Dance your blues away

Ritusmita Biswas

Dance as an expression of body movement is as old as man's social history. But today it is also being used as a therapy to beat stress and depression, reports Ritusmita Biswas
Smita Bose, a homemaker, was utterly miserable. She had lost her only son to cancer, was just divorced and jobless. She was taking regular counselling sessions and was in a precarious mental condition. Her counsellor suggested that she should go for dance therapy. "It has worked wonders. I had never danced in my life and at first I was sceptical but then slowly I started looking forward to it. Eventually, I found a new dimension to life and I brushed off my depression. After all, life has to go on," says a sad but serene Smita who since then has joined modern dancing and salsa classes.
Dancing away your blues does not seem to be just a literary phrase any more. It is a reality. It is increasingly getting popular. Traditionally, dance has always been connected with celebrations and happy occasions and so it is not surprising that dance therapy is induced to combat depression and induce happiness in life. Not only that, it is also used to treat various social and emotional ailments. "It's a regular feature in several mental institutions and in my own personal experience I can say it has helped a lot of patients," says Anita De, in-charge of Navajivan, a care centre for the handicapped where dance therapy is used.
Says Chandra Sinha, a social worker with an NGO which works for disabled children: "A dance class is a must for an over all development of the child be he a normal or a physically/mentally challenged one."
Sohini Chakraborty of Kolkata uses Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) to bring confidence and renewed interest in life to women from underprivileged sections, particularly victims of trafficking and those living with HIV/AIDS. Her organisation Kolkata Sanved is not confined to urban areas alone but works with women in rural areas as well. "Dance is a powerful medium; its movements induces a feeling of a liberation of the body and has a positive reaction and so works wonderfully in fighting depression," Chakraborty says.
Dance is a joyful way to keep fit too. "Dance is an excellent way to relieve stress. Half the people in my class are busy executives who have found this unique mode to keep fit and relax," says Ashi who teaches modern dance in Delhi. Agrees her student Anupama: "I have been learning salsa for the last four months. It's something I look forward to and it helps me to keep fit. For the last few months my stress level has significantly reduced. Definitely, these classes have a therapeutic value for me," she says.
According to Nandini Guha, a general physician currently involved in research project in an American university. "Any sort of stress, physical or mental, strains the muscles of the body. Dance helps you to relax and gives a feeling of accomplishment and pleasure. It is also a social exercise and helps people to open up and feel distressed."
Maya Das (name changed ) was the headmistress of a reputed south Kolkata school. She was a spinster, obese and in her own terms, ugly. When her psychoanalyst suggested to her to practise dance therapy to overcome depression she thought he was crazy. "Imagine some one asking a fat old woman to learn dance! But it helped. I feel by being a strict disciplinerian I had almost forgotten to smile. Now as I interacted with my co-dancers suddenly I felt alive and joyful again," she says.
But how does dance therapy heal? The body movement reflects the inner state of the person and in dance therapy you move the body within guided therapeutic settings, thus triggering a healing process. This therapy is often customised as per the need. A therapist analyses the problem, physical capabilities of a person, body shape, posture before prescribing a treatment. It can be either group or individual depending on the need of the person, The therapist who watches one's movement tells how to connect movement with thoughts. This process of learning to connect movements with thoughts helps to enhance mental well being: motivation, memory and cognitive skills improve.
It is also effective to help people overcome social and behavioural problems. In this case usually a patient is given a group therapy. When in a group the person does not feel isolated it helps him/her to overcome problems and forge social and emotional bonds. But is this therapy effective? Yes claims the medical practitioners. For once it helps to take off a disturbed individuals mind from the problem that is pestering him and helps them to relax so that they can tackle their problems with a fresh mind. Besides research suggests that whenever a person engages in any form of physical activity it releases certain chemicals in the brain that restore balance of positivity.Says dramatist Subhasish Bandhopadhyaya, the force behind Anyadesh, a theatre group for physically and visually challenged in the city:"Any form of performing art is a great tool to enhance the confidence of a person. Anyadesh is not just a theatre group but also a rehabilitation centre for women alienated by blindness and poverty, women who are coming to terms with their affliction and moving forward through art." (TWF)

