The dance of the universe
26 Feb 2014 4:56 AM IST
The renowned Irish social psychiatrist Diarmuid O’Murchu, a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order who has travelled the world over as a workshop leader, says: ‘The dance of Shiva symbolizes the dancing universe itself, expressed in the ceaseless flow of energy going through an infinite variety of patterns that melt into one another.’
The Neemrana Music Foundation and Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra presents this dance, often referred to as ‘The Cosmic Dance of Shiva’, being presented by the renowned dancers Madhu Gopinath and Vakkom Sajeev’s Samudra Arts.
The presentation is structured as a repertory recital, with a series of vignettes describing various aspects of Shiva woven together. Beginning with a chant, the Swayambhu, the self-created Shiva linga is described. From this emerges a sattvika (serene) form of Shiva. Sensuality in his form then emerges as his romantic mood and lasya are explored. The lasya here is not soft, but masculine and firm in its grace. A different interpretation of His Ardhanreeswara form showing the union of the male and female follows and becomes the focus. Shakti here is contained within Shiva. A celebration of his different moods then follows in a Tandava piece, where various bhavas, anger, joy and sensuality are explored. The composition concludes with a vigorous dance, where Shiva’s form as the destroyer and as the ultimate crucible of cosmic energy is represented.
Siva is the Divine Dancer, visualized in terms of motion and vibration, who in 108 varied movements interprets the mathematical Law of the Universe. Nataraja personifies the kinetic aspect of Siva’s divinity – the elemental force through the power of which the whole universe is created, sustained, and ultimately destroyed. This cosmic dance of Siva is called Anandatandava, the Dance of Bliss. It symbolizes both the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, and the daily rhythm of birth and death.
Siva depicted as Ardhanarishvara (half man and half woman) represents the union and differentiation of Yin and Yang (the eternal feminine and masculine principles), complementing, supplementing, initiating, completing and fulfilling the divine play of the Transcendent Reality with the manifest reality, in the phenomenal world of myriad changes of names and forms. Siva as Nataraja, the Lord of the Dance, is therefore a quintessential symbol for the meaning of life itself – and the dance, its rhythms, and melodies, for the universe itself. In Siva’s dance, the body becomes the spirit.
WHEN: 26 February, 7 pm
WHERE: Kamani Auditorium
The Neemrana Music Foundation and Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra presents this dance, often referred to as ‘The Cosmic Dance of Shiva’, being presented by the renowned dancers Madhu Gopinath and Vakkom Sajeev’s Samudra Arts.
The presentation is structured as a repertory recital, with a series of vignettes describing various aspects of Shiva woven together. Beginning with a chant, the Swayambhu, the self-created Shiva linga is described. From this emerges a sattvika (serene) form of Shiva. Sensuality in his form then emerges as his romantic mood and lasya are explored. The lasya here is not soft, but masculine and firm in its grace. A different interpretation of His Ardhanreeswara form showing the union of the male and female follows and becomes the focus. Shakti here is contained within Shiva. A celebration of his different moods then follows in a Tandava piece, where various bhavas, anger, joy and sensuality are explored. The composition concludes with a vigorous dance, where Shiva’s form as the destroyer and as the ultimate crucible of cosmic energy is represented.
Siva is the Divine Dancer, visualized in terms of motion and vibration, who in 108 varied movements interprets the mathematical Law of the Universe. Nataraja personifies the kinetic aspect of Siva’s divinity – the elemental force through the power of which the whole universe is created, sustained, and ultimately destroyed. This cosmic dance of Siva is called Anandatandava, the Dance of Bliss. It symbolizes both the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, and the daily rhythm of birth and death.
Siva depicted as Ardhanarishvara (half man and half woman) represents the union and differentiation of Yin and Yang (the eternal feminine and masculine principles), complementing, supplementing, initiating, completing and fulfilling the divine play of the Transcendent Reality with the manifest reality, in the phenomenal world of myriad changes of names and forms. Siva as Nataraja, the Lord of the Dance, is therefore a quintessential symbol for the meaning of life itself – and the dance, its rhythms, and melodies, for the universe itself. In Siva’s dance, the body becomes the spirit.
WHEN: 26 February, 7 pm
WHERE: Kamani Auditorium
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