mind is someone else, and you're not even relaxed mentally. When you run, you are just using energy and getting more and more tired. But with ballet, it doesn't matter if your execution is awful. The whole idea is that you are mentally in control. You say, 'All right, leg, developes, All right, now turn.' You are in total control and this is not true of most sports. It gives you a sense of power.""

"Ballet is an incredibly difficult, beautiful art form that takes a lot of training, a lot of time, and a lot of hard work."

"My world was a community ballet school, a marching band, my two sisters and my girlfriends. I played saxophone in the band and was a bit nerdy."

"And it is always Easter Sunday at the New York City Ballet. It is always coming back to life. Not even coming back to life - it lives in the constant present."

"God comes to us in theater in the way we communicate with each other, whether it be a symphony orchestra, or a wonderful ballet, or a beautiful painting, or a play. It's a way of expressing our humanity."

"I feel his arm Lightly Over me. He takes one of my outstretched hands. Draws it beneath my stomach. "One more time..." This is not sex, Not friendship. Something Strange Special In the stillness of his breath, The water like way he moves. He is making a dance We are making a dance."

"But he had never seen Myrna in practice...never that close up. He had been impressed and a little frightened by the contrast between seeing ballet on stange, where everyone seemed to either glide or mince effortlessly on the tips of their pointes. and seeing it from less than five feet away, with harsh daylight pouring in the floor-to-ceiling windows and no music- only the choreographer rythmically clapping his hands and yelling harsh criticisms. No praise, only criticisms. Their faces ran with sweat. Their leotards were wet with sweat. The room, as large and airy as it way, stank of sweat. Sleek muscles trembled and fluttered on the nervous edge of exhaustion. Corded tendons stood out like insulated cables. Throbbing veins popped out on foreheads and necks. Except for the choreographer's clapping and angry, hectoring shouts, the only sounds were the thrup-thud of ballet dancers on pointe moving across the floor and harsh, agonized panting for breath. Jack had suddenly realized that these dancers were not just earning a living, they were killing themselves. Most of all he remembered their expressions- all that exhausted concentration, all that pain... but transcending the pain, or at least creeping around its edges, he had seen joy. Joy was unmistakably what that look was, and it scared Jack because it had seemed inexplicable."

"Ballet is the fairies' baseball."

"So many people report to be contemporary dancers, and they're not. They are sort of jazz dancers that feel like they're throwing a bit of classical in there. I mean, a true contemporary dancer has got ballet as their base and classical ballet, and that is their base. And then they choose to extemporize on that and go into a contemporary world."

"Anytime you look at anything that's considered artistic, there's a commercial world around it: the ballet, opera, any kind of music. It can't exist without it."

"I saw a lot of cool choreographing opportunities, but I was nervous about it. Swan Lake is the most difficult thing to portray for a female ballet dancer; it really requires such specific qualities of articulation, agility, strength, and the arm work is something that takes a lot of training. I wasn’t necessarily thinking it was going to be a piece of cake."

"If nobody comes to your shows, then it's modern dance. If everybody comes to your shows and no one likes it, is that ballet? I don't know."

"Some people think that movements, such as the movements in ballet, are a higher cultural expression, whereas some are just dirt. I think it is elitist to think that a trained movement is more acceptable than untrained and possibly unrehearsed movements."

"I'm so fair that I didn't go in the sun as a child. When all my friends were on the beach, I was going to ballet. The teachers there didn't like you going in the sun, so I never did."

"Heaven help the American-born boy with a talent for ballet."

"I love ballet because you can see how beautiful the body is. It's similar to my interest in fashion, except with fashion there are clothes. I think that ballet is very good for the body. It's very similar to yoga, because you have to hold a position. I did a lot of yoga, but now I've stopped yoga and I'm just doing ballet, maybe because I love the music of ballet, the piano. I love piano music, it reminds me of being in the Russian school of ballet, and I love that. I love listening to the piano while I am doing my ballet. If I could choose something besides fashion, I would love to be a ballerina."

