“Dance and Dance Movement Therapy unite in their objective of ensuring psychological well-being.”
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– An article by ARSHIA ROSALEEN
[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]THIS PERCEPTIVE ARTICLE DELVES INTO THE INTER-CONNECTIVITY BETWEEN DANCE AND PSYCHOLOGY. IT TALKS ABOUT THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS OF DANCE AND ALSO, HOW DANCE HELPS YOU, PSYCHOLOGICALLY.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
EDITOR’S NOTE:
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The author, Arshia Rosaleen, is an accomplished performer, choreographer, event curator, and a practising psychologist. Based in Kolkata, she is trained in Kathak under the renowned danseuse Guru Smt. Luna Poddar. She is a national scholar and performer under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India and the Eastern Zonal Cultural Center, touring across India and abroad.
Associated with the prestigious Prerna Center for Performing Arts, she has extensively performed as a soloist and as a senior disciple of her guru, across India and abroad at prestigious festivals – under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. She has performed prolifically for several reputed Indian TV channels, and for a BBC documentary on the East India Company. She performed in the feature film, ‘Mirza’, directed by Ilmaz Syed. She has worked in several artistic productions under Padma Vibhushan Pandit Birju Maharaj and Vidushi Saswati Sen. She also had the opportunity to learn the intricacies of Kathak under these maestros, and under Padma Bhushan Kumudini Lakhia.
Under the supervision of Smt. Luna Poddar, she has worked with ‘special’ children using dance as medium of therapy to enhance motor ability, mental health and social life. She has been active in social service activities for slum kids and senior citizens. She has collaborated with the reputed photographer Liron Harari, to capture tales of streets.
She was awarded with Scholarship by the Ministry of Culture, under its ‘Scholarship to Young Artists’ scheme in the field of Kathak dance. The other honours bestowed on her include the Talent Search Contest award by The Dover Lane Music Conference and The Dover Lane Music Academy in Kathak Dance (2013); the Balrampur Chini Mills Award for Outstanding Talent; Certificate of Honor by The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence in Dance; the West Bengal Rajya Sangeet Academy Scholarship in Kathak Dance; and the Tagore Foundation Jugal Shrimal Scholarship from Nehru Children’s Museum in Kathak Dance in 2008.
She also had secured distinction in the Sangeet Visharad Final under Pracheen Kala Kendra in Kathak Dance.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator css=”.vc_custom_1622944302192{padding-top: 3% !important;}”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row enable_arrows_animation=”no” css=”.vc_custom_1474291084926{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”11653″ img_size=”332×345″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]DANCE AND PSYCHOLOGY
Dance is an art form that narrates a performer’s emotional and psychological journey through aesthetic movements and overt expressions. Everybody expresses differently and moves on their own path. In Kathak, we have the use of physics, mathematics and fusion of diverse and dynamic cultures and its knowledge. Dance is a medium to channelize all kinds of emotions, it is more of a non-verbal communication that helps release the feeling of that moment. Also, the physical aspect helps in regulating the body as it is a form of exercise too that requires muscular strength and helps release toxins through perspiration.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”18px”][vc_column_text]Dance has My Broadened Horizon
For me, it has been my escape, it has been my strength, it has been a companion, basically a language to communicate. It has helped me broaden my horizon, to be myself, to accept newer things and liberated me. It is a way of life and it defines who I am in all positivity.
DANCE AND DANCE MOVEMENT THERAPY (DMT)
Dance and DMT follow completely different approaches but unite in their objective of psychological well-being. Dance is more structured, it’s more of a discipline just like academics, it’s a fine art genre whereas DMT works as a psychotherapeutic technique to deal with mental health where more than structure it focuses on acceptance.
Dance has Given Me a Creative Energy
As a dancer, I have used this body positive approach in choreography and movements that embraces the art in respect to the body that performs it. This provides a more liberating journey in expression. Kathak is widely known to be free of oppressive boundaries and is exploratory, so everyday there is something new to learn and experience which helps in creating and penning down the imagination.
DANCE AND CAREER
Why can’t one have a career in dance! Yes, it may be ambiguous and inconsistent, however I believe that as a performer all the world’s a stage. We teach, we perform, we create and that journey can be overwhelming sometimes, but we should concentrate on the journey more than the result. It may sound too philosophical, but patience and determination works for all. The efforts always matter. That being said, it is also an earnest request to all the enthusiastic organizers and various creative curators, an artist needs to survive too and we should provide funds for their effort and determination that we speak so highly of. We are optimistic and hopeful and together we can propagate art and culture beyond realms with a little support.
As a Dancer, I Aim to Create an Ambience of Liberation
My journey as a dancer started at a very young age initially under Shri. Souvik Chakraborty for three years or so and later under the guidance of my Guru Smt. Luna Poddar who has nurtured and guided me as a dancer and helped me achieve the depth and knowledge in my art form and to be an established dancer today. I consider myself to be a student in thirst for knowledge and will share my experience and my language of art (Kathak) with the upcoming generation. I aim to diversify the art and create an ambience of liberation while adhering to roots, focusing on the psychological factor too.
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