Understanding Arts and Arts Education (Theory) Block : Art Education

3.2.2.3 CREATIVE DANCE
Theadaption of Western theatrical techniques imbued with elements of Indian
classical, folk, and tribal dance is a creative form. Uday Shankar was the pioneer
in this sort of adaptations thus laying the roots of modern Indian dance. The art
of creativity,
improvisation, and imagination is the basis for any sort of creative dance. The
creative dance form liberates itself from imitation of the tradition and the classical
dance forms laying emphasis on seeking the essence of the cultural legacy giving
it a distinct Indian identity. In the preceding years after Uday Shankar many
dancers like AnandaShankar,Narendra Sharma etc have worked in the area of
creative dance. Shanti Bardhan a disciple of Uday Shankar gave us immortal
Ramayana
with human beings performing like puppets. He also introduced the
fable of 
Panchatantra
creating movements of the birds and the animals.Darpana
Academy of Performing arts is another institution laying a lot of emphasis on
creative dance.
Check Your Progress- 2
1. Name some folk dances of India.
……………….....………………………………………………….......
…………………….....…………………………………………….......
………………….....……………………………………………….......
2. Kathak and Bharatnatayam are …….........……..dances of India.
3. Dance is the ……............….. of Body.
4. Creative dance incorporates……....……and so is the legacy of any
culture

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Performing Art Practical
Block 1 : Art Education
Notes
3.2.3. THEATRE
Concept of theatre:
A child is born with natural expressions like laughter, smile, cry, excitement, joy,
thrill, anger etc. at birth. At this stage the child doesn’t have a language but is
able to express and also understand other’s expression. Theatre is an Art form, a
platform that provides organization to these expressions, thought, and emotions.
The approach towards self discovery, introspection, organisation of ideas with
emotion , providing manifestation and solution to wide ranging themes like social
issues, human outlook ,life as a whole in a stylized and aesthetic manner is theatre.
The theatre/drama performances are based on social appreciation, awareness,
messages, eradication of social evils, mythological stories, epics, stories of famous
personalities and ritual offerings etc.
ROLE PLAY
Theatre in a child’s life begins from the immediate environment through imitation
in the form of role- play. We experience people playing different roles in our day
to day life like washer man, vegetable vendor, fruit seller, teacher, maids etc. All
these people have a direct relation to the child’s life. Children observe people in
their surroundings and imitate them. This is role play. Also when they read about
different personalities or any animal, fruit, vegetable , machine etc they like to
mime the characters and in the process introspect and start thinking about many
facts e.g. if they role play a tortoise they think about the anatomy, outward structure
of the animal, where it lives, what they eat , how they move around and so on.
Hence through this activity they are able to gather a lot of information regarding
the animal. So it is beneficial for the child to do role play as it gives ample
opportunity for creativity, outlet of emotions, voice modulation, self-expression,
language development and scope to know the environment in a better way.