Ganesha Kauthuvum

This piece is in the raaga Naatai. It goes as "Ari thiru marugane vigna vinayaka" praising Lord Ganesha. Originally it was called "Kavithuvam" or poetry which over years has morphed as "Kauthuvum".

Raagam: Naatai
Taalam: Aadi

.... I am rewriting this after a few months (ahem... ok more than a few months). I figured it's going to be hard to capture the dance parts of the piece. Instead I am going to concentrate on what is essence of a kauthuvam and what are some salient features. Hopefully I will capture most of them and those should be enough to juggle my memory (and yours) when needed. This is the first Kauthuvam that you will learn most probably for couple of reasons - 1. Being on Ganesha, the remover of obstacles it is customary to invoke Him first. 2. The kauthuvam itself has relatively simple steps and almost devoid of any expressions. For those of you who know carnatic music, think about lambodhara. This is analogous. It may seem like a jump from learning adavus but fret not, soon enough you will start remembering this fondly and yearn for this piece of cake - pun intended. The lyrics are as follows. It is interspersed with a lot of solkattu. Aru thirumaruganai Vigna vinayaka Vinai keda aruliya ganapathy jaya jaya Dhaditha thudhukai yaanai mugathanai Devargal ganapathy Ganapathy kavithuvam katravar vinai ara As you can see the lyrics are simple. In this we also learn to do the same verse twice - once with normal adavus and once in thattu mettu.

Korvais

We started learning Korvais or sequences. (Not to be confused with Karvais - with an a that we discussed a few weeks ago). Adavus that we have been learning so far are like building blocks. However to use the adavus for longer dance, we will need to put them together which is precisely what we do in Korvai. We do one after the other step without missing a beat (no pauses unless by design).

Keep in mind that these are simply some ways of putting them together and are really a manifestation of the choreographer's creativity.

Korvai #1

1. A modified form of 5th naata.  (which is basically first half of 5th naata twice, followed by 2nd naata) Do this starting with both legs.
2. tha-ki-ta (4 times) (right, left, right, left)
3. thai thai DDT (3 times). (right, left, right)

Do the entire set starting with right leg first.

Korvai #2

1. 7th naata on both sides (thaiyum thatha thaiyum thaha)
2. thai ha thai hi (3 times) followed by thai thai DDT (both sides)
3. thai ya thai hi thai ya thai hi (with pataka hands) once on each side
4. thai ya thai hi thai thai DDT (with alapadma hands).
5. Repeat 3 & 4 starting with left side.

Korvai #3 (Probably the easiest of the 3)
1. tha thai thai tha (with shikara mudra on the hand) in the following sequence.
   right-centre-front-centre, switch hands, left-centre-front-centre
2. thath thai tham dhi thai tham (2nd step) on both sides. 

Dance Dress Order Form.

Class notes 8/23/2011

Sorry for the short break last week. Thanks Nandini for sending out the notes. Since today was a rehash of last week's session, I am simply consolidating both into one.

The main focus of the class now is on 2 things - the Vijayadasami program and getting the basics right.

Let's start with the Vijayadasami piece. It's quite short but challenging since we are doing several steps in sequence without a pause. Here's the sequence that we follow.

Hand Gesture: Pushpaputa (as if you are holding flowers in your hand).
1. Tha-thai-thai-tha 8 sets of them. The order is as follows
  - Move to the right
  - Back to centre
  - Move to the left
  - Back to centre
  - Move to the left
  - Back to centre
  - Move to the right
  - Back to centre.

2. Tha-ki-ta-tha-ki-ta-thai. 4 sets of them in second speed which is equivalent of one cycle of adi tala. This is done in place with right leg leading always. So it right-toe-heel-right-toe-heel-right-hold.

