K12 Residencies - Sample Lesson

ARTIST
Pranita Jain
SESSION 1
Classical Dance of India - Bharatanatyam
AIM
To learn the gesture language used in Indian classical dance and to create a new gesture language.
MOTIVATION
After demonstrating a short classical Indian dance piece, the artist asks the students if they can guess who the characters are in the dance, and describe what happens to them.

The artist points to India on a world map, and clarifies the differences between Asian Indians and Native Americans.

She explains that when Christopher Columbus first came to America in 1492, he mistakenly thought he had arrived in India. He had heard much about the wealth and riches of India. Europeans were already carrying ships full of cloth, knives, and beads to India to trade for spices and gold. Columbus, however, decided to do what nobody had ever done before. Instead of sailing east to India like other Europeans did, he decided to sail west. Columbus knew that the earth was round, and that if he sailed west, he would eventually reach India.

On a globe, the artist traces Columbus’ path from Spain to the West Indies with her finger. She says that what Columbus didn’t realize was that between Europe and India lay two enormous continents that nobody in Europe had ever heard of before. Does anyone know what those continents are called?

When Columbus’ ship landed, he thought that he had arrived in India, and that the Native Americans he met were Indians. For centuries, people continued to call the native inhabitants of America “Indians”. (Today, it is considered correct to refer to them as “Native Americans”.)

Students are asked in which continent were they born in. In which continent did they think the artist was born in?

The artist explains the “aim” of the lesson, and demonstrates a number of different hand gestures used in classical Indian dance. Students are asked to guess the meaning of the gestures.

After students have had a chance to practice the gestures, the artist explains that the tradition of classical dance in India teaches that all dance gestures should be suitable for the time and place in which they are performed. In India, pressing the palms of both hands together and bowing the head means “hello” or “goodbye”. The word that means “hello” or “goodbye” is namaste. After students have had a chance to practice the Indian greeting, they are asked, what would be a more appropriate gesture for saying “hello” or “goodbye” in America?

Students are asked what other hand gestures, as well as facial expressions, they use in place of words to convey certain meanings.

The artist divides the class into groups of five students, and gives each group one of the following three poems by R.N. Tagore, to choreograph using their own “gesture language”.

The bird wishes it were a cloud.
The cloud wishes it were a bird.

The waterfall sings, “I find my song when I find my freedom.”
The hills are like shouts of children who raise their arms, trying to catch stars.

Bees sip honey from the flowers and hum their thanks when they leave.
The trees stand a tiptoe to peep at the heaven.

ACTIVITIES
1. Students take turns trying on Indian clothes. The girls try on saris—long pieces of cloth wrapped to form a skirt and head covering. Boys try on turbans and dhotis, loose pants made by wrapping a single long piece of cloth. Each student also receives a bindi, a colored dot to place on his or her forehead.

2. Students, as well as the teachers, are encouraged to practice some of the gestures used in classical Indian dance.

3. Students think about the gestures they use every day to express themselves without words. Anyone who remembers a gesture is invited to demonstrate it for the class to copy.

4. The class divides into small groups, and each group receives one of the three poems listed above. With assistance from the artist and the teacher, students invent gestures to express the meaning of the poems, and incorporate those gestures in to an original dance. Groups take turns performing their dances for the rest of the class.

EVALUATION
Students are asked to locate India, America and Spain on a world map, and to explain the difference between Asian Indians and American Indians.

As a group, students perform the classical Indian dance gestures for water, flowers, tree, clouds and stars. Students think about hand gestures they use every day to communicate, and demonstrate them for the class. The artist translates those same meanings into the gestures of classical Indian dance.
SUMMARY
You learned some of the gestures used in classical Indian dance, and began inventing a gesture language based on your own daily experiences. In the tradition of classical Indian dance, gestures should be appropriate for the time and place they are used, because the one purpose of gestures is to communicate ideas.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES
1. Find other brief poems with strong imagery, such as Haiku, and let students invent their own movements to accompany the poetry.

2. Have students write step-by-step instructions for a simple activity such as brushing their teeth, making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, playing their favorite game. Tell them to make the instructions very specific, as if they were explaining the activity to someone from another planet. They cannot assume, for instance, that the space alien knows to remove the cap before squeezing the toothpaste, or to take bread out of the plastic bag before spreading on the peanut butter. As each student reads their piece out loud, designate another student to play the space alien and to mime the instructions precisely as they hear them.

VOCABULARY
Namaste (nah muh stay)
An Indian word meaning both “hello” and “goodbye”. As you say “namaste” you should hold your hands under your chin with the palms pressed together, and bow your head. Literally, “namaste” means “the goodness in me bows to the goodness in you.” Indians believe that every person has something good within them that is worthy of respect.

Gesture
a movement of the body, head, arms, hands or face that communicates an idea or a feeling. Waving is a gesture that can mean both “hello” and “goodbye”.

Sentiment
a feeling about something—usually a tender feeling such as love, pity, or sympathy.

Symbol
something (a word, figure, picture, image, object, etc.) that stands for something else. A heart is a symbol that stands for love.

Improvise
to make up as you go along. If you perform a dance movement spontaneously without rehearsing it, you are improvising.

Classical
Of such high quality that people remain interested in it over the years. Classical Indian da