Thank you very much for your kind words.

Having 2-left feet, I have the greatest awe and admiration for performers like yourself whether in solo or group dances. The latter never cease to inspire me for the amazing synergy and coordination. They are probably some of the finest examples of team work that so many can learn from.

The concept of ‘body memory’ is brilliant and fascinating. Something that I learnt from your comment.

I shall definitely both your husband’s and your blog sites.

We have something called body memory and that is one good thing about art. That is, by rigorous practice, you can become an accomplished performer even without any conscious effort.

I had the opportunity to do a TV show for a private channel where the main topic was ”the other side of art” (Kalayin Marupakkam). There I made both the parents and the art teacher to interact to find why there is a gap between academics and arts. It was very interesting and I learnt a lot from their views. May be, I can share more of this with you when we meet next time. Keep writing.

Please visit my husband’s blog (in Tamil) : simulationpadaippugal.blogspot.com (and)
My blog: http://jayanthi-dharpan.blogspot.com/

It has also taken on some very unfortunate dimensions in the form of reality TV programming which is bad enough for adults but putting children through that experience is giving them a wrong message about what they are expected to do with their lives.

As someone was saying recently, the message that we are giving to the children and youth of our nation is that unless you are a “celebrity” you are a nobody ! That is the pathology of “visibility” everywhere around us carried too far !

Being and becoming child prodigies in the natural performance of the child at ease with him/herself and his/her craft is fine. We have seen so many examples before the advent of reality TV. This is a new kind of TV performance forced on children that in yesteryears we only used to hear about greedy star parents.

Parents egging the children on in this is pathetic when I saw a case of a girl collapsing in the studio, taken to the hospital for neurological treatment which the doctors maintained would take some time for the child to recover. Whats the point about subsequent blame game between the program producers and the parents when the damage has already been done.

Let a thousand flowers bloom among the children but let not a single one feel the burden of the ill-conceived route map for him/her.

Sure Revathi, you are speaking about the context in which this learning takes place. Both for formal and aesthetics-oriented it could be commercialised and non-commercialised. Regardless of that, i.e., in either context, my post was about the method, the approach and the epistemology within such learning is driven.

Today, the scene is so commericialised, I sometimes pity the children who are pushed to excel in this as well. You can’t be an ordinary performer, but a child prodigy. If you are a good performer, then you need to win prizes in popular contests.

So it leaves me in serious doubt if teaching methods are any different in arts today. arts/academics, I guess it is the whole outlook that has changed, not just the teaching method. As long as the objective for any learning today is earning and popularity, it affects all aspects surrounding our learning I assume.