******* some technical stuff please feel free to skip *******
This is still adi tala so has eight units for each tha-ki-ta-tha-ki-t-thai. The thai lasts for twice as the others. This is a beautiful choreography which is in thisra nadai adi talam. The adi talam that has 8 counts is split  as 3-3-2. Each tha-ki-ta forms the 3 and the thai for 2. Now notice that set of 4 such sequence completes 1 cycle of the adi tala. which shows that for each count of the adi tala, we need to do 4 units (so it goes as tha-ki-ta-tha/ki-ta-thai/tha-ki-ta-tha/ki-ta-thai and so on) This is purely to show the tala breakup. Since the underlying choreography is in thisra nadai, the actual break happens after tha-ki-ta and NOT tha-ki-ta-tha
******** End technical stuff ************

3. thai-thai-dhi-dhi-thai 4 times. In place.
Again this is sequence of 4 counts. how? thai (1) thai (1) dhi-dhi-thai (2). Though dhi-dhi-thai seems like it shd be 3, it is done in such a way that it only takes 2 counts and not 3. it is not dhi - dhi - thai, instead it is dhidhithai

This also covers 1 cycle of adi tala but unlike #2 this is only 4 counts (#2 was 8 counts) so it seems slower than #2.

4. tha-ka-dhi-mi. 8 times total (2 in each direction)
Starting with the right-turning right after every 2. so it goes right(2) - back(2) - left(2)- centre(2). again this covers one cycle of adi tala. Each tha-ka-dhi-mi is 4 making a total of 4*8 = 32 counts to be covered in 8 units of adi tala, yep, you guessed right, this goes pretty fast similar to #2. In fact this is the same speed as #2 however, due to the turning in this step, it's a lot harder to get correctly than #2.

5. move backward for 4 counts move forward for 4 counts (one cycle of adi tala). Lead with the right leg always. This step resembles that first 2 counts of thai-ha-thai-hi. So imagine doing thai-ha-thai-ha... always with the right moving first and moving front and back instead of side ways.

6. Sit down in full mandi for a 1 whole count of 8. This moves super slow. So it's almost like sitting down in slow motion.

7. Offer the flowers in front (2 count) touch the ground and take it to your eyes (2 count) stand up with hands in anjali mudra (like doing namaskar) above your head and slowly lowering. (4 count). Due to all the movement involved, this goes by very quickly compared to #6

Now that the flowers have been offered, your hands are held in anjali mudra for the rest of the steps.

8. Tha-ka-dhi-mi  8 count total (2 in each direction) Start facing front and turning right after every 2. So it goes Front-Right-Back-Left

9. You are now facing left. Step ahead and exit stage similar to 5 except only in forward direction (no backward movement).

When done in sequence, it goes by pretty quickly. It's quite a challenge to get them all squared out correctly. And maybe if we do manage to get it right and perfect, we can convince aunty to give us few more steps on stage :) go Hansa!!!

Class notes 8/9/11

Date: 8/9/2011

We started with Kaarvais or pauses. Recall that some time ago we learnt tha-ki-ta in which you spread your hands out and then bring them in. The feet work goes as step-cross-step, step-step-step. Notice that tha-ki-ta is a 3 beat (Thisra) step. However, we can extend this to either a 4 step or a 5 step by adding pauses(or holds) as follows

4-beat (Chatusra) - Tha-ki-ta-hold tha-ki-ta-hold. so you go step-cross-step-hold, step-step-step-hold. 

5-beat (Kandam) - Tha-pause-tha-ki-ta. so you go beat-step-cross-step, beat-step-step-step (where beat is really 1-pause, in other words the beat will take 2x time as a step) making a total of 5. 

********** NERD ALERT- The following paragraph maybe a little too technical for some of you. Please feel free to skip **********

You can see how we have taken a single step and made it into 3 variations in the 3 jaati (of tisra, chatusra and kanda). Why is this needed? These form building blocks and the actual song may or may not subdivide evenly into the step which makes it necessary for adjustment. For example the normal tisra jaati tha-ki-ta will work well for a rupaka tala (6 beats to a measure) because 6/3 works. Now if the song were in aadi tala (8 beats to a measure), the tisram won't divide  equally. Of course you always have an option of dividing 3 such measures into tisram (that is 3 measures of the song into 8 cycles of the step). This doesn't always work because songs are usually not 3 measures or multiples thereof. The other option is obviously to use the chatusra kaarvai. 8/4 works perfectly.

*********** END NERD ALERT ****************

We also need kaarvais for creating other jaati combinations. For ex 3+4 =7 (misram) or 4+5=9 (sankeernam). If you start thinking of the adavus that you have learnt so far as building blocks to creating sequences then all this starts making a lot more sense. Analogously, the adavus are the equivalent of the sarigama when learning music. You first start by learning small sequences before putting them all together into bigger pieces. 

We also started learning the first steps towards Pushpanjali. (i am really excited about this because this is the first piece where we will put together steps we have learnt so far to form a more complete experience). The first few steps in Pushpanjali are as follows. 