New culture and artists

Bikas Roy

Once upon a time art and struggle went hand in hand. In Europe, Vincent Van Gogh, the Impressionist, died in poverty. M. F. Hussein was poverty stricken, and he was very often seen at embassy gates tucked with his paintings. But there were no buyers for such kind of art work. Many other renowned artists lived in penury.
People at Santiniketan still remember how the sculptor, Ramkinkar Baij, pursued art amidst grinding poverty. He worked with bamboo sticks when he couldn't afford iron rods and used raw cement instead of plaster because plaster was too expensive for him. But the art landscape has changed - and how! Today struggle is out - and money is in. Hussein's works, for instance, now fetch $300,000 at auctions. Materialistic and confident, the artists are the new maharajas of the Indian art world. And, like royalty, they are no longer afraid or ashamed of flaunting their money.
Life for successful artists these days is like camphor essence - fleeting, but beautiful while it lasts. Raghava K.K. realized that early in life and took up painting because he wanted to "enjoy the finer things of life." The 26-year-old should be happy: his company, Raw Umber India, which manages his career, had a turnover of $1million last year.
Mumbai-based artist Jehangir Jani believes it's time people stopped stereotyping artists. He invests in mutual funds and has a penchant for Dolce & Gabbana designer clothes. And he likes to travel to the US, Europe, Africa, Russia and New Zealand.
"Artists are not only the new maharajas today, but they have flying carpets," says Ina Puri, a Delhi-based art consultant. "There is this sudden flurry of building new studios and buying new cars. Artists today are no less than Page 3 personalities."
The evidence that some artists are making money hand over first is compelling. While in 2003, $4.5 million worth of Indian art got auctioned, in 2006 the figure escalated to $170 million. In September 2006, Sotheby's and Christie's saw their Asian art sales take off, fuelled by the strength of modern and contemporary art. Indian art valued at a total of $45.35 million and $34.99 million, respectively, was sold.
According to Aakriti Art Gallery, the returns on art investments in 2006 were 104.8 per cent as against 48.7 per cent on gold investments. "The art scenario in India is buoyant," proprietor Vikram Bachhawat exclaims, pointing out that in recent times, the works of Atul Dodiya, Jogen Chowdhury and Surendran Nair touched the Rs. 1 crore mark, while those of Tyeb Mehta, F.N. Souza and S.H. Raza crossed it with Rs. 5.5 crore, Rs. 5 crore and Rs. 4 crore, respectively.
So it's easy to understand why Atul Dodiya dreams of buying a villa in Florence. The Mumbai-based artist, who has a large collection of books, plans to expand his studio and is not greatly bothered about how much it's going to cost him. "And I'd love to travel across the world, especially to places such as Turkey, Egypt and Greece," he says.There are some, however, who are still a little iffy about what the advent of money means to the world of art. Delhi-based art collector Siddharth Paul is disgusted with what he calls the buy-and-brag trend. "I can't associate money with a true artist," he says. "For me, art comes from pain and passion. Money blunts a painter's instincts."
But Piyush Lala, a 28-year-old freelance commercial artist, has no patience with those who club art with want. "People should stop associating artists with a Jhola," stresses Rajasthani artist Chintn Upadhyay, who has invested money in a joint venture as a producer of the film Kya Tum Ho which had its world premiere two months ago.
People like Delhi-based veteran artist Satish Gujral stress that material success does not necessarily corrupt art. On the contrary, it may even help artists strengthen their creative independence. "But the lifestyle of an artist has no relevance in judging his work," he adds.
Organizers of such camps claim that several artists actually charge not less than Rs. 1 lakh as honorarium to participate in an art camp, apart from ensuring that they are put up in 5-star hotels and taken around on city tours in airconditioned buses. "Some are even beginning to demand business class flight frees along with money for their personal shopping expenses. "Frankly, I find this new aggressive stance laced with a streak of greed a little shameless," says an organizer who's been associated with the art world for the last 18-years.
Land acquisition, real estate investments or foreign bank accounts have never been so much an artist's choice. But now the artist not only wants to achieve in concrete terms but also wants to show off his acquisitions. INAV

Scintillating recital by Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma.