"I started taking ballet lessons when I was 4, and I was performing in ballet companies when I was 10, and I did summer stock in Miami Beach when I was 12, and finally I said, 'I gotta go to Broadway.'"

"Being a former dancer, classical dancer, it informed me as a human being just in terms of the grace I guess. Ballet is a very graceful form of art. You also become very aware of your body and your mind and your body is working in conjunction. That kind of helps you in acting as well. It's not only using your mind, it's like making your mind communicate this character into your body so that you can bring it to life and physicalize it."

"The popularity of adult ballet is, in my mind, a back to basics thing in a time when different dance styles are abundant. To master different styles has one precondition: to master the basics. There is no better way to achieve this than studying ballet."

"In order to dance professionally, you have to start at a young age. No matter what, your muscle structure and your bones have to be groomed from a very young age. Nobody wakes up at 17 and decides to become a ballet dancer."

"You can imagine me as a kid growing up in redneck Texas with ballet shoes, tucking the violin under my arm. I had to fight my way up."

"By disparaging ballet he succeeded very well in convincing the boys that ballet was not for Americans, that it was European in origin and in continuing character."

"A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I'm beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things."

"The ballet needs to tell its own story in such a way it can be received without having to be translated into language."

"I started ballet in my early 20s. I studied for about ten years. Ballet is probably the one of the hardest things I've done, almost like MMA. People don't give it a lot of credit and think it's easy, but it's very difficult. For an athlete, you use muscles you really don't use, and ballet is something I really respect."

"Slashing its way to the finish line, 'Black Swan' is the first ballet movie for highbrow horror fans for whom ballet itself signifies little to nothing. Those of us who know and love ballet can only look on it with a different kind of horror."

"Just as you have to learn your ABC’s in order to read and write, dancers have to learn the basic exercises and positions of ballet in order to perform choreography on the stage. They practice these exercises every day in order to keep their bodies limber and in top performing shape."

"The language of ballet is French. The terminology was originally developed in the court of Louis XIV during the 17th century. Today, wherever in the world a ballet class is given, the names of the steps are given to students in their original French."

"All ballet exercises begin and end with one of the five basic positions of the feet]. There are also complementary arm positions. The positions are executed with the legs and feet turned out from the hip socket. They allow for greater flexibility, range of movement and also for a beautiful and long line of the body."

"Ballet dancers are an elite group of athletes. They train for many years before becoming professional dancers and once they join a company their training does not end. Dancers’ bodies need to be extremely strong and flexible to execute the demanding technique of ballet so they must practice and rehearse every day to keep their bodies in top physical condition. For every minute of dancing you see on the stage, there has been one hour of rehearsal."

"When dancers rehearse in the studio a pianist plays the music for them. It is usually at the dress rehearsal that the dancers hear the orchestra for the first time. It is also at the dress rehearsal that they have their final opportunity to try on their costumes, work with the props and scenery, and practice the steps on the stage. Everyone’s hard work is rewarded the moment the curtain rises and the ballet begins."

"Developed in the early 19th century, pointe shoes are worn by female dancers to enable them to dance on the tips of their toes."

"Male dancers typically do not wear pointe shoes. They wear ballet slippers or special ballet boots that are flexible enough for them to move in."

"To highlight and accentuate their eyes, cheeks, noses and other features, all dancers, male and female, wear makeup when they are onstage."

"A tutu is a special kind of skirt worn by dancers in many ballets. When the first ballets were performed in the 15th and 16th centuries, female dancers performed in the courts of royalty wearing floor length gowns with heavy decorations. These cumbersome outfits greatly restricted their movements."

"In the early 1800s, with the development of the pointe shoe and the many stories about fairies and nymphs, the Romantic tutu became popular. This skirt came below the dancers’ knees, and gave them a dreamy, ethereal look, while allowing them to move more freely."

