KOCHI: Dance and music are like two sides of a coin—inseparable. They complement each other to give every form of art its character. All major classical dance forms, like bharatanatyam, mohiniyattam, and kuchipudi are accompanied by music.
Silvy Max Mena, an English professor at the National Institute of Speech and Hearing (NISH) has been trying to introduce the hearing impaired to the world of classical dance and music through the dance form she composed, ‘Mudranatanam’.
Silvy and her team of seven students recently performed ‘Mudranatanam’ which included the creations of Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma, such as ‘Aliveni Enthu Cheyvu’ and ‘Alarsaraparitaapam’ at Ganesham, Thycaud, as part of the 111-day long Soorya festival.
Silvy did a lot of research and experiments to make the world of classics, performance and literature available to the hearing impaired. She then put together an art form to popularise Indian Sign Language (ISL) among public and to enable the hearing impaired to understand the concepts of these art forms through signs. “All the mudras are from the Indian Sign Language,” says Silvy.
‘Mudranatanam’ was staged in 2016 at NISH for the first time and there was positive feedback from the audience. It was also staged at different places and occassions in the state, including Kerala Tourism Department’s New Year celebrations in 2017.
“The students learn the meaning of lyrics first and then present the song using signs as ‘Mudras’. Thus, it helps enrich the vocabulary of the students in English and Malayalam, as they have to learn the meaning of the lyrics clearly to express them through signs. It helps in the overall development of hearing-impaired students,” she says.
The group also performed at Gandhi Park in Thiruvananthapuram, commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, presenting his favourite bhajans, such as ‘Vaishnav Janatho’, ‘Ekla Chalo Re’.