By Ravinder Kaul

He is a son of the soil who has attained dizzying heights of name and fame. The way he succeeded in converting the Santoor, an instrument that the purists were not initially prepared to accept, into the rigid straightjacket of Indian classical music, is a story of which folklores are made. It was only appropriate that he be invited by the University of Jammu to perform in the inaugural ceremonies of General Zorawar Singh Auditorium. In fact the invitation had been extended to him more than a year ago and he had accepted the invitation. That he made it in time, immediately on his return from Japan, where he had gone for a concert, says a lot about his ability to keep his commitments and his love for the land of his birth.

One has been a witness to a number of concerts by Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma. While all his performances provide an unforgettable experience, one has to agree that in today's performance he truly excelled himself. He was himself enjoying playing his instrument. The wonderful chemistry that he was sharing with his accompanists was also quite apparent and the manner in which Bhawani Shankar, the man on the Pakhawaj, was longing to join in the jugalbandi between Santoor and Yogesh Samsi's masterly Tabla, despite some mild admonishments from the maestro, said it all. In fact he too was in ecstasy, not wanting to be left out of a concert that can easily be regarded as one of the finest Santoor performances ever. Maybe it was the ambience. Maybe it was the beautiful new auditorium or maybe it was the response of the audience. Or for that matter a combination of all these factors. The fact remains that it was one of the most memorable concerts of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma.

The concert began with Aalap in Yaman, a raag that is sad by its very nature and has many ghazals, devotional and film songs composed in it. The Aalap was followed up with Jor and Jhala and later a Bandish in Roopak Taal. The next raag was Mishra Khamaj. A popular raag in which one could clearly witness the traces of many other Raags, including Pahari. The concert ended in a crescendo that filled every nook and corner of the huge auditorium with the melodious notes of the Santoor. One is sure that these notes will keep reverberating in the auditorium for a long time to come.

The Chief Guest on the occasion, Farida Khanum spoke at the culmination of the concert and said that she considered it her good fortune to have been a witness to such a scintillating and masterly performance. Mementoes were given away by Prof. Amitabh Mattoo to the artistes that included Krishan Lal Verma on Tanpura. The programme was ably compered by Vijay Atri.

Cultural Academy announces annual drama festival awards

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 30: The Academy of Art, Culture and Languages has announced awards for different categories of plays staged during annual drama festival held recently at Abhinav Theatre, Jammu. Nine prominent theatre groups staged their plays.

The expert committee, after witnessing the festival presentations, adjudged their performances and recommended various prizes in different categories.

Best Play award was bagged by Unsoon Kahin (Punjabi) directed by T S Premi for the Manoranjan Kala Kendra and second Best Play prize went to Maha Balidaan in Dogri directed by RK Sehgal and presented by Sangam True Art Production.

Best Actor (male) prize winner was Sohan Kashyap as Fanidhar in Sar Sar Sarla, while Sonu Kour got the Best Female Actor award for her performance as Guddu in Usnoon Kahin.

While Jeet Raj Gondhi as Katal in Maha Balidaan was given Second Best Actor (Male) award, the Second Best Female Actor prize winner was Sapna as Riya in Hamari Beti Riya.

Best Director award was secured by Anil Warikoo of Sar Sar Sarla, while Vijay Jeetu got Best Costume Design award for theatre play Maha Balidaan.

Best Make Up award went to Shammi Dhamir in Maha Balidaan and Best Music award was bagged by Arvind Kumar for Hamari Beti Riya.

In addition, Certificates of Merit were announced to be given to Deepak Dutta as Chandhi in Passport, Suresh as Himanshu Darshan in Apne Hisse Ka Sach, Manoj Bhatt as Maser in Na Khuda Hi Mila Vissal-e-Sanam and Jyoti Sharma as Nisha in Manvata Da Rishta.