"Choreographers and costume designers in the 21st century now choose costumes which best suit the purpose of their ballet. This means that depending on the ballet, you may see a Romantic tutu, a Classical tutu or no tutu at all."

"In a ballet performance there are typically no words spoken from the stage. The dancers must tell the audience the story (if there is a story) using only their body movements and gestures, which they execute to the accompaniment of music. Often mime is used to relay specific elements of the story."

"Ballet has grown in popularity in recent years but, for many, it remains a sometimes mystical world of movements and expressions not understood by any but the most serious Balletomane}."

"Ballet emerged in the late 15th-century Renaissance court culture of Italy as a dance interpretation of fencing, and further developed in the French court from the time of Louis XIV in the 17th century. This is reflected in the largely French vocabulary of ballet. Despite the great reforms of Noverre in the 18th century, ballet went into decline in France after 1830, though it was continued in Denmark, Italy, and Russia. It was reintroduced to western Europe on the eve of the World War I by a Russian company: the Ballets Russes of vSergei Diaghilev, who came to be influential around the world. Diaghilev's company came to be a destination for many of the Russian trained dancers fleeing the famine and unrest that followed the Bolshevik revolution. These dancers brought many of the choreographic and stylistic innovations that had been flourishing under the czars back to their place of origin."

"In the 20th century, ballet continued to develop and has had a strong influence on broader concert dance."

"Ballet dance works (ballets) are choreographed, and also include mime, acting, and are set to music (usually orchestral but occasionally vocal). Later developments include expressionist ballet, and elements of Modern dance."

"Classical ballet is the most formal of the ballet styles; it adheres to traditional ballet technique."

"Neoclassical ballet is a ballet style that uses traditional ballet vocabulary but is less rigid than the classical ballet."

"Contemporary ballet is a form of dance influenced by both classical ballet and modern dance. It takes its technique and use of pointe work from classical ballet, although it permits a greater range of movement that may not adhere to the strict body lines set forth by schools of ballet technique."

"Tchaikovsky’s first ballet, Swan Lake is considered by many to be one of the greatest classical ballets of all time. Its romance and beauty has allowed the classic ballet to mesmerize audiences for more than 100 years."

"The Sleeping Beauty was the first successful ballet composed by Tchaikovsky. However, it was no more popular than his first ballet, Swan Lake. The production was heavily criticized for being too lavish. Within three years, however, the ballet gained enough popularity to be performed at least 50 times."

"Giselle is considered one of the great Romantic ballets, Giselle was first performed in Paris in 1841."

"The Nutcracker is more than 100 years old and was first presented at the Mayinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia."

"I don't care when I was born, if I'm 50, 60 or 70. It's important that I am alive."

"I hate to spread rumours: but what else can one do with them?"

"I'd grown up thinking I was ugly, ugly, ugly. I was much too tall, I was much too skinny, I was flat-chested, I had my mother's Asian eyes and cheekbones so I looked foreign compared to all my girlfriends, my mouth was too big and my teeth were too big so I never smiled. And then Françoise Hardy had her breakthrough in France and everything suddenly changed. Before her you were supposed to look like Brigitte Bardot, blonde, curvy and busty. But I was about twenty when people started telling me "You know what, you look a little like Françoise Hardy, you could be a model" and then out of the blue this famous woman, the great Catherine Harlé turns up. By sheer accident she happened to see me in the street in Paris and asked me if I wanted to be a fashion model and I thought she was joking! And she said "No, no, no, you're exactly the type of girl we're looking for" and all of a sudden all of these flaws, all the things I'd been so ashamed of, became my greatest assets. By sheer accident, as most things in my career."

"I knew nothing when I first met him. He taught me to see things through his eyes. Dalí was my teacher. He let me use his brushes, his paint and his canvas, so that I could play around while he was painting for hours and hours in the same studio. Surrealism was a good school for me. Listening to Dalí talk was better than going to any art school."

