How to separate the dancer from the dance is one of the oldest challenges in the history of the form. Now, Bharatanatyam dancer Vijay Madhavan has cracked the formula using his pioneering work in ‘natyagraphy’—designed to code and decode the art form’s movements, a graphical representation
of sophisticated, convoluted and innovative gestures, holds and formations with precision.
Madhavan had held a ‘natyagraphy’ workshop for Lakshmi Ramaswamy’s students as part of the year-long silver jubilee celebrations of her institute Sri Mudhraalaya, which enters its 25th year in 2019, in Chennai last month.
But the idea of developing ‘natyagraphy’ struck him when he was working with speech and hearing impaired students at Dr Janaki MGR College in Chennai in 2010. The 41-year-old innovator recognised the need to create symbols that describe physical movements, which children can memorise with ease. “I started by scribbling outlines, observing bodies against light and shadow and incorporating various possibilities. This evolved into a full-fledged system of codes that have the power to depict both frozen or dynamic moments in dance,” says Madhavan, who learned Bharatanatyam under the guidance of Padmashri Chitra Visweswaran.
He believes Indian dance follows oral pedagogy. By relying solely on the guru-shishya parampara to carry forward its legacy, originality has become the casualty. What ‘natyagraphy’ does is to give the dancer a clear representation of the movements based on rhythm. “All the layers can be visualised and implemented by a reader,” says Madhavan, whose inspiration has an eclectic base. From the works of British mathematician Rudolph Benesh to Hungarian theorist Rudolph Laban, and American painter Samuel Morse, he has studied American Sign Language to develop ‘natyagraphy.’
Teenagers Thaneesha and Tanya, students of Sri Mudhraalaya and participants of the workshop who enjoyed their first experience of ‘natyagraphy’, are gearing up their debut performance in September and November.
The innovator has drafted exercise books that illustrate the movement codes. Madhavan says, “Level One comprises feet and movement cursives, Level Two includes mapping of hand gestures and Level Three describes body orientation. The challenge lies in motivating the dancers to use it. I was happy to see that young students grasp it quickly, but whether they would implement it on a regular basis is a question only time will tell.”
Madhavan is looking to reach out to more dance students to teach ‘natyagraphy.’ He believes over time the interpretative manual can become dance’s universal language of future.
‘Natyagraphy’
“It is a tool for dancers to document choreographies. Using this, works of artists can be preserved for the future generations. It will help dancers to keep the record of the details of a choreography with respect to rhythm and movements.” Vijay Madhavan, Bharatanatyam dancer