Modern Dance: End of quarter musings

Modern dance as I understand is not just a set of techniques that can be taught one by one to a student. It is more than that; it is a way of moving, flowing in space, expressing yourself, and communicating with the audience. It is hard to teach such a thing to somebody in a course format. I think the teacher has to be quite innovative in developing the step by step instructions for such an inexact art form. We were fortunate to have Aleta Hayes as our instructor of Modern dance course at Stanford who found one way after another in her attempt to teach us what she knows.

One of the goals I mentioned to Aleta in the beginning of this class was to be able to choreograph small pieces given a music piece. Often when seeing a modern dance performance, I observed that many pieces they performed were technically not very difficult, I had the physical ability to do most of their steps, but my movements didn’t look as beautiful as theirs. And, above all, I didn’t have the “courage” to move my body freely, to let it go with the music believing that it will look beautiful. I am a student of classical Indian dance Kathak as well, but like any classical form, the movements there are defined and restricted. Control is more important than letting go. I think the courage of opening up my body and feeling the music is my foremost take away from this class. Various exercises where we were asked to move around in the room with or without the music removed many inhibitions that I had and allowed me to reach the point where when asked to develop a “signature” I was able to do so with little difficulty.

I found the concept of “signature” very interesting. All Aleta asked us was to write our name in space by while dancing – and do so without adhering to any music, just listening to the rhythm within. It unleashed an unbelievable amount of creativity among the students. All sorts of new movements developed to write the letters as we believed they look. In the end, if not told, it would be hard for an audience to figure if it is a name in English or just a beautiful piece. Considering that there were around 15 students in class, 15 such beautiful pieces developed. To get a piece for end of quarter showing, all we had to do was to blend all of these in a creative way, and we had a full piece in a blink of an eye, it worked like magic. This was a very useful exercise in choreography for me. This is the first time when I found that having a lot of people could make the choreography easy rather than difficult. The way we expressed ourselves while writing our name could be applied to many settings, we just have to think what we are trying to express and let the inhibitions go.

Below is a video recording of the final choreographed piece (from a vantage point that focuses on my part in it :)) performed in the end of quarter showing of dance division. Please note that it is not a formal stage performance. It was a completely informal performance, with no costume selection, staged in the same studio where our regular classes were held during the quarter. One end of the studio had chairs for friends and families of students.

And, thanks to Piyush for taking such a nice video using only a point and shoot camera (no video camcorder).

Light as a feather

"Take a deep breath and let go", she said. Like an obedient student I did. And soon sank to the bottom of the pool. "You are sinking because your body is tensed". Of course my body is tensed! What do you expect? Didn't you see, I am SINKING!

"Just let it go, the water will hold you". But the water didn't care, it let my pity self touch the floor...

Then, suddenly, 20 minutes later, it did! And I was floating, light as a feather, on the surface of the pool. I couldn't believe it, so I stood up and did it again. It was true, I could float. It was an amazing feeling, like finding something extraordinary about myself. If you have been swimming for a long time, especially, if you have been swimming since you were a kid, you might feel that I am romanticizing something very trivial. But, not really.

Remember the time when you learned how to ride a bicycle. I remember seeing all the bicycle riders and thinking how come they don't fall down. Seemed like a gymnastic feat to me, defying gravity like that. Then, I tried it, and I fell. I wasn't disappointed, I felt like "well duh, what do you expect". And then remember the first time being able to do it? Flying though the air, light as a feather...

There are many other occasions, big and small, which have given me a similar feeling. The first time I was able to do a pirouette (on heel, in Kathak, I am still trying to do it on toe or the ball of the foot like in ballet, that amazing feeling is still waiting to happen), without having to force myself into balance at the end. The first time I was able to paint a black outline with a thin paintbrush without zigzags and trembling hands. And, by "first time when I was able to", I mean when I was really able to, when I really felt `I get it', when I could do it like "walking". Yes, walking. That tops it all. What a feeling it must be to walk the first time. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) I was too young to remember it, or even appreciate it I guess. But, there is still so much more we can experience. Go out and try it! You will be amazed at how much more there is still to find out about yourself.

Researcher's block

I am facing "researcher's block" these days, a phrase borrowed from the more popular "writer's block". But, the definition seems to fit.

"Writer's block is a condition, associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task in hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked" writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers..."
source: Wikipedia

Ok, the last line seems a little bit too much, I am surely (hopefully) not there yet ... But, the temporary difficulty part is surely true. I think most of my fellow researchers will agree that we face this condition from time to time. Some symptoms are: feeling sleepy when trying to work, taking frequent coffee breaks, suddenly becoming active on otherwise inactive facebook page, orkut, blogger (!!) etc. As opposed to the contagious diseases, this condition could actually be aggravated by not having many people around with similar conditions.

So, I was wondering if my fellow researchers have figured out any ways to deal with this disease. Here are some of the measures I try to take, they are successful sometimes, on other occassions they might just provide a temporary pain relief while the disease takes its due course of time to completely leave you.

a) Try to read some new stuff. May be even on a different topic than what you are currently working on. Some times it can give you a new research idea. Or, atleast this way when you are back into the business, you can look back at the bed ridden times and feel satisfied to have made some use of it. It also makes it easy to pass those days.

b) Try to find other researchers and discuss problems with them. Join some reading group. DO NOT MISS YOUR RESEARCH GROUP MEETINGS.

c) Try to shoot some emails to your adviser (if you are a student) about initial ideas even if you think they are not of any use. This is especially necessary if you are in a pull based system like me where your adviser meets you individually only when you have something to discuss.

d) The hardest part in the day during the researcher's block is getting up, or starting the days work. Since nothing is going on, there is no motivation. I sometimes find myself laying in the bed in the morning with eyes open and thinking what can I work on today. So, a good strategy I figured is to end the days work by printing out something interesting that you can read next day to start the days work.