"In Italy I'm big because they're all so sex-obsessed. In Germany I succeeded because they've been waiting for someone like Marlene Dietrich to come along ever since the war. I played on their need for a drunken, nightclubbing vamp. And I've won the gays, who are crucial because they have all the best discos, entirely because of the extraordinary legends about me."

"The Germans told me "We're going to conquer the world!" and I don't regret working with a German record company at all, because for my career it was great, but they wanted to control me, direct me and restrict me. They wanted absolute discipline and that's not the life for me, so after a few years of that I wanted out."

"People only know me as a celebrity and don't realize how much more important art is to me than makeup and set costumes. Show business pays the rent, but painting is my only true passion, so I define myself as a painter who works in show business. Art is a kind of therapy to me, thanks to which I can interpret my feelings. An empty canvas before my eyes is synonymous with the absolute freedom of expression."

"Compilations, to me, are embarrassing. To bring out a compilation, to me, is to say, "Look. I've got no new material so please buy this. I need money to pay the rent." I think it's very embarrassing. And that is very annoying because the record company owns all those titles and they don't ask me for my advice. They just decide to release "the best of" compilations and they put out a lot of very bad quality music. There are a couple of good titles but the rest are just tracks to fill out the album. And they know very well that they can't rely on me promoting them because I won't promote such records."

"Actually, dance forms an intrinsic part of worship in the temples. . . . India alone has a concept of a God who dances. Siva is Nataraja, Lord of dancers, who dances in the Hall of Consciousness and weaves into it the rhythm of the Universe. Within His Cosmic Dance are included the Divine prerogatives of Creation, Preservation, Regeneration, Veiling and Benediction . . . Dance in India has been so closely linked with religion, that today it is impossible to think of it divorced from this essential background."

"It is the spirit of Purusha and Prakriti, an expression of evolution of movement, a truly creative force that is handed down the ages. This embodiment of sound and rhythm creating spiritual poetry is called dance or Natya. . . . The first glimpse of the dance comes to us from Siva Himself, a Yogi of Yogis. He shows us the Cosmic Dance and portrays to us he unity of Being. . . . The Cosmic Rhythm of His dance draws around Him ensouled matter, which manifests itself into the variety of this infinite and beautiful universe."

"For the modern physicists, then, Shiva's dance is the dance of subatomic matter."

"In the night of Brahma, Nature is inert, and cannot dance till Shiva wills it: He rises from His rapture, and dancing sends through inert matter pulsing waves of awakening sound, and lo! matter also dances appearing as a glory round about Him. Dancing, He sustains its manifold phenomena. In the fullness of time, still dancing, he destroys all forms and names by fire and gives new rest. This is poetry; but none the less, science."

"In Hinduism, classical dance is conceived as an internalized spiritual practice: using movement, sound and emotion to internalize the cosmology and epistemology within the dancer's body. It is the only major world religion to have been successfully transmitted through such embodiment for so long. This is exemplified by the iconographic depiction of Shiva-Nataraja, which is a stylized projection of Shiva manifested as the ascetic master of sacred dance. Similarly, the narratives and iconography of Krishna dancing with his devotees exemplifies, evokes and reinforces the 'rasa' (inner emotional states) of the devotees as they attempt to unite inwardly with their 'ishta-devata' (personal deity). Such expressions are not reserved for use by a spiritual elite; rather, they inform and engage the entire culture and are part of the folk narratives known to every Hindu."

"Muslim rulers and nobles always patronised music throughout the medieval times... Indian classical music survived throughout the Sultanate period, although classical Indian dancing almost died out in northern India because it had drifted from the aesthetic sphere into that of the courtesans and the dancing girls."

"Music in India has a history of at least three thousand years. The Vedic hymns, like all Hindu poetry, were written to be sung; poetry and song, music and dance, were made one art in the ancient ritual."

"Then there are ragas and raginis designated for dance. Dance in its art form is as elaborate as music, and is based on Hindu natya-shastra. Sculptures of dancers and musicians carved on ancient and medieval temples, now mostly surviving in south India, bear testimony to their excellence, popularity and widespread practice."