The Cultural Academy during the Drama Festival had arranged performance of nine plays by renowned theatre and cultural groups. Of these, Hamari Beti Riya directed by Raghunandan Bali was presented by Natya Karmi, Usnoon Kahin by Manoranjan Kala Kendra and Passport directed by Abhishek Bharti for Natraj Natya Kendra.

Besides, Apne Hisse Ka Sach by Subash Jamwal for Tapasaya Kala Kendra, Nachangi Saari Raat by Balraj Sahni Punjabi Rangmanch and Maha Balidaan presented by Sangam True Art Production.

Na Khuda Hi Mila Na Vissal-e-Sanam was directed by Vijay Malla for Unison Cultural Troupe, Manvata Da Rishta directed by OP Shakar for Disha Kala Jagat, Akhnoor and Sar Sar Sarla directed by Reflections Art Group.

Farida Khanum mesmerises Jammuites

By Ravinder Kaul

Time stands still. Frenetic vibration alerts on cell phone cease to matter. Late night engagements are forgotten. Trails and tribulations awaiting one the next morning appear least bothersome. All the life’s worries vanish into thin air. When Mallika-e-Ghazal Farida Khanum sings:

Waqt ki qaid mein zindagi hai magar

Chand ghadiaan yehi hain jo azaad hain

Inko kho kar meri jan-e-jaan

Umra bhar naa taraste raho.

Aaj jaane ki zid naa karo

Yun hi pehlu mein bethe raho

one feels transported to another time and another era, far removed from the present one. Life seems to be much less complicated and the world, a far better place than it actually is.

Farida Khanum is a living legend. She belongs to that school of Indian classical and light classical gayaki, of which very few exponents remain. By inviting her to perform in its newly inaugurated auditorium, Jammu University has not only done itself proud, it has also taken the first step towards establishing Jammu as a significant cultural centre of the country.

Aaliya Bukhari, the compere introduces the performer and invites her and the accompanists onto the stage. At the very outset, Farida Khanum gives a brief background about her musical journey. She pays rich tributes to the natural beauty of Jammu and Kashmir State and says that it had always been her earnest wish to visit the State. She begins the recital with Jaa pardeswa, a thumri in Raag Desi Todi. She follows it up with Daagh Dehlavi’s Uzra aane mein bhi hai, aur bulaate bhi nahin. Another gem from her repertoire of classical music comes next in the form of a Chhota Khayal Sajan Laagi tori lagan man maa.

The stage was now set for Shakeel Badayuni’s immortal ghazal

Mere humnafas, mere humnawa mujhe dost ban ke dagha na de,

Mein hoon soz-e-ishq se jaan-ba-lab, mujhe zindagi ki dua na de.

The audience loves this. The huge auditorium is reverberating with loud wah wahs. The pathos of the ghazal is accentuated by the husky deep baritone of Farida Khanum. She continues with the blue mood and sings another immortal ghazal Woh ishq jo humse rooth gaya, ab uska haal sunayen kya. One suddenly realises that tears are rolling down the cheeks of Prof. Posh Charak who is sitting a few seats away on the right side. Is this what we call catharsis?

Requests from the listeners, who want to hear their favorite ghazals are now flowing in. Farida Khanum feels that this is the appropriate time to present her piece-de-resistance Fayyaz Hashmi’s Aaj jaane ki zid naa karo. The audience is in raptures. Javed Qureshi’s Aashiyaane ki baat karte ho comes next. Hafeez Hoshiyarpuri’s Mohabbat karne wale kam na honge, Teri mehfil mein lekin hum na honge is another offering by Farida Khanum.

A large section of the audience now wants to listen to a Punjabi song. Farida Khanum obliges them by singing tappas Balle balle ni tor punjaban di. Another ghazal Na rawa kahiye follows. One of the all time great ghazals of Faiz Ahmed ‘Faiz’ Sham-e- Firaaq ab na poochh, aayi aur aa ke dhal gayi. The singer is also now enjoying herself. She is in mood for Baghon mein pade jhule, a Dadra in Raag Pahari immortalised by Ustad Barkat Ali Khan. By now it is already 9.00 pm, way beyond the time fixed by the organisers for culmination of the concert. However, Farida Khanum does not want to disappoint her listeners. She presents the last two items of the concert Raat jo tumne deep bujhaye mere the and Damadam mast qalandar. As at the beginning, the audience once again gives a standing ovation to the legendary singer at the culmination of the concert.