1. 2 cycles of tha-thai-thai-tha.

2. 4 cycles of ta-ka-dhi-mi twice (so total of 8 ta-ka-dhi-mis) 2 in each direction.

3. Followed by ta-ki-ta. 

The hand gesture of pushpanjali are pushpaputa (like offering flowers) and dolahastha (let your hands fall to the side, slightly awayfrom your body,  as though you are going to be hitting a dolak at your hip level). The hands are either held together in pushpaputa or one is held in pushpaputa while the other is in dola. 

This set of notes turned out to be more technical than I intended, please let me know if you have any questions. 

-Vidya

Tha-thai-tha-ha

Class Notes 8/2/11

Continuing from where we left off a few weeks ago, we revised the thath-thai-tha-ha and the dhi-dhi-thai.

Refresher  - the thath-thai-tha-ha /dhit-thai-tha-ha (TTTH for short) step is made of 3 parts.  The hand gesture for this step is tripathaka.

Part 1: You extend your right hand, shift over to left, jump and hit the right leg. Repeat the same with the left by extending the left hand, shifting over to right, jump and hit the left leg.

Part 2: Extend your right hand diagonally across your body, shifting to extend the left hand while bringing the right hand in, jump and hit the right leg. For the left, start with the left hand extended diagonally, shift to extending the right hand, jump and hit the left leg. 

Part 3: The leg sequence goes as jump, hit right, jump, hit left, jump, hit right, jump, hit left. The hands are alernately held close to the body and extended in the following order bottom right, bottom left, top right, top left. 

The 3 parts of TTTH are repeated starting with the left side first. 

Refresher for dhi-dhi-thai (DDT). 

This can be simply dhi-dhi-thai (DDT). or thai-dhi-dhi-thai (1DDT) or thai-thai-dhi-dhi-tai (2 DDT) or thai thai thai dhi dhi thai (3DDT). 

The leg movements are as follows

DDT - extend right, hit left, hit right.  (DDTR)

           extend left, hit right, hit left. (DDTL)

1DDT - hit right, extend right, hit left, 

            hit right. hit left, extend left, hit right, hit left.

2 DDT - hit right, hit left , DDTR,

               hit left, hit right, DDTL

3 DDT- hit right, hit left, hit right, DDTR

             hit left, hit right, hit left, DDTL

The way this step is built is as follows

DDTR, 1DDTL, 2DDTR, 3DDTL, 3DDTR, 2DDTL, 1DDTR, DDTL

(Where DDTL is dhi-dhi-thai starting with left and DDTR is dhi dhi thai starting with right)

The hand gesture is tripathaka (same as TTTH above)

The hand movement goes as

for right: dhi - extend the right hand out palm facing up

               dhi- bring it closer to you, palm still up

               thai - take the right hand back with palm facing the back wall. 

For left: same as right but with the left hand. 

for the 1,2 and 3 both hands are held in tripathaka close to the body followed by DDT hand movements. 

New lessons for today:

A variation of DDT hand movements. 

for right: dhi - Extend the left hand behind you in kataka mukha

              dhi - circle the left hand reaching above your head in alapadma

              thai - extend the left hand across your body reaching towards the right knee. 

NOTE: In this variation,  the left hand moves for the right leg. 

For left: same as above but with right hand.

A variation of the 3 beat and 5 beat steps. (I forgot the solkattu or bol for this, if someone remembers please help me out here). 

The 3 beat version:

leg movement: jump, hit right, hit left. 

hand movement: hands in kataka mukha close to the body centre, extend right hand in pathaka, extend left hand in pathaka.

The 5 beat version

leg movement: jump, hit right, jump, hit right, hit left

hand movement: hands in kataka mukha close to centre, hands in ala padma pointing downwards close to centre, hands in kataka mukha close to centre, extend right hand in pataka, extend left hand in pataka. 

The 3 beat and 5 beat version are also done on the left side (just exchange right and left in the description above). 

Welcome

आन्गिकं भुवनं यस्य 

Your body is the whole world

वाचिकं सर्व वान्गमयं

Your words are the languages

आहार्यं चन्द्र थाराधि 

Your adornments are the moon and the stars

तं वन्दे सात्विकं शिवं

We bow to Thee, O benevolent Shiva.