"From the seventeenth century onwards, Christian missionaries made scathing attacks on the Indian classical dance-forms, seeing them as a heathen practice. This was often expressed by attacking the devadasi system on the grounds of human rights. The devadasis were temple dancers, dedicated in childhood to a particular deity. The system was at its peak in the tenth and eleventh centuries, but a few hundred years later, the traditional system of temples protected by powerful kings had faded away under Mughal rule, especially since the Mughals turned it into popular entertainment, devoid of spirituality. The devadasi system degenerated in some cases into temple dancers used for prostitution, although the extent of this was exaggerated by the colonialists."

"Many of the English-educated elites of India accepted the colonial condemnation of their heritage and apologized for its 'primitiveness'. Some of them turned into Hindu reformers, and found the devadasi system detestable for moral and even social-hygienic reasons. However, the devadasis saw their very existence threatened and sent handwritten pleas to the colonial government, explaining the spiritual foundation of Bharata Natyam. They quoted Siva from the Saiva Agamas, saying, 'To please me during my puja, arrangements must be made daily for shudda nritta (dance). This should be danced by females born of such families and the five acharyas should form the accompaniments'. Since these Agamas are revered by every Hindu, the devadasis asked, 'What reason can there be for our community not to thrive and exist as necessary adjuncts of temple service?' They opposed the proposed draconian punishment for performing their tradition, calling the legislation 'unparalleled in the civilized world'. Instead of abolition of their traditional profession, they demanded better education to restore their historical status. They wanted the religious, literary and artistic education as in the past, saying, 'Instill into us the Gita and the beauty of the Ramayana and explain to us the Agamas and the rites of worship'. This would inspire devadasi girls to model themselves after female saints like Maitreyi, Gargi and Manimekalai, and the women singers of the Vedas, such that:. . . we might once again become the preachers of morality and religion. . . . You who boast of your tender love for small communities, we pray that you may allow us to live and work out our salvation and manifest ourselves in jnana and bhakti and keep alight the torch of India's religion amidst the fogs and storms of increasing materialism and interpret the message of India to the world."

"The Greek Dances are extremely pleasant, and full of Mirth. They are of two kinds: The first is a sort of Country-Dance or Couranto, danc'd by Pairs; and the second a kind of Gavote or Branle, in which the Men and Women are mingl'd, as at Passepied in France; only you must hold in your right-hand the Left-hand of your Left-hand Woman, and in your Left the Right-hand of her that is on your Right-hand. The Man who leads the Dance holds the Corner of a Handkerchief and gives the other to his Lady, that he may have room enough to take his Measures, and to give the Dance what Figure or Turn he pleases. At first they begin very gravely with a Saraband-Step, two Steps forwards and three backwards: Then mending their pace by degrees, they begin to leap and run, yet still observing the Rules of a Harmonious Motion; so that the Dance becomes very Gay and Amorous: For the Women leaping one Step forwards, draw their Bodies backwards with a certain pretty Turn that cannot be call'd immodest, yet gives a Man occasion to think of something more than he sees. And besides, the Musick contributes very much to the pleasantness of their Dances, for their Tunes are extremely Brisk and Airy.The fittest time to take the pleasure of viewing their way of Dancing, is when they are met at a Wedding; for on such Occasions they give themselves up to Joy and Pleasure, drinking, eating, and sporting, and indulging themselves in all manner of Diversions."

"For the untrained eye, Tai Ji Men’s Dragon Dance might appear to be merely a cultural showcase. It is undoubtedly a colorful and vibrant performance of Chinese cultural heritage, which is made possible by hand-crafting artisanal dragon heads and sometimes dozens of meters-long dragon bodies. This massive mythical creature is then brought to life by syncretizing the movements of , who are led by the dragon ball, before the creature’s head. For scholars of religion, however, the arduous preparation process and the practice of the Dragon Dance also unveil further interpretative layers."