The are mementos for the singer and her accompanists Ustad Zameer Ahmed Khan and Ustad Sajjad Ahmed Khan on Harmonium and Ustad Salim Ahmed Khan on Tabla. The Vice Chancellor Prof. Amitabh Mattoo presents a vote of thanks and expresses the hope that this concert would pave way for increased cultural exchanges between India and Pakistan. Just before rushing towards to the exit gate one takes a quick look towards the right side. Prof. Posh Charak is still crying.

Immortalising in Wax

Dr. Pragya Khanna

Madame Tussauds museum is known world over for its wax statues of distinguished and eminent people. It is perhaps one of the very few places in the world where dozens of the finest, affluent and most significant people of past and present stand together under one roof in figurine appearance. Madame Tussauds was created by a wax sculptor Marie Tussaud.
She was born in Strasbourg, France. Marie learned the skill of sculpturing from Dr. Philippe Curtius who was a physician by profession with an expertise in wax modeling. Tussaud completed her first wax figure in 1777; it was a statue of Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire. Other legendary people whom she sculpted at that time include Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin.
In 1842, she also made a statue of her own self which is now displayed at the entrance of her museum, the Madame Tussauds at London. It was during the French Revolution that she made the wax death masks of prominent victims. For this she hunted through the carcasses to find the decapitated heads of the individuals which the death masks were to illustrate, today this forms the main attraction of her museum, known as the Chamber of Horrors. After Dr. Curtius died in 1794, he left his anthology of waxworks to Marie. In 1802, Marie went to London and as a result of the Franco-English war she was unable to return to France so she journeyed throughout Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection. She established her first permanent exhibition on Baker Street in London in 1835.
Madame Tussauds wax museum has now developed to become a main tourist attraction in London, including the London Planetarium in its west wing. It has expanded with branches in Amsterdam, Las Vegas, New York City, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Washington DC, with other added locations planned to open in Berlin in July 2008 and Hollywood in 2009. Today the wax statues at the museum include the historical and imperial figures, film stars, sports stars and famous murderers. Being called as "Madame Tussauds" museums (no apostrophe), they are possessed by a company called Merlin Entertainments.
The museum is an abode to a number wax figures of Indian personalities like Mahatama Gandhi, the former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and has recently incorporated Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan.
Due to the growing number of people visiting the museum to see waxworks of Indians, the director of the museum, Mr. James Bradbury has reportedly decided to open branches in India as well in the coming years.
The prospect of the statues in the museum is so exhilarating that it would be interesting to note that it takes from six months to a year to complete a statue. Each figure roughly costs around $150,000 - $250,000. The statues are finished at Madame Tussauds museum at London and then are shipped to different branches of the museum.
The celebrities who find an opportunity to get them wax portrayed are subject to a lot of study and inspection. Hundreds of body measurements and about 150 - 200 photographs complete the preliminary groundwork. After this the actual sculpting process takes a total of about 350 hours. The statue is first built with clay on a metal frame. The finished clay body is then molded and cast into fiberglass. Later, a plaster piece cast of 12 sections is made from the clay head and a unique blend of beeswax and Japan wax is heated to 75 degrees and is poured into the head mold. Once the wax cools inside the mold and the plaster sections are removed, a hollow wax head is exposed.
For the hair, the samples are actually taken from the celebrity and are carefully matched to real human hair. Each strand of hair is inserted individually into the wax head with the hands; afterwards, the hair is washed, cut and styled.
The eyes of a wax figure also require a lot of toiling and precision. Each iris is hand painted and veining is added to the whites of the eyes with fine silk threads.
Everything is accurate exactly down to the teeth. A cast of the celebrity's teeth is taken and each tooth is replicated or imitated using dental acrylic and is accurately color matched.
This beautiful endowment and legacy of art makes the museum stand apart from any other work in its exquisite craftsmanship. It would not be wrong to mention here that whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Confidence has genius, power, and magic in it.
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