Unit 13 and 14 - Application of Kathak Stylistic Qualities

Greeting Sequence 

Bols and Tatkar 

Mudras

"A smile" 

"Her purse" 

"Presses her nose against the window"

"Notices" 

"Tissues ma'am, tissues sir" 

Chakkars

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Strengths in the Kathak Dance

Chakkars

I feel that my performance of the Chakras within the Kathak dance was one of the more successful aspects of my dance. A Chakkar is a type of turn that is prominent within the style of Kathak dance, it involves turning on the heels of your feet and being in a low stance while spinning at a very fast pace. I think I was able to keep very low down to the ground and execute the spins very quickly to a high standard every time. I also feel that my foot work while doing these spins was very accurate too and due to the times that I have performed this piece due to me being absent in the first lessons which we did this piece I proud how quickly I was able to pick this up. 

Projection 

Another aspect of the dance that I was successful at was my projection while telling the story of the dance. Projection is the use of the voice in a powerful and clear way in order to communicate the lyrics of a piece to the audience. In addition to this, I feel that my diction throughout the piece was overall good, however I do acknowledge that there were moments were my projection and in turn diction did fall due to a lack of confidence in the words. However, I feel that for the most part this was successful. 

(0:01) - (0:20) = Example of where my projection is greatest 

Weaknesses in the Kathak Dance

Bols and Tatkar 

An aspect of the dance that I feel needs improvement in my Kathak dancing is the Bols and Tatkar. A Bol is a sound or syllable that helps to recite rhythm and identify it within a piece of music and a Tatkar is a dance syllable that is created through footwork. These movements require full commitment to all elements of the dance, including posture, alignment, gestures and footwork; I feel that these are all elements that I could improve on. I feel that my posture definitely could have been improved, my shoulders and spine; my alignment was also off with my legs not being bent enough to create the geometric angles that are a major part of the Kathak style. I also think that many of my gestures could have been much stronger and sharper this would have made them much more appealing to the Kathak style of dance as they would then match the harshness of the vocals of the piece too. My footwork also could have been improved upon, there were moments in the piece where my feet came apart while stepping out the rhythm and there were also beats of said rhythm which I missed. 

In order to improve on this, I would rehearse the piece at a much slower tempo and build the speed up over a period of time; this would allow me to properly focus on every part of the piece and each aspect of it, I would use this to ensure that every movement was as sharp as possible alongside the lyrics in the piece. I could also have a friend watch me perform the piece so they can then give me some feedback from this, equally I could also record myself performing the piece and then look back on it later to critique.

Posture and alignment - (0:02) - (0:05)

Gesture - (0:04) - (0:08), (0:15) - (0:20) 

Footwork - (0:10) - (0:16) 

Mudras 

Another aspect of the dance that needs improvement is my use of mudras within the performance. Mudras are a type of hand gesture used specifically in classical forms of Indian dance such as Kathak these mudras should be performed incredibly accurately due to the fact that there are hundreds of different gestures each with their own special meaning; due to this, the accuracy of the movements is incredibly important otherwise the story that you are telling may not make sense. I feel that this is something that I wasn't entirely accurate with while performing the piece itself and definitely could use some improvement. 

To improve on these, I could perform these to my fellow classmates in order for them to give me improvements on particular gestures or parts of the dance that require work; I also would record myself doing the movements so I can then watch them back and critique them myself.