These are some of my medicines for researcher's block. I cannot say that they are very good ones, but they do help me a little. If you have any better ones, I will be very interested in knowing them.
Hoping to hear from my readers.

Theory of Extremes

While traveling to China, the theory of extremes struck me again. What I am referring to is my observation that it is not hard to get people mobilized and excited if you provide them with some extreme political agenda with tangible outputs. The soft or politically correct midway seems to work much worse.

I felt Chinese right now are really excited by the way things are going, the impositions on the free expression they have to face does not seem to bother them as much as their appreciation and excitement for the work and campaign of the communist party - and it seems completely understandable. Instead of hollow promises and ambiguous motos, their government gave them a clear direction, a clear motive to make China the first world country. The way they implement it might seem a little autocratic to people like us who are used to living in an open democracy (atleast to me it does); but for an average Chinese, things are looking much better than before. They have a sense of pride for their country and trust in their government that you will almost never find in an average Indian. History has seen such mass pride emerge from many extreme campaigns before: some of which we treasure, while others which world would like to erase from the history books.

To start on a positive note, let us talk about the biggest mass campaign in Indian history (or may be the world in terms of number of people involved): the Quit India movement. As I gather from my readings on the independence struggle, things were not moving that much when Congress was trying to achieve a middle ground with the British Government - getting resolutions passed in the parliament, negotiating laws etc. People did not idiolize the Congress leaders yet. It was only when Nehru announced the agenda of Congress as "Poorna Swarajya" that the masses of India started to get involved (both physically and emotionally). And, "Quit India" is the perfect example of an extreme moto with tangible output that I am talking about in this post. It mobilized the crowds as never before, and generated a mass pride for the country that India has never seen either before or after this event.

I do not have any doubts on the patriotism of the people involved, and extreme respect for the heroes of the idependence struggle. The point I want to make is that in every age, there is a large section of society - especially youth - looking for a purpose, a purpose which is clear, and has (or atleast seems to have) the capability to change things around. A leader who can provide such purpose can hold great power of the masses in his fist, and use it for good or for bad - the distinction of which only history can tell. We see this phenomenon in many other events in India after independence. The topmost (and most "dark" in my view) is the demolition of Babri Masjid. Most recent: the "Marathi Maanus" campaign by Raj Thackery, which I categorize as "colored" going fast towards "black". The world has many other examples: "Nazism" on the top of the list. Those who have taken any interest in studying this event must know that Nazism did not start with only motive as eradicating Jewish race, it had lot to offer to German people: a clear motive of making Germany a prosperous nation, resurrecting the nations pride. But the extreme methods to achieve that - which excited and mobilized people in the first place - became the very reason that when the campaign took a wrong road and no one could control it.

To summarize, the extreme political views and methods might seem a faster way to achieve tangible goals, but the history is witness that when they go out of hands the damage done is nothing like the world has seen before. I hope the path China is taking remains in the sunlight. And, to people who are involved in any such campaign of change, please proceed with extreme caution.

PhD comics

It seems to me sometimes as if PhD comics is following me around... I wanted to write about the TAing an undergraduate class (which I am doing currently), and here is what I saw posted today on the PhD comics, cannot describe it better!

(http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1084)

But then, may be all PhD students feel that PhD comics is describing THEM. If that is true Jorge Cham is doing an awesome job!!

Some amazing hours

I created this blog today, and I wanted to post an entry right away. So, I decided to write about something I had been willing share for a long time.... oh no its not about some deep philsophical realizations, its about MOVIES! Yeeee!

There are couple of movies I saw (not so) recently, which I hadn't heard much about before, but they turned out to be so amazing that I want to tell anyone who is out there looking for some good 1-2 hour entertainment. 

Disclaimer: The definition of entertainment here is entirely subjective to the intricacies of how my mind works and what it considers as entertainment. Any resemblance (or lack thereof) to your definition of entertainment is purely coincidental.

• Dead Poet's Society(1989): I watched this movie because it was the only seemingly interesting movie available in a vacation home we rented last winter. Looking at the name, I had hard time convincing my friends to put it in the player. But to my surprise it kept everybody glued till the end, and we even spent a few hours talking about it afterwards. The movie is about a teacher who inspires his students to think out of the box. The dialogues are subtle, it makes you think, and sometimes touches you deeply (No shouting and drama like Mohabattein if God forbid the plot took you there). The movie is bit slow with not many events, but perfect for a cozy inspiring evening.
• Inherit the Wind(1960): Firstly, let me tell you this a black and white movie. So if you have serious reservations against that, stop reading. If you are thinking that how on earth it matters if its B&W or color, then you are like me, please keep reading. This movie is about a court case on a teacher who gets jailed because he taught Darwin in his class.  It is based on a real case in 1925. Way ahead of its times, it talks about issues like faith and religion and law. I was amazed how frankly they talked about the religious issues in this movie, considering how old the movie was. I cannot imagine such a movie being released in India without problems, even in current times (or should I say especially in current times). Except for the boldness, what I liked most about the movie were the witty and funny dialogues from both sides during the case. 
• Wag the Dog (1997): This is one of the most hilarious and fun movies I have watched recently. It is a satire on election campaigns and involvment of media. I don't know what else to say about it, just watch it whenever you are in mood for a